NEWSBRIEFS (08/13/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

U.S. objects to bombers for gas deal

KYIV - U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer said on August 7 that the United States will stop financing the dismantling of Ukraine's nuclear arsenal if Kyiv transfers more strategic bombers to Russia in repayment of gas debts. "We will not pay Ukraine for cutting up the bombers if it does not destroy them," Interfax quoted Mr. Pifer as saying. The ambassador added that Washington would prefer the planes to be dismantled because they "were made with the sole goal - to carry nuclear arms directed at the United States." Last year Ukraine sent 11 strategic bombers to Russia to repay $285 million for delivered gas, while last week the Ukrainian prime minister admitted that Kyiv has offered another 10 bombers to write off part of its gas debt to Russia. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Gazprom sees deal as "headache"

MOSCOW - Gazprom has said the transfer of Ukrainian strategic bombers as repayment for Ukraine's gas debt is unprofitable for Russia, the Eastern Economic Daily reported on August 3. Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko of Ukraine had confirmed that Kyiv is considering such a repayment scheme. Gazprom press service head Anatolii Babaiev said the possible transfer could become "a headache for Gazprom, since if this proposal were implemented, Russia would not gain anything but would have to pay large amounts of taxes." Mr. Babaiev added, however, that Kyiv's proposal to repay its gas debt by putting part of Ukraine's gas pipeline network at Russia's disposal is a "constructive step." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Poland to represent NATO in Ukraine

WARSAW - Poland's Foreign Ministry announced on August 8 that Poland will become the coordinator of NATO activities in Ukraine as of September, the PAP news service reported. The ministry noted that it is the first time Poland has been given the role of running a NATO embassy in a foreign country. The basic functions of such an assignment are to promote NATO and disseminate information on the pact in the host country, to help establish contacts between NATO representatives and institutions of the host country, and to stage conferences on Euro-Atlantic security. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv seeks return of religious artifacts

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma sent a letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, asking the latter to help return to Ukraine fragments of mosaics and frescos from the Golden-Domed St. Michael's Sobor in Kyiv, Interfax reported on August 4. The artifacts were shipped to Germany during World War II and later transferred to Russia. "This friendly gesture could be highly appreciated by our contemporaries, and it would produce a positive political resonance," the agency quoted Mr. Kuchma as stating in the letter. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Hrach slams accord with Tatars

SYMFEROPOL - The chairman of the Crimean Parliament, Leonid Hrach, has called the August 2 agreement between the Ukrainian president's permanent representative in Crimea, Anatolii Korniichuk, and the Council of Representatives of the Crimean Tatar People an "overt insult to the Crimean Constitution," Interfax reported on August 7. Mr. Korniichuk and Crimean Tatar activist Mustafa Jemilev signed "a plan of joint measures oriented toward the resolution of problems of the Crimean Tatar people in the socioeconomic sphere," according to the agency. Mr. Hrach asked at a session of the Crimean Parliament: "Who delegated those functions to them, who will carry out [that accord], where is, under such circumstances, the place of the official authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea?" (RFE/RL Newsline)

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