NEWSBRIEFS (07/29/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Judge who freed Tymoshenko is fired

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on July 24 dismissed Judge Mykola Zamkovenko, who gained attention this year by ordering the release of opposition leader and former Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the Associated Press reported. Following Ms. Tymoshenko's release, the Procurator General's Office launched a criminal case against Mr. Zamkovenko for alleged abuse of authority. Law-enforcement officials raided Mr. Zamkovenko's home and office in May and confiscated computer software and files. A regional court in Kyiv, acting on Mr. Zamkovenko's appeal, ruled last month that the search was illegal. Judge Zamkovenko has described the scandal around him as politically motivated and as an attempt to intimidate other independent-minded judges. The President's Office said Mr. Zamkovenko was fired for "violating a judge's oath." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lazarenko faces more U.S. charges

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said a federal grand jury has added a wire fraud charge to a 53-count indictment against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, the Associated Press and Reuters reported on July 23. Mr. Lazarenko - who has been charged with embezzlement in Ukraine, money laundering in Switzerland and conspiracy in the United States - is now being held in a federal prison outside San Francisco. Last year a Swiss court convicted Mr. Lazarenko in absentia of money laundering, handing down an 18-month suspended sentence and confiscating nearly $6.6 million from his Swiss bank accounts. Mr. Lazarenko is suspected of illegally transferring a total of $320 million from Ukraine to the United States. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russian, Ukrainian security chiefs meet

MOSCOW - Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo said on July 18 after talks with his visiting Ukrainian counterpart, Yevhen Marchuk, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, that the two officials plan to expand cooperation. ITAR-TASS reported that Mr. Rushailo said that they have already "practically solved the border issue and the Black Sea Fleet problem." Mr. Marchuk said Ukraine has "not always" fulfilled its obligations to Russia and that he will work to improve its track record in that regard. One example of this new rapprochement was the announcement by Russian agencies on July 18 that President Vladimir Putin will take part in celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the independence of Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine to dig channel to Danube

KYIV - Transportation Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko has approved "a plan of first-priority measures in 2001" to dig a shipping channel across the Ukrainian section of the Danube delta in order to link the river and the Black Sea, Interfax reported on July 19. According to Mr. Pustovoitenko, the widening and deepening of an exit stream into a channel fit for navigation will be completed by July 2003. The government estimates that the cost of the design and the first stage of construction of the channel will be approximately $5 million. Once in operation the Ukrainian waterway would break the present Romanian monopoly on tolls for ship traffic passing between the Danube and the Black Sea. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin welcomes better ties with Ukraine

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said on July 19 that "Russian-Ukrainian dialogue is developing positively," ITAR-TASS reported. He made his remarks after meeting Volodymyr Lytvyn, the head of the presidential administration of Ukraine. He said that his session with Mr. Lytvyn will allow the two sides "to get down to a more detailed analysis of strategic cooperation" between the two countries.(RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow official accuses U.S. of campaign

MOSCOW - Konstantin Zatulin, who serves as the director of Moscow's CIS Institute, told the strana.ru website on July 19 that current media campaigns about attacks on journalists and the disappearance of opposition figures are being directed from "a single center": the United States. He said that Washington is hoping to overthrow Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma because the Americans have lost interest in him, and Belarus leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka "for reasons of principle." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Report on grain harvest is issued

KYIV - The government's press service has told Interfax that as of July 24 Ukrainian farms had harvested 17 million tons of grain. The average grain yield is 3 tons per hectare. This year the government plans to harvest 35 million tons of grain, as compared to last year's harvest of 24.5 millions tons in which with the average grain yield was equal to 1.92 tons per hectare. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Pope to visit Armenia, Kazakstan

YEREVAN - Pope John Paul II will visit Armenia on September 25-27 at the invitation of President Robert Kocharian and Catholicos Garegin II within the framework of the yearlong celebrations to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity as Armenia's state religion, Armenian media reported on July 23. The pontiff was originally scheduled to visit Armenia two years ago, but that trip was canceled due to the terminal illness of the Armenian primate. Prior to his arrival in Armenia, the pope will visit Kazakstan on September 22-25 at the invitation of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, Interfax reported on July 20, quoting the presidential press service. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Aleksei not invited to Lavra anniversary?

