NEWSBRIEFS (12/10/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

Moroz says Kuchma should resign

KYIV - Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz has said President Leonid Kuchma should resign in connection with the latter's alleged involvement in the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze, the Eastern Economist Daily reported on December 5, citing UNIAN. According to Mr. Moroz, President Kuchma's resignation should be demanded by "the people, public and political organizations, [or] at least the Verkhovna Rada." Ukraine's legislation does not provide for a procedure to impeach the president. Mr. Moroz said he is certain of the authenticity of the audio recording he made public to support his claim of Mr. Kuchma's complicity in Mr. Gongadze's disappearance. Meanwhile, National Deputy Oleksander Holub told UNIAN that "Moroz's tape" was first offered by 10 ex-servicemen of the Security Service of Ukraine to Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, but the latter refused to publicize it. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Chornobyl victims demand more support

KYIV - Some 10,000 people affected by the Chornobyl nuclear accident in 1986, including participants in the Chornobyl clean-up operations, marched in Kyiv on December 3 to demand more government spending on social care and increased social programs, the Associated Press reported. More than 2.2 million Ukrainians are eligible for benefits related to the consequences of the Chornobyl accident. Meanwhile, the only remaining Chornobyl reactor was restarted on December 1 after a shutdown caused by an electricity supply failure last week. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine's foreign minister visits Poland

WARSAW - Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko of Ukraine told his Polish counterpart, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, on December 4 that it is more efficient to modernize Ukraine's gas transportation system than to implement Russia's idea of increasing gas supplies to Western Europe by constructing a new gas pipeline circumventing Ukraine, Ukrainian New Channel Television reported. Mr. Zlenko also proposed establishing an international consortium to manage Ukrainian gas pipelines. According to Mr. Zlenko, if Russia starts the construction of a bypass gas pipeline, Ukraine will demand from the European Union, gas transit countries and gas customers that it be allowed to participate in this project. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PMs of Slovakia, Ukraine meet

BRATISLAVA - Slovakia's prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, met with Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko of Ukraine in Bratislava on December 5 to discuss bilateral trade and ways to boost it. The two prime ministers also discussed the Russian monopoly Gazprom's plan to build a pipeline through Poland and Slovakia that would circumvent Ukraine. Mr. Dzurinda said Slovakia wants to "safeguard good relations with our neighbors," but will "not hesitate" to participate in the project if invited to do so. The two leaders also discussed the possibility of "softening" visa requirements that their countries recently imposed on each other. They signed six bilateral agreements, including one on combating organized crime. Mr. Yuschenko also met with President Rudolf Schuster and Foreign Affairs Minister Eduard Kukan, according to the Associated Press. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada OKs 2001 budget in second reading

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on November 30 voted 247-10 with two abstentions to approve the 2001 zero-deficit budget in the second reading, Interfax reported. Communist and Socialist lawmakers refused to participate in the voting. The bill projects revenues at 41.6 billion hrv ($7.65 billion), including 5.9 billion hrv from privatization. The final reading of the bill is expected to take place next week. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia and Belarus press ahead

MIENSK - "Everything we plan and everything we agree on is being carried out on time, without failure," Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists in Miensk on November 30, upon arriving in the Belarusian capital to take part in a session of the Supreme Council of the Russia-Belarus Union and a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The two sides were to discuss new customs and tariff legislation, and Russian energy exports to the West via Belarus. Following his meeting with Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Miensk on November 30, President Putin ordered his government to sign an agreement with Belarus on establishing a single currency, the Associated Press reported, citing Russian agencies. Mr. Putin denied that Moscow is dragging its heels on integration with Belarus, but said there is no reason to rush into it. He noted that it is essential "to relieve concern" among the people of the two countries about losing sovereignty. "This is a very subtle process. Any issue in this sphere cannot be passed unless it's with the public's consent," he said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Did vice PM bribe Russian official?

KYIV - The press service of the Procurator General's Office told Interfax on November 29 that Russian prosecutors suspect Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of having bribed former Russian Vice Minister of Defense Viacheslav Litvinov. According to the service, Ms. Tymoshenko rewarded Mr. Litvinov for his rendering of unspecified favors to Ukraine's Unified Energy System, which she headed in 1995-1997. The service added that the Procurator General's Office will decide whether to instigate criminal proceedings against Ms. Tymoshenko only after a verdict is pronounced in the Litvinov case and the Russian prosecutors send to Ukraine materials related to the case. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko pledges to fight corruption

KYIV - Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has promised to start fighting corruption in the coal mining industry, which she called "the most corrupt sector" of the country's economy. Ms. Tymoshenko made the promise on November 20 in a Kyiv court that was considering her husband's request to release him from jail. Oleksander Tymoshenko was arrested on embezzlement charges three months ago. Earlier this month he was also accused of offering a bribe to former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. "I'm not going to make a deal with those corrupt clans that repeatedly advised me to leave. ... My husband told me that I should not quit my Cabinet post, that I should continue with what I'm doing," Ms. Tymoshenko said. According to the Ukrainska Pravda Internet newsletter, Ms. Tymoshenko suggested that her resignation is the price she has to pay for her husband's release. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Talbott to takes globalization post at Yale

WASHINGTON - Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, the Clinton administration's top Russia specialist, will move next year to Yale University to direct an institute for the study of globalization, the university said on November 15. Mr. Talbott, a 1968 Yale graduate and a former Yale trustee, will begin in July as director of the new Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He will also serve as a professor in the field of international relations. He was named special adviser on the former Soviet Union in 1993 and deputy secretary of state in 1994. (Bloomberg)

Lazarenko funds returned to Kyiv coffers

KYIV - The Prosecutor's Office in Switzerland has transferred 10.5 million Swiss francs, which previously belonged to Ukraine's ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko to Ukraine's GPO accounts," said Deputy Procurator General Mykola Obikhod. He added that in October Ukraine had received $4 million (U.S.) that was seized from the accounts of Mr. Lazarenko's former adviser and associate Petro Kyrychenko. (Eastern Economist)

Milan's Shevchenko gets EU status

ROME - The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said on December 1 that it had granted Ukrainian striker Andrii Shevchenko European Union status after heeding an appeal from his club, AC Milan. Mr. Shevchenko has a Ukrainian passport, but has been seeking EU legal status since he arrived in Italy from Dynamo Kyiv at the start of last season. Milan made an appeal on his behalf on the basis of an accord between the governments of Italy and Ukraine. Mr. Shevchenko, a top scorer, said in a Russian newspaper interview earlier this year he felt like a second-class citizen in Italy, where clubs are allowed only five non-EU players on their books and a maximum of three non-EU players at any one time. (Reuters)

Kyiv reports 12.6% industrial growth

KYIV - The chief of the presidential administration, Volodymyr Lytvyn, told Interfax on December 6 that Ukraine's industrial growth in January-November was 12.6 percent. Mr. Lytvyn said the figure well exceeds the expectations of the Ministry of the Economy, adding that the government's reforms are the main reason for industrial growth. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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