NEWSBRIEFS

Pliusch wants to avoid early elections

KYIV - Following his election as chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ivan Pliusch told supporters of the right-center majority who had gathered in front of the Ukrainian Home, that the majority was formed "to end any confrontation, assume responsibility and follow the path voted for by the people." He added that Ukraine will soon experience "positive changes." Later that day, Mr. Pliusch told journalists that the Verkhovna Rada must do everything possible to avoid early parliamentary elections. President Leonid Kuchma commented that the election of the Parliament's new leadership is a "momentous" event. He added that the government will seek cooperation with the legislature to show Ukrainians that the "six-year confrontation" in the country is over. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Cabinet sets budget targets, policies

KYIV - The government on February 1 announced that the GDP is expected to grow 0.5 percent this year and industrial production by 3.2 percent. Inflation was set at 15.9 percent. In a memorandum that is to be reviewed by the president and submitted for parliamentary approval, the Cabinet of Ministers formulated seven main principles of budgetary policy. In particular, it pledged to implement a zero-deficit budget in 2000, strictly observe budgetary discipline, accept budget payments in monetary form only and revoke some tax privileges. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moroz says Kuchma seeks dictatorship

KYIV - Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz told Interfax on January 31 that the current parliamentary crisis was initiated by the executive in order to introduce a dictatorship. According to Mr. Moroz, President Leonid Kuchma is looking for a motive to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada, hold early elections and form a submissive legislature. Mr. Moroz added that the activities of the parliamentary majority are punishable under the Criminal Code. The president may disband the Parliament if it fails to convene a legitimate session within a 30-day period. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lazarenko: Ukraine misused IMF funds

PRAGUE - The January 28 issue of the Financial Times reported that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko is preparing to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives that President Leonid Kuchma's government was engaged in embezzlement and money laundering. Mr. Lazarenko maintains that $613 million in IMF funds was diverted from the central bank in December 1997 and invested in speculative government bonds, reaping interest rates of up to 66 percent. Some $200 million in proceeds were allegedly deposited in the Belgian and Swiss accounts of people close to Mr. Kuchma, including his aide Oleksander Volkov. The Financial Times notes that Lazarenko's testimony could stall his extradition to Switzerland and complicate the resumption of the International Monetary Fund's loan program to Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Crimean legislature rates Cabinet

SYMFEROPOL - The Crimean Parliament on February 1 passed a resolution saying that the work of the Crimean autonomous government, headed by Serhii Kunitsyn, is unsatisfactory, Interfax reported. Following a long-standing impasse, the 100-seat Crimean legislature succeeded in gathering a quorum of 52 deputies to open the new session. Most commentators see the current legislative crisis on the peninsula as a power play between Crimean Premier Kunitsyn and Parliament Chairman Leonid Hrach. President Leonid Kuchma spoke with both politicians by telephone the previous day, urging them "to find a mutual understanding," according to Interfax. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow reacts to Clinton's speech

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry on January 29 released a statement praising references to Russia in U.S. President Bill Clinton's State of the Union address, ITAR-TASS reported. The ministry noted that Mr. Clinton confirmed U.S. support for "democratic and market reforms in Russia, further consolidation of the Russian-American dialogue, including on disarmament issues." But acting President Putin's aide Sergei Yastrzhembskii said the same day that the American president's description of the Chechen conflict as "cruel and self-defeating" showed that the West does not understand "the real causes of what is happening in the Chechen republic." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Zyuganov: sanctions can revive Cold War

MOSCOW - Communist leader Gennadii Zyuganov said on January 28 that any attempt by Western countries to impose sanctions on Russia as a result of Chechnya would mean a return to Cold War conditions, Interfax reported. "The very raising of these issues is absolutely destructive. Behind it is the wish of some forces to return to the times of the Cold War, to punish Russia for Yugoslavia," and "to humiliate a great country." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Nationalists protest Albright's arrival

MOSCOW - Some 150 nationalists and religious activists gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on January 30 to protest U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright's visit to the Russian capital. Secretary Albright, who arrived in Moscow early on January 31, was to meet with Russian leaders and take part in multilateral talks on the Middle East. The protesters argued that the U.S. leader is seeking to save the "Chechen bandits" currently engaged in fighting with Russian troops in Chechnya. They also appealed to the Russian Procurator-General's Office to charge both Ms. Albright and U.S. President Bill Clinton with war crimes for leading NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia last spring. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Patriarch blames U.S. for Church rift

