NEWSBRIEFS (06/25/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

Germany: NATO needs Russia's consent

TALLINN - Walter Kolbow, state secretary of the German Defense Ministry, said on June 19 in the Estonian capital that Russia's consent is needed before NATO expands further, the BNS press service reported. The visiting German official said that although Russia has no veto on the process, its opposition to enlargement needs to be overcome before that process proceeds. "We must make it clear to Russia that NATO is a guarantor of collective security and has no aggressive plans toward any country," he said. Unwilling to predict the outcome of the next NATO summit, Mr. Kolbow said the result of that meeting depends on "developments in the candidate countries and Russia." Mr. Kolbow's visit came on the heels of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Germany, where the Russian president strongly criticized enlarging NATO to include the Baltic states. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Cemetery of NKVD victims opened

KHARKIV - Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek of Poland and his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yuschenko, attended a June 17 ceremony opening a Polish military cemetery in Kharkiv. The cemetery contains the remains of some 3,800 Polish officers imprisoned after the Soviet aggression against Poland on September 17, 1939. In the spring of 1940, following a decision by the Soviet Politburo, the NKVD murdered Polish army officers and border guards who had been imprisoned in a camp at Starobelsk. The remains of some 5,000 Ukrainian victims of the Stalinist genocide are also at the cemetery in Kharkiv. "We are standing at a place which witnessed the anti-human crimes of Stalin's regime. ... Let Kharkiv be a sacred place for both nations, ... a monument and warning for the future," Reuters quoted Mr. Yuschenko as saying. (RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report)

Cabinet submits draft of new tax code

KYIV - The government has submitted a new tax code draft to the Verkhovna Rada, the Eastern Economist daily reported on June 20. State Tax Administration head Mykola Azarov called the document "revolutionary." If the code is passed, Ukraine would have the lowest tax rates in Europe. The draft proposes lowering value-added tax to 17 percent in 2001 and to 15 percent in 2002. The proposed corporate income tax for 2001 is 25 percent (currently 30 percent), dropping to 20 percent in 2003. Personal income tax is currently within the 10 to 40 percent bracket and is to drop to 10 to 20 percent. Julian Berengaut of the International Monetary Fund, who is currently visiting Kyiv, has warned that the proposed new code would reduce budget revenues too sharply. The Associated Press reported that he urged the government to study the changes more carefully. (RFE/RL Newsline)

EBRD to help Kyiv close down Chornobyl

KYIV - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on June 16 pledged funds to help Ukraine close the Chornobyl nuclear plant, but tied its aid to reform in the country's energy sector, Interfax reported. Acting EBRD President Charles Frank said the $180 million aid package would go toward completing two nuclear reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi plants to compensate for the loss of electricity when Chornobyl is shut down. "I hope that in the next 45 days we will arrive at a full understanding regarding the most important things connected with reform of the energy market," Mr. Frank said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

NATO naval exercises begin

ODESA - More than 50 warships from 10 NATO countries began joint naval exercises with the Ukrainian navy near the Black Sea port of Odesa on June 19. "The Cooperative Partner-2000 naval exercise is the largest such event since Ukraine gained independence and is extremely important for mutual understanding," Reuters quoted Ukrainian navy spokesman Mykola Savchenko as saying. Mr. Savchenko said some 5,500 Ukrainian servicemen, including 900 marines, will take part in the exercises, which focuses on rescue and peacekeeping operations. Russia declined an invitation to participate in the maneuvers. "We do not understand why Moscow has given no answer [to our invitation]. This is just a peacekeeping exercise without any political context," Mr. Savchenko commented. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Balts denounce Communist crimes

TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar told a Tallinn conference on Communist crimes that the fact that Communist crimes are not denounced in the same way as are Nazi crimes is "the biggest inequality of our time," the ETA news service reported on June 14, the anniversary of massive deportations carried out by the Soviets in 1941. Saying Communism did "much more evil" than Nazism, Mr. Laar added that he and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban are cooperating to set up an international foundation to investigate Communist crimes. Russian human rights activist and State Duma member Sergei Kovalev revisited the theme he discussed at a similar conference in Vilnius earlier last week, saying "crimes of the Communist era will remain untackled as long as Russia hasn't publicly offered its apologies to the Baltic states." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Law calls on Russia to pay compensation

VILNIUS - The Lithuanian Parliament on June 13 gave final approval to a bill calling on Russia, as the legal successor to the Soviet Union, to pay compensation for five decades of Soviet occupation. The legislation, which still requires the signature of President Valdas Adamkus, sets out a timetable for the government to seek financial compensation from Russia for the repression and environmental damage that took place in 1940-1990. A delegation to the negotiations must be formed by September 1, and the compensation demand must be made by November 1. Former Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas said the majority of strategic sites built in Lithuania during the Soviet occupation were financed by the USSR and constructed by all former Soviet republics, ITAR-TASS reported on June 13. Meanwhile, a group of Russian State Duma members responsible for relations with the Lithuanian Parliament has cancelled its planned working visit to Vilnius. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada holds hearings on energy policies

KYIV - Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said at the June 15 parliamentary hearings on energy policies that Ukraine needs $13 billion hrv ($2.4 billion U.S.) this year to ensure the smooth functioning of the energy sector and survive through the coming winter, Interfax reported. She assured lawmakers that the government will manage to collect this sum as payment for electricity. According to Ms. Tymoshenko, the main reason for the current energy crisis in Ukraine, which experiences frequent blackouts, was last year's siphoning off of some 5 billion cubic meters of Russian transit gas. As a result, Russia has stopped paying with gas for Russian supplies transiting Ukrainian territory. (RFE/RL Newsline)

EBRD to invest $34 M in mobile phones

KYIV - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced on June 15 that it will invest $34 million in the Kyivstar GSM mobile phone company, the Associated Press and the Eastern Economist daily reported. Kyivstar has 120,000 customers, or 29 percent of the mobile phone market in Ukraine. The bank said the investment is aimed at increasing competition in the country's private sector. Less than 1 percent of the Ukrainian population own mobile phones, compared with 8 percent in Poland, 12 percent in the Czech Republic, and an average of 30 percent in developed Western European countries, according to the EBRD. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine to clear debt to Bulgaria

KYIV - Ukraine will export to Bulgaria some 600 million cubic meters of natural gas in exchange for Bulgaria's involvement in laying pipelines during the 1970s, the Associated Press reported on June 13, quoting Bulgarian officials. The Ukrainian side will buy the gas from Russia, which recently rejected Bulgaria's request to lower the cost of gas deliveries. A total of 200 million cubic meters will be delivered in 2000 and 378 million cubic meters in 2001. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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