NEWSBRIEFS (11/19/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

Prodi pledges cash for Chornobyl closure

KYIV - European Commission President Romano Prodi assured President Leonid Kuchma in Kyiv on November 6 that international donors will stick to an earlier pledge to compensate Ukraine for the loss of energy following the closure of the Chornobyl nuclear power station, Interfax reported. Mr. Prodi said he is convinced that on November 16 the EU will allocate 25 million euros ($21.6 million) to help Ukraine replenish stocks of fuel at thermal power plants. Mr. Kuchma confirmed his previous pledge that Ukraine will close the Chornobyl plant on December 15. In an apparent bid to speed up the West's decision on financial aid, Kyiv had signaled last week that it may reconsider shutting down Chornobyl . (RFE/RL Newsline)

Teachers, Chornobyl victims want funds

KYIV - Some 6,000 teachers and 1,500 people affected by the Chornobyl disaster held two separate rallies at the Parliament building on November 14 to demand that the government increase their wages and social benefits, and pay overdue allowances, Interfax reported. According to official data, the government owes teachers some 60 million hrv ($11 million U.S.) in unpaid wages. There are some 2.2 million people in Ukraine eligible for social benefits because of damage to their health caused by the Chornobyl nuclear accident in 1986. The government's budget draft for 2001, which the Verkhovna Rada is currently debating, provides for considerable cuts in social benefits. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rumors of Ukrainian PM's ouster denied

KYIV - The Ukrainian prime minister's spokeswoman, Natalia Zarudna, on November 13 denied rumors that Viktor Yuschenko has tendered his resignation, Interfax reported. The same day, Parliament Chairman Ivan Pliusch said there are no reasons for Mr. Yuschenko's dismissal, adding that President Leonid Kuchma has never told him that he wants to dismiss the prime minister. Ms. Zarudna and Mr. Pliusch appear to have been commenting on last week's report in Nezavisimaya Gazeta saying that Prime Minister Yuschenko's ouster is inevitable. The Moscow newspaper, referring to a source in the Ukrainian presidential administration, wrote that Mr. Yuschenko will be dismissed immediately after George W. Bush is confirmed as U.S. president. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Mr. Yuschenko will be sacked because of the unfavorable report by Yevhen Marchuk, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, on the situation in the fuel and energy sector. RFE/RL Newsline)

EFF tranche exepcted by end of year

KYIV - First Vice Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov announced that he expects Ukraine will receive $250 million (U.S.) under the International Money Fund's EFF (extended fund facility) program by the end of the year, based on the preliminary conclusion of talks between the government and the IMF mission, which completed its work in Kyiv on November 14. The IMF mission was mainly concerned about Ukraine's ability to adopt a budget for 2001 with a deficit of less than 3 percent of GDP and supply a realistic privatization revenue plan, since, according to the IMF, the current draft budget contains unrealistic figures. Mission Head Julian Berengaut stated that all issues at the mission level have been resolved. Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov said that the government, in preparing the draft budget for 2001 for a second reading, has decreased planned privatization revenues for 2001 from 9.2 billion hrv to 5.9 billion hrv, pursuant to and including proposals from President Leonid Kuchma and Verkhovna Rada deputies, and in accordance with the privatization schedule submitted by the State Property Fund. Mr. Mitiukov stated that, after reconsidering privatization revenues for 2001, the government faced the task of keeping the budget balanced and said the Finance Ministry has "resolved this problem successfully." Though revenues to the budget have been lowered somewhat, Mr. Mitiukov said the government found ways to compensate for most of the difference. However, he did not disclose where these additional revenue sources had been found. (Eastern Economist)

33 percent of public trusts PM

KYIV - According to a public poll conducted by Gtk-USM, Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko is trusted by 33 percent of Ukrainians, while 31 percent do not trust him. Other politicians rated as follows: Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, 17.7 percent (trust) and 55.5 percent (do not trust); Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz, 13.6 percent and 57.2 percent; Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, 12.2 percent and 56.4 percent; National Security and Defense Council Secretary Yevhen Marchuk, 9.6 percent and 52.4 percent; Rada Chair Ivan Pliusch, 9 percent and 52 percent . (Eastern Economist)

Ukraine urged to pay for gas supplies

MOSCOW - Itera chief Igor Makaiev has warned Kyiv that unless it pays for the gas Itera supplied last month, the company will consider this amount to have been siphoned off from Gazprom's transit deliveries, the Eastern Economist Daily reported on November 10. Mr. Makaiev said Itera supplied 4 million cubic meters of gas to Ukraine's energy generating companies last month and has yet to receive $73 million for it; current supplies are not being paid for at all. Meanwhile, Gazprom has warned that it will sue the Ukrainian government if the latter continues to siphon off Russian gas. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Energy official says siphoning has ended

KYIV- First Vice Minister for Fuel and Energy Vadym Kopylov stated that Ukraine has not siphoned any Russian gas since May. Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's spokeswoman Natalia Zarudna added that inspections on this issue once again proved that there is no current siphoning. Mr. Kopylov also stated that the issue of paying debts to Russian Itera, which supplies 30 billion cubic meters of gas to Ukraine annually, are almost resolved and claimed that Russia could not count those shipments of gas from Itera as gas that has been siphoned off. (Eastern Economist)

Socialists to join majority?

KYIV - Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz has said his Left Center caucus is likely to join the pro-government majority in the Verkhovna Rada, Interfax reported on November 13. "Most likely, we will support Viktor Yuschenko's government, but this [step] depends on him," Mr. Moroz. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Scouts hold historic meeting in Ukraine

KYIV - On the second day of their worldwide quadrennial assembly, the Congress of Ukrainian Plast Organizations (KUPO), the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization granted Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko the status of honorary "plastun," or scout, after he addressed their assembly on November 11. Participants reconfirmed scouting principles and the use of the Ukrainian language. Some 100 delegates and 50 guests from Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Australia, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Argentina and the United Kingdom attended. Plast was founded in Ukraine in 1911, only four years after Robert Baden-Powell founded the original Scouting for Boys organization. This is the first KUPO conclave to be held in Ukraine. (Eastern Economist)

Kyiv praises U.N. as peace guarantor

KYIV - Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko has said that Ukraine views the United Nations "as a key, although not entirely perfect mechanism for maintaining global peace and stability." Mr. Zlenko said at the festivities devoted to the 55th anniversary of the United Nations on October 24 that "mankind has not developed a better mechanism than the United Nations." He noted that it "is the only international body fulfilling the most important tasks for the future of the human race - maintaining peace and stability, guaranteeing human rights and social development." In the past eight years 12,000 peacekeepers from Ukraine have participated in peacekeeping actions under the UN. (Eastern Economist)

Inflation expected to hit 28.6 percent

KYIV - The 2000 rate inflation is expected to hit 28.6 percent, instead of 18.5 percent as had been forecast, said Presidential Advisor Anatolii Halchynskyi. He added that, after Belarus, Ukraine's is the highest inflation rate in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Mr. Halchynskyi said that the National Bank of Ukraine "is not working too poorly and the bank's current currency rate policy is close to optimal." (Eastern Economist)

Yuschenkos welcome baby girl

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's wife, Kateryna (née Chumachenko) gave birth to a girl, who weighed in at 3.5 kilograms. "The mother and the baby are feeling good, but the father is feeling the best," said Mr. Yuschenko's spokeswoman, Natalia Zarudna. (Eastern Economist)

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