NEWSBRIEFS (07/08/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Protest marks Constitution anniversary

KYIV - Some 1,000 protesters marched in Kyiv on June 28 , carrying a mock coffin to denounce alleged violations of the Constitution by President Leonid Kuchma, the Associated Press and Reuters reported. The protest was timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine. Later, the demonstrators unsuccessfully tried to re-affix a marble plaque commemorating seven journalists, including Heorhii Gongadze, who were slain or disappeared under unclear circumstances in independent Ukraine. They abandoned their efforts after they found that the generator they planned to use to hoist the monument had been stolen. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin seeks closer ties with Kyiv

MOSCOW - In a message to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on the fifth anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is "confident" that ties between the two countries will "consistently develop further," ITAR-TASS reported on June 28. Mr. Putin said that Mr. Kuchma "has done a lot for building a stable and prosperous Ukraine which remains committed to democratic ideals and principles as proclaimed in the Constitution." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kwasniewski and Kuchma meet

LANCUT, Poland - Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kuchma, met on June 28 in Lancut, southeastern Poland, to discuss Pope John Paul II's recent pilgrimage to Ukraine and U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Poland, Polish media reported. President Kuchma called the pope's trip a historic event, adding that it has greatly contributed to strengthening Ukraine's European aspirations. Mr. Kuchma stressed that it has been a tragedy for Ukraine to be "denied European development for decades," UNIAN reported. "The recent weeks, with Warsaw's speech by the U.S. president and the pope's visit, have been very good for Ukraine and its pursuit of closer ties with Europe. Poland wants to strongly contribute to this process," Reuters quoted President Kwasniewski as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv against paying debt with Eurobonds

KYIV - Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh told Interfax on June 29 that the government is against the idea of transforming the gas debt to Russia - owned formally by the Naftohaz Ukrainy monopoly - into a government debt. Mr. Kinakh was commenting on Moscow's recent proposal that Kyiv should repay this debt with Eurobonds issued under government guarantees. He said he regrets that former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko signed a document obliging the government to repay the gas debt to Russia with state securities. "I think, and I am supported by the government in this issue, that this [gas debt repayment method] is inadmissible and runs counter not only to Ukraine's legislation but also our national economic interests in general," Mr. Kinakh said. He noted that Naftohaz Ukrainy's gas debt to Russia amounts to $1.342 billion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: state not responsible for gas debt

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma told journalists on July 3 that Naftohaz Ukrainy's gas debt to Russia will "in no way" become the responsibility of the state, Interfax reported. "Such questions should not be raised at all. Corporate debts will never become state debts," Mr. Kuchma noted. His statement followed the previous day's rejection by Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh of the idea of restructuring the gas debt by issuing Eurobonds guaranteed by Ukraine. Last December, Russian Vice Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and then Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko had signed an agreement to assure Russian gas supplies for the winter by converting some gas debt obligations into sovereign debt. The agreement has not been ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia, Ukraine to integrate grids

MOSCOW - Unified Energy Systems head Anatolii Chubais, Russian Vice Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, and Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna have agreed to integrate their two power systems following Kyiv's compliance with a Russian demand that Moscow be allowed to export its electricity via the Ukrainian grid, Kommersant-Daily reported on June 28. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow to send disaster assistance

MOSCOW - The Russian government has provided 9.1 million rubles ($300,000 U.S.) for earthquake relief in Azerbaijan and 19.1 million rubles for humanitarian assistance to regions of Ukraine that have suffered natural disasters, ITAR-TASS reported on June 28. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yuschenko calls for electoral alliance

KYIV - In a videotaped address to a congress of the Reforms and Order Party in Kyiv on June 30, former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko called for forging a union of all reformist and democratic forces before the parliamentary elections next year. "The main task is to revive economic reforms in order to build a flourishing Ukraine. Therefore we should unite all reformist, patriotic, and democratic forces and reach for an election victory," Interfax quoted Mr. Yuschenko as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Pro-reform party seeks to create bloc

KYIV - The Reforms and Order Party congress on June 30 approved the previous decision of the party's leadership to form a political bloc with the National Rukh of Ukraine (Udovenko faction) and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, Interfax reported. The congress re-elected Viktor Pynzenyk as the party's leader and authorized him to sign accords with other parties in order to create "an election bloc of reformist, patriotic forces." Mr. Pynzenyk told the congress that the Reforms and Order Party is ready to join an electoral bloc of rightists and centrist forces united around former Prime Minister Yuschenko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow hopes to recover influence