MOSCOW - Asked about the rift between the Moscow Patriarchate and the U.S.-based Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia said on January 28 that the "U.S. authorities and American special services will never allow the two churches to unite," ITAR-TASS reported. Patriarch Aleksei added that "there are leaders and believers in the [U.S.-based] Russian Orthodox Church who want to unite, but I am convinced that the leadership of the Church, which invents various accusations against the Moscow Patriarchate, including its alleged collaboration with Soviet power, in reality is politicized itself and is not free to decide on unification." (RFE/RL Newsline)

...comments on Ukrainian Church

MOSCOW - Patriarch Aleksei also commented on a statement by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who has called for the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Moscow Patriarchate's leader noted that such a statement "causes regret" and "one cannot tear apart the spiritual ties between our Churches which have a millennium-long history." He added: "I reminded the president of Ukraine that we had granted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine independence in financial and administrative issues. Only the spiritual ties remain which various forces are trying to tear apart." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moratorium on referendums is vetoed

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has vetoed the bill that temporarily bans holding nationwide referendums in Ukraine, Interfax reported on January 26, quoting the president's spokesman Oleksander Martynenko. Mr. Kuchma believes that the ban violates the Constitution by denying the right of the people to express their will through a form of direct democracy such as a referendum. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Who's got the real parliamentary stamps?

KYIV - Oleksander Tkachenko, who was voted out of the post of chairman of the Verkhovna Rada by the parliamentary majority on January 21, has canceled all parliamentary resolutions signed by Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk on January 22, Interfax reported on January 26. According to a Communist deputy quoted by the agency, Mr. Medvedchuk does not have the true parliamentary stamps and seals the resolutions he signs with "falsified stamps." Meanwhile, Mr. Medvedchuk has recently fired parliamentary spokesman Vitalii Lukianenko. According to National Deputy Oleksander Volkov, it is Mr. Tkachenko who has duplicated stamps, while Mr. Medvedchuk's seals are genuine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine may cut off electricity to Moldova

KYIV - Ukraine on January 26 threatened to cut off all electricity exports to Moldova because of unpaid debts, BASA-Press reported. Moldovan energy officials described the warning as a means of pressuring Chisinau into paying those debts. According to BASA-Press, Moldova owes Ukraine some $60 million in unpaid energy debts. Meanwhile, the Chisinau energy distribution network has been cutting off power to various neighborhoods of the capital three to four times a day for six-10 hours. Temperatures in the capital have been between 15 and 20 degrees below zero Celsius. (RFE/RL Newsline)

CIS presidents back Putin ...

MOSCOW - Participants at the January 25 summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States held in Moscow on January 25 unanimously elected acting Russian President Vladimir Putin as chairman of the CIS Council of Heads of State, thus implicitly affirming their backing for his candidacy in the March 26 Russian presidential poll. They also thanked former Russian President Boris Yeltsin for his role in the creation of the CIS and as the first chairman of the Council of Heads of State. The 12 presidents endorsed a proposal by Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov and Kazakstan's Nursultan Nazarbaev to draft an international program of measures to combat terrorism, including establishing a CIS anti-terrorism center. But they failed formally to adopt a resolution, under discussion since 1994, on the creation of a CIS free-trade zone. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... express confidence in CIS

MOSCOW - Addressing a press conference after the summit, acting Russian President Putin said that cooperation with other CIS member-states is "an absolute priority for Russia," according to ITAR-TASS. He said that body must become "a mechanism to preserve all the best that we had." Mr. Putin also touched on the conflicts in the Caucasus, stressing that they must be resolved according to the principles of international law, including the territorial integrity of the states involved, ITAR-TASS reported. Armenian President Robert Kocharian distanced himself from this latter assertion, noting that Armenia has its own position on the question of territorial integrity, according to a correspondent for RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau. Interfax quoted most presidents as offering positive assessments of Mr. Putin's personality and of the probable future development of the CIS. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin praises Russia-Belarus union