KYIV - Metropolitan Kirill, a high official in the Russian Orthodox Church, told journalists in Kyiv on July 23 that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksei II, has not obtained an official invitation to attend the 950th anniversary of the Pecherska Lavra Monastery on August 28, Interfax reported. Last week the agency quoted Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko as saying that Patriarch Aleksei II will be invited by Metropolitan Volodymyr, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Crimean legislators dismiss PM

SYMFEROPOL - The 100-seat legislature of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on July 18 voted 55-1 with four abstentions to oust Serhii Kunitsyn, the prime minister of the Crimean Cabinet, Interfax reported. The vote came after Crimean Parliament Chairman Leonid Hrach said Mr. Kunitsyn's dismissal had been coordinated with President Leonid Kuchma. Mr. Kunitsyn denied Mr. Hrach's statement, and the office of the presidential representative in Crimea said no approval had been received from Mr. Kuchma. Following the filing of a complaint by Mr. Kunitsyn, a district court in Symferopol suspended the Crimean legislature's decision to oust him. Mr. Hrach next ordered that an emergency parliamentary session be held on July 25 in order to appoint a new prime minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Finally, on July 23 Interfax reported that President Kuchma had approved the dismissal of Mr. Kunitsyn and agreed to the proposal by Crimea's Supreme Council to appoint Valerii Horbatov to head the Crimean Cabinet. Presidential spokesman Oleksander Martynenko said Mr. Kuchma made his decision in order to promote cooperation between the legislative and executive branches on the peninsula. Mr. Horbatov is a deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament. In 1994-1996, he was the president's permanent representative in Crimea. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Foreign ministers discuss Transdniestria

KYIV - The foreign affairs ministers of Ukraine, Russia and Moldova, respectively, Anatolii Zlenko, Igor Ivanov and Nicolae Cernomaz, called in Kyiv on July 12 for giving "special status" to Moldova's separatist Transdniester region, but failed to define that status, the Associated Press and Interfax reported. Mr. Zlenko told journalists that Ukraine and Russia will act as guarantors of Transdniestria's "special status," adding that it should not contradict Moldova's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Mr. Cernomaz noted: "We are closer to the solution of this [Transdniester] problem than we have ever been. The very important issue remains: Transdniestria's representatives should determine their type of special status." The region's representatives did not participate in the tripartite meeting in Kyiv. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow calm over Kyiv's ties with West

KYIV - Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov said in Kyiv on July 12 that Russia's interests are not being harmed by Ukraine's relations with the West, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. Mr. Ivanov's talks with Ukrainian officials focused on border delimitation, as well as the legal status of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait. Mr. Ivanov announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to visit Kyiv in August to take part in celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin said to have hunted dissidents

ROME - According to Rome's Repubblica of July 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin never worked for the KGB's foreign intelligence service but rather for its Fifth Administration, which was in charge of eliminating all forms of dissent in the USSR. In the first installment of what the paper says will be a six-part series, it quotes an anonymous colleague of Mr. Putin from the Leningrad section of the KGB who said he and the current Russian president were trained to hunt for dissidents. The paper also cites former Gen. Oleg Kalugin of the KGB as asserting that Mr. Putin worked in East Germany not for the KGB's foreign intelligence arm but as a Soviet liaison officer with the Stasi political police. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moldova, Ukraine OK swap of territories

CHISINAU - The parliaments of Moldova and Ukraine on July 12 approved an agreement whereby Ukraine will gain sovereignty over a stretch of the Izmail-Odesa highway previously on Moldovan territory in exchange for Moldova's gaining access to a 430-meter stretch of land along the banks of the Danube River near the village of Giurgiulesti, where it intends to build an oil terminal, the DPA press service reported. The villagers of Palanca, whose pastures will be now transferred to Ukraine, demonstrated in Chisinau against the agreement. The accord stipulates that the villagers will be allowed access to the pastures without using passports. The opposition Christian Democratic Popular Party accused the ruling party of Moldovan Communists of "selling off national wealth" and "harming national interests." (RFE/RL Newsline)

More electoral blocs are planned

KYIV - Ivan Chyzh, the leader of the Solidarnist All-Ukrainian Association of Leftists, told journalists on July 19 that his group will take part in the 2002 parliamentary elections in a bloc of parties, Interfax reported. Mr. Chyzh said Solidarnist is currently negotiating the formation of "a very original and very powerful bloc," but declined to name the forces involved. The same day, the Yabluko Party and the Beautiful Ukraine Party signed an accord on the creation of a joint electoral bloc. Meanwhile, Natalia Vitrenko has announced that her Progressive Socialist Party is preparing for the 2002 election as "an independent political force." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Unemployment decreases in Ukraine

KYIV - The State Statistics Committee on July 19 said there are 1.05 million registered unemployed people in Ukraine as of July 1, which is 10 percent less than one year ago. The official unemployment rate in Ukraine is 3.8 percent. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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