MOSCOW - On the 10th anniversary of the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov said in a June 29 interview with Pravda that Moscow hopes to recover the influence it lost in Eastern Europe following the dissolution of its military alliance in the Eastern Bloc. Andrei Nikolaev, who heads the Duma Defense Committee, characterized Russia's departure from the region in 1991 as "a flight," Interfax reported on June 29. But Yabloko Duma Deputy Vladimir Lukin told the DPA news agency on the same day that he has no regrets about the end of the Warsaw Pact, only over "the continued existence of NATO." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Georgia reschedules debt to Ukraine

TBILISI - Having concluded debt rescheduling agreements with Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, the Georgian government has now reached agreement with Kyiv on repaying its $920,000 debt over a period of 20 years, at an annual interest rate of 3 percent, beginning in 2003, Caucasus Press reported. Georgia's total foreign debt amounts to $1.6 billion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russian patriarch calls for Slavic unity

MIENSK - During a stopover in a village where the borders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine converge, Russian Patriarch Aleksei and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on June 27 called for the unity of the three Slavic and predominantly Orthodox nations. "There are forces in the world whose soul is against the unity of the Slavic peoples. Those forces, using peaceful rhetoric, want to break that unity apart and are engaged in attempts at spiritual and political expansion," the Associated Press quoted from a joint statement by Patriarch Aleksei II and President Lukashenka. Aleksei II's five-day journey through Belarus was seen by many commentators as a thinly veiled challenge to and protest against Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Ukraine. Polish media reported that Patriarch Aleksei and President Lukashenka failed to gather impressive crowds, adding that the number of presidential bodyguards usually surpassed that of believers willing to see and listen to the Russian patriarch. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... decorates Belarusian KGB officers

MIENSK - During his visit to Belarus, Russian Patriarch Aleksei II decorated several Belarusian KGB officers, including KGB Chairman Leonid Yeryn, with Russian Orthodox Church orders, Belapan reported on June 27. According to an official announcement, the KGB officers obtained their decorations for their contributions to "spiritual revival, the preservation of interdenominational peace and harmony, and the strengthening of the spiritual foundations of society" in Belarus. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv cites EBRD's failed obligation

STRASBOURG - Ukraine's delegation to the current session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said on June 27 that the EBRD has failed to meet its obligations on funding the construction of two reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants, the Eastern Economist Daily reported. The delegation said the EBRD had pledged to assign some $1.5 billion for closing the Chornobyl plant and completing the two reactors, but had allocated only a small part of the declared amount. EBRD President Jean Lemierre responded that the bank is waiting for an IMF decision on the resumption of its cooperation with Ukraine. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said the same day in Moscow that Russia will allocate $200 million to Ukraine for the purchase of nuclear fuel and the completion of the reactors. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv to collect VAT on Russian imports

KYIV - Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov on June 27 said the Ukrainian government had decided to introduce a value-added tax (VAT) on all groups of goods imported from Russia to Ukraine as of July 12, the Eastern Economist Daily reported. The decision is in response to Russia's switch as of July 1 to collecting VAT on goods in countries of their destination. (RFE/RL Newsline)

NATO candidate countries meet

TALLINN - Foreign affairs ministers of 10 countries that aspire to NATO membership -Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - adopted a joint statement in the Estonian capital on July 2 which urged the alliance to extend invitations at the Prague summit in 2002 to all prepared candidates regardless of geography and history, ETA and BNS reported. The ministers praised the speech by U.S. President George W. Bush on European security in Warsaw last month and the positive impact of pro-enlargement statements by many European leaders. The participants agreed on the need for closer cooperation between the candidate countries in the run-up to the Prague summit. To that end, they will hold a summit conference in Sofia on October 5, a prime minister meeting in Bucharest in the spring of 2002 and a high-level meeting in Riga in the summer of that year. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv threatens countermeasures over VAT

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh told journalists in St. Petersburg on June 13 that Ukraine will be forced to introduce "economic countermeasures" if Russia takes an "unconstructive position" regarding the minimization of negative consequences for Ukrainian exports following the introduction of a new principle of VAT collection, Interfax reported. Last month, Russia announced that as of July 1 it will switch to collecting indirect taxes, including a value-added tax (VAT), on goods in countries of their destination. In March Vice Minister of the Economy Andrii Honcharuk estimated that a VAT collection switch by Russia would result in a 20 percent decrease of Ukrainian exports to Russia. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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