MOSCOW - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka was elected chairman of the Supreme State Council of the Union of Belarus and Russia on January 26, the day on which the treaty of the union came into force. First Vice Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was tapped as chairman of the union's Committee of Ministers, while former Kremlin top official Pavel Borodin was elected the union's Secretary of State. At the opening meeting of the Supreme State Council on January 26, Russia's acting president, Vladimir Putin, called the treaty forming the union "an epochal event" that "paves the way to a union of states that will require a judicial basis and a common economic, defense and humanitarian expanse." Mr. Putin also said the union's main goal is "to improve the living standards of ordinary Russians and Belarusians." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine calm over unpaid bonds

KYIV - The Ukrainian leadership "is not inclined to dramatize" the situation over the Finance Ministry's non-payment by January 20 of $18 million on Eurobonds issued by Chase Manhattan Bank Luxembourg S.A., Interfax reported on January 25. Ukraine's payment on those bonds was already postponed 18 months ago. "We are neither the first nor the last [among those not paying on time]," the agency quoted President Leonid Kuchma as saying. Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko said Kyiv is conducting negotiations with its creditors, intending to show that "Ukraine acknowledges its debt obligations." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma cross over free trade zone

KYIV - On his return from the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Moscow on January 25, President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine warned that the CIS will remain an inert and loose grouping if it does not create a free-trade zone, Reuters reported. "If every country proceeds only from its national interests, especially such a huge country as Russia, while tackling such an important issue as free-trade zones, then the CIS has no prospects for the future," Mr. Kuchma noted. Most CIS members say they would benefit from a common free-trade zone, while Russia has delayed joining free-trade agreements, saying that they might undermine revenues to its state budget. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv confident of Russian withdrawal

CHISINAU - Visiting Ukrainian Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmitro Tkaci said on February 1 that Ukraine is confident Russia will honor its obligation to withdraw its arsenal from the Transdniester by 2002, RFE/RL's bureau in the Moldovan capital reported. He said the arsenal is a source of concern for his country not only because of Ukraine's capacity as a guarantor of agreements on the separatist region's future but also because "no country wants 42 tons of munitions stationed at its borders." Mr. Tkaci met with President Petru Lucinschi and Prime Minister Dumitru Barghis to discuss bilateral relations and the implementation of various agreements. He said he is confident that the Verkhovna Rada will ratify the Ukrainian-Moldovan border treaty. Mr. Tkaci was to travel to Tiraspol on February 2 to meet with separatist leaders in order to discuss "giving a new impetus" to the talks on the conflict's resolution. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Czech republic has new visa law

KYIV -The Czech Republic on January 11 announced changes in its entry visa policy. Ukrainian citizens who wish to enter the Czech Republic for purposes of education, work or business must obtain visas. The changes do not apply to Ukrainian citizens wishing to enter the country on tourist, service or private matters. In 1998 a total of 421,000 Ukrainian citizens visited the Czech Republic, said Czech Ambassador to Ukraine, Josef Vrabets. He added that about 100,000 of them are working illegally in the Czech Republic. (Eastern Economist)

New Ukrainian Consular fees approved

KYIV - The Justice Ministry registered a regulation on consular dues which was approved by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Fees for issuing visas do not fall under this regulation as the rates have been set by an August 9, 1999, government regulation. The base rates of fees for consular services provided by Ukraine's diplomatic missions and consulates abroad are as follows: application for issuing a Ukrainian citizen's passport is $5-10 (U.S.); issuing an identification document for returning to Ukraine or a foreign passport will cost $30-100; extending a foreign passport issued in Ukraine will cost $10-30. (Eastern Economist)

Lobanovskyi will coach national team

KYIV - After much cajoling by Ukrainian Football (Soccer) Federation President Valerii Pustovoitenko (the former prime minister of Ukraine), Dynamo Kyiv head coach Valerii Lobanovskyi agreed in principle on January 21 to manage the Ukrainian national soccer team. His only condition was that his program for the national team's development be approved. Mr. Lobanovskyi added that the program will be submitted to the UFF on February 1, when Dynamo Kyiv returns from mid-season training in Cyprus. Dynamo is preparing for its next Champions League group matches in late February, while the Ukrainian national team will begin its World Cup 2002 qualifying group matches in autumn, so an immediate replacement for outgoing national team coach Josef Sabo is necessary. (Eastern Economist)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 6, 2000, No. 6, Vol. LXVIII

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