NEWSBRIEFS (12/03/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukraine left in the dark

KYIV - Severe weather conditions, including snowstorms, caused blackouts in some 3,000 towns and villages throughout Ukraine on November 27, primarily in the Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions, Interfax reported. According to the Ministry for Emergency Situations, some 90 percent of all blackouts occurred because of automatic shutdowns along power lines. Power supply failures had caused the Chornobyl nuclear power plant to shut down the same day, while three other nuclear reactors ceased operating on November 28. President Leonid Kuchma ordered Vice Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov to set up a government emergency team to deal with the disaster. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tax police detect 3,800 fake firms

KYIV - Sviatoslav Pyskun, a department head at the State Tax Administration, told journalists on November 27 that from January to October of this year tax police uncovered some 3,800 fictitious firms that had been used by their founders to evade paying taxes, the Eastern Economist Daily and Interfax reported. The authorities froze 82 million hrv ($15 million) in the bank accounts of those firms and have already confiscated 39 million hrv that should have gone to the state budget. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainian president visits Turkey ...

ANKARA, Turkey - President Leonid Kuchma visited Turkey on November 22-24 to hold talks with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Turkish Premier Bulent Ecevit, Interfax reported. Mr. Kuchma also addressed the Turkish Parliament and a forum of Turkish businessmen and met with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. Presidents Kuchma and Sezer signed agreements on the exchange of information on nuclear accidents, cooperation between the two countries' justice ministries, and protection of defense industry information and materials. They also agreed to raise the volume of annual bilateral trade to $2 billion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... slams PM for mistake in energy sector

ANKARA, Turkey - President Leonid Kuchma told journalists in the Turkish capital on November 24 that the "biggest mistake" of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's Cabinet was to switch to cash payments for energy supplies from Russia. "When we know that we do not have enough cash to pay for energy resources from Russia, making such a decision means acting against national interests," Interfax quoted Mr. Kuchma as saying. By agreeing to cash payments for energy supplies, Kyiv has lost Russian markets for Ukrainian goods, he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rukh unites or splits further?

KYIV - Some 600 delegates from grassroots organizations of the two wings of Rukh, led by Hennadii Udovenko and Yurii Kostenko, set up a political party called Popular Movement (Rukh) of Ukraine for Unity at a congress in Kyiv on November 25, Interfax reported. The new party is led by National Deputies Bohdan Boiko, Eduard Krech and Heorhii Filipchuk. According to Mr. Boiko, the aim of the party is "to make both Rukhs unite" and propose a single list of Rukh candidates in parliamentary elections. Neither Mr. Udovenko's nor Mr. Kostenko's faction sent official delegations to the congress. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Poland sign military deal

KYIV - The chiefs of staff of the Ukrainian and Polish armed forces, Volodymyr Shkidchenko and Czeslaw Piatas, met in Kyiv on November 21 to sign a military cooperation accord for 2001, the PAP reported. The agency noted that the deal provides for the training of Ukrainian officers in Poland. Until now, no Ukrainian officers have been trained in that country. "We don't want our cooperation to be limited to the Polish-Ukrainian battalion, although to date it is our flagship joint project," Mr. Piatas said, adding that Polish-Ukrainian military cooperation can be enhanced after both countries sign a military confidentiality accord. He explained that the lack of such an accord is the reason repairs of Polish military equipment, particularly air force and naval gear, cannot be undertaken on a larger scale in Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine's five centrist parties merge

KYIV - Five centrist parties formed the Party of Regional Revival "Labor Solidarity of Ukraine" at a congress in Kyiv on November 18, Interfax reported. The new party united the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine, the Party of Labor, the Solidarity Party, the For Beautiful Ukraine Party and the All-Ukrainian Party of Pensioners. The congress elected Volodymyr Rybak, Valentyn Landyk and Petro Poroshenko as co-chairmen of the new party. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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