NEWSBRIEFS (11/07/99)

NEWSBRIEFS

Assassination attempt against Kuchma

KYIV - "The Security Service of Ukraine was able to prevent a threat against President Kuchma from being carried out," stated the SSU's chief, Leonid Derkach, adding that the day before President Leonid Kuchma's trip to the Sumy Oblast local law enforcement authorities received information that a group planned to assassinate the president on October 29. This was the first confirmed case of a planned attempt on the president's life. (Eastern Economist)

Top presidential candidates trade jabs

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma said on October 28 that "there is no significant difference between" his two closest rivals for the presidency, Petro Symonenko and Natalia Vitrenko, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Kuchma said they "both profess the same ideology, which is dangerous for the country." Mr. Symonenko, the leader of the Communist Party, asked "why is the present-day dictatorship of bandits better than the upcoming dictatorship of the proletariat?" Ms. Vitrenko advocates Marxist economics and wants to break relations with the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Symonenko and Ms. Vitrenko were expected to battle for second place behind Kuchma in the October 31 election. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Candidates complain of violations

KYIV - The organizations of several candidates reported violations of election regulations and dirty tricks on October 31, the Associated Press reported. The UNIAN news agency reported that in the eastern coal mining city of Donetsk a leaflet was distributed claiming that President Leonid Kuchma had died of a heart attack and had been replaced by a double so that his "criminal entourage" would remain in power. Although election advertisements and commercials are banned 24 hours before the vote, the state-run UT-2 television channel on October 31 showed footage of a Kuchma speech that was followed by a message that read "Vote for your Future." In the run-up to the election, Mr. Kuchma is said to have received more coverage in the electronic media than the 12 other candidates combined. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russian media in Ukrainian elections

KYIV - The influence of Russian media on Ukraine's presidential election was much less visible than in the presidential election of 1994, despite the fact that the presence of Russian media in Ukraine has increased since then, said the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Anatoliy Kulik, on November 1. National Deputy Serhii Teriokhin said "the decrease in influence was a result of the signing and ratification of a Ukrainian-Russian agreement and other documents." He added that, "by continuing tight economic relations with Russia, Ukraine is doing everything to isolate itself from Europe." (Eastern Economist)

Vitrenko will sue Ukrainian media

KYIV - The Progressive Socialist Party is preparing to sue several media representatives, said presidential candidate Natalia Vitrenko. She added that the newspapers Den, Holos Ukrainy and Kievski Viedomosti will be sued. In addition, Ms. Vitrenko is preparing to sue Viacheslav Pikhovschek, host of "Studio 1+1's" "Epicenter" debates program and Oleksander Rodnianskyi, producer of "Studio 1+1," in connection to the situation that surrounded the debates. "This scandal deserves international resonance," said Ms. Vitrenko. She also charged that Leonid Kuchma and Petro Symonenko made a secret agreement. "Symonenko will lose on purpose in the second round of the election, and receive for this certain preferences," said Ms. Vitrenko. (Eastern Economist)

Young people are leaving Ukraine

KYIV - In the course of five to 10 years Ukraine may become a pensioners' country, said the president of Ukraine's Renaissance Fund, Dmytro Nazarkevych. According to Mr. Nazarkevych, a steady flight of youth to foreign countries is now being experienced, since economic conditions in the West are better, and the education Ukrainian youths receive is better, giving them an advantage over young workers abroad. If real measures in support of young entrepreneurship are not taken soon, Ukraine will soon experience a lack of productive young people, said Mr. Nazarkevych. (Eastern Economist)

National free press center set up

KYIV - Based on a Cabinet of Ministers decree, a National Agency for Free Press is to be instituted. This decision was made in order to enhance the information service to other countries about the processes that are currently taking place in Ukraine. Valerii Yurchenko was appointed director general of the new organization. (Eastern Economist)

Hryvnia slides against dollar

KYIV - The hryvnia fell to about 4.85 to the dollar on October 28 from 4.7 the previous day, the Associated Press reported. National Bank of Ukraine Chairman Viktor Yuschenko said the loss in value is due to "negative political expectations" on the eve of the presidential election. The latest slide brings the rate outside of the Central Bank's trading corridor for this year, which was set at between 3.4 and 4.6 hrv to $1. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Belarusian Popular Front has new leader

MIENSK - The Belarusian Popular Front, the country's main opposition party, has elected Vintsuk Vyachorka as its new leader, the Associated Press reported on October 30. Mr. Vyachorka replaces Zyanon Paznyak, who had held the post for more than a decade. Mr. Paznyak fled the country in 1996 and was granted political asylum in the United States. Mr. Vyachorka said that "[President Alyaksandr] Lukashenka is ready to give up our independence, and we must resist not in theory but in practice." Mr. Vyachorka's election ends a leadership crisis in the party after a meeting in August resulted in a disputed and inconclusive vote. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Belarusian opposition defies ban

MIENSK - Some 200 members of Belarusian opposition parties on October 31 ignored a state ban on processions and marched to a Soviet-era execution site, the Associated Press reported. Several hundred other people joined the marchers at the Kuropaty mass grave just outside Miensk. Miensk city officials had banned the march this year. According to the opposition Belarus Popular Front, 10 people were arrested before the march began. As many as tens of thousands of people were killed at Kuropaty in Communist purges during the 1930s. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Exiled leader urges Western pressure

COPENHAGEN - Syamyon Sharetski, the chairman of Belarus's dissolved Parliament, said in Copenhagen on October 28 that Western countries must pressure Russia to cease supporting Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Sharetski, who lives in exile in Lithuania, said that if a union between Belarus and Russia comes to fruition, Mr. Lukashenka will be elected president of the new entity. Commenting on the rousing reception President Lukashenka received after an address before the Russian State Duma earlier this week, Mr. Sharetski called the Belarusian president a "brilliant demagogue" whose populist message of "taking all from the rich and giving everything to the poor" resonates well in the Duma, most of whose members "want to re-establish the Soviet Union." Mr. Sharetski met with Danish officials in Copenhagen and said he is working on "getting Belarus back on track to democracy." (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. envoy responds to Lukashenka

MIENSK - Daniel Speckhard, the U.S. ambassador to Belarus, said on October 28 that the Belarusian government is responsible for human rights abuses as well as for the country's "worsening relations with all Western countries and its self-imposed isolation," Belapan reported. Ambassador Speckhard was responding to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's comments at a Commonwealth of Independent States youth conference in Miensk the previous day in which he accused the U.S. of sucking money out of Russia and other former Soviet republics and of not respecting Belarusian traditions and "ancient civilization." Speaking of the U.S., Mr. Lukashenka had also commented that "its history goes back [only] 300 years, when all of those riff-raff from Europe moved there." Ambassador Speckhard said he is convinced that Belarusians will not fall for the Belarusian government's "Cold War tactics." He added that it is time for Belarus to join "the family of democratic nations," release "political detainees," and stop harassing opposition parties, NGOs and the media. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine dismisses Lukashenka criticism

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma's office on October 27 dismissed charges by Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka that Kyiv is yielding to U.S. pressure, the Associated Press reported. President Kuchma's spokesman Oleksander Martynenko said "the relations between Ukraine and the U.S. are those of two civilized nations. Nobody has exerted any pressure [on anyone]." Mr. Lukashenka said in Moscow that Washington offered Mr. Kuchma financial support in exchange for a meeting between him and Belarusian opposition leader Syamyon Sharetski. The Belarusian president said the secret meeting took place earlier this month, but President Kuchma denies there was such a meeting. Mr. Lukashenka added that "Ukraine is looking to the West and aspires to join NATO. It is practically isolated from us and conducts pro-Western policies." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Sea Breeze '99 to simulate flood relief

ODESA - Ukraine is preparing to host the Sea Breeze '99 international naval maneuvers scheduled for December 8-16. The theme of this year's practice will be the simulation of a peacekeeping operation and provision of humanitarian aid under flood conditions. According to the plan, the event is to be held in Odesa. (Eastern Economist)

Ukraine in Interparliamentary Union

KYIV - Ukraine was accepted into the Interparliamentary Union on October 11 in Berlin. At present the organization consists of 138 national parliaments and five interparliamentary assemblies. The union was created in 1889, and is considered to be the oldest international organization in the world. (Eastern Economist)

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