NEWSBRIEFS (08/19/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Lukashenka says GUUAM 'useless'...

MINSK - President Lukashenka told journalists in Minsk on August 8 that the GUUAM grouping that aligns Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, is "a pointless organization," Interfax and Tura reported. He suggested that it was created "out of jealousy" as a counterpart to the Russia-Belarus alignment. Echoing Russian President Vladimir Putin's warning at the CIS summit in Sochi last week, Lukashenka said that "I am not against regional alignments within the CIS as long as they do not split the commonwealth." But he also acknowledged that failure to implement decisions it adopted constitutes "the biggest problem" of the CIS. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko's party rejects charges

KYIV - Former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko's Fatherland Party has dismissed the bribery charges filed against her by Russian military prosecutors, Reuters reported on August 8. The party statement branded the charges "a cheap provocation, fabricated under the influence of President [Leonid] Kuchma, with the aim of compromising the opposition movement." Also, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office has pressured Ukrainian officials to press charges against Tymoshenko and her husband for an alleged attempt to smuggle $100,000 out of Russia in 1995. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prosecutor explains Tymoshenko charges

KYIV - A spokesman for the Prosecutor-General's Office explained on August 8 the grounds for the criminal case brought against former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko and her husband Oleksandr for bribery and customs violations, Russian news agencies reported. The spokesman's statement indicates that Tymoshenko gave a bribe to the chief financial officer of the Russian Defense Ministry, Col. General Georgii Oleynik, who is currently under investigation for embezzling $450 million of funds meant for Ukrainian companies. The customs charge relates to an incident in 1995 when Tymoshenko along with her husband were briefly detained in a Moscow airport after customs officers found $100,000 in her hand luggage. (RFE/RL Newsline)

...as move is interpreted to bolster Kuchma

KYIV - Yuliya Tymoshenko told Interfax that the legal case against her is an attempt by Moscow to help Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma crush his political opposition. Tymoshenko heads the leading Ukrainian opposition movement Batkivshchina. As Russia and Ukraine have no extradition treaty, the only legal consequence of the opening of a criminal case against a Ukrainian citizen in Moscow is that it will possibly lay the ground for opening a similar case in Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko's husband released from jail

KYIV - Oleksandr Tymoshenko, the husband of former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and current opposition leader Yuliya Tymoshenko, was released from jail on August 9 after a court ruled he could not be held while awaiting trial any longer, Reuters reported. The former director of the Ukrainian Unified Energy Systems gas monopoly was arrested in August 2000 on charges of embezzling $800,000 from the state and smuggling Russian gas. Prosecutors had intended to hold Tymoshenko until February, and Deputy Prosecutor-General Mykola Obikhod said the Prosecutor-General's Office will appeal the decision. Yuliya Tymoshenko is currently facing charges in both Ukraine and Russia for fraud and bribery from 1995-1997, when she headed the gas monopoly. She says the charges are part of a smear campaign led by President Kuchma to discredit her ahead of March parliamentary elections. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prosecutors ready case vs. ex-premier

KYIV - Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor-General Mykola Obikhod announced that prosecutors have completed preparing their case against former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko on embezzlement charges, ITAR-TASS reported on August 9. Obikhod said the case, involving allegations that Lazarenko accepted $120 million in bribes and embezzled $20 million, will be sent to court in the near future. Lazarenko, currently in a federal prison outside San Francisco, also faces charges of conspiracy in the U.S. and money laundering in Switzerland. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow TV station to extend broadcasts

MOSCOW - Moscow mayor Yurii Luzhkov announced on August 8 that the regional television channel TV Tsentr, which is controlled by the Moscow city government, is planning to extend its broadcasting to the territory of Belarus, Moldova and some areas of Ukraine, Interfax reported. Luzhkov stated that TV Tsentr head Oleg Poptsov has managed to make the station's broadcasts politically unbiased. TV Tsentr's potential audience will be about 74 million, many of whom, according to Luzhkov, will be interested in how Moscow solves its economic and social problems. In addition, TV Tsentr also intends to target the large portion of the city of Moscow's population that consists of the people from these regions. (RFE/RL Newsline)

UGCC organizes youth festival

LVIV - The local deanery of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on August 6 opened its five-day youth festival near the town of Zbarazh, Ternopil region. It is called "The School of the Jesus Prayer," named for a traditional prayer of the Churches of the Byzantine tradition containing the words "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." A group of 120 active young Christians were invited to take part. Through catechism, prayer and in other ways, the festival's organizers are trying to prepare young leaders who will become models of Christian living for youth. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Parliamentarian ordered two killings

KYIV - Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Mykhaylo Potebenko told journalists in Kyiv on August 13 that his office has gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute a current parliamentary deputy for ordering the killings of parliamentary deputy Yevhen Scherban in 1996 and of former National Bank Governor Vadym Hetman in 1998, the "Ukrayinska pravda" website reported. Potebenko did not disclose the name of the suspected deputy, saying only that the Prosecutor-General's Office will present the details of the case to the parliament in a special message. Potebenko added that those who carried out the contract killings are already dead. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainian party seeks to ban Communists

KYIV - The Ukrainian Republican Party (URP) has asked the Justice Ministry to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), Interfax reported on August 12. URP leader Levko Lukyanenko told journalists that the KPU should be banned under Ukraine's law on political parties, which prohibits political activities oriented toward the liquidation of Ukraine's independence, propaganda of violence, and encroachment on human rights and freedoms. According to Lukyanenko, the KPU program's provision calling for the restoration of a "union of fraternal peoples" is tantamount to a postulate to liquidate Ukraine's independence, while the KPU's Marxist-Leninist ideology implies such political measures as a violent overturn of the government and encroachment on human rights and freedoms. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Turkmenistan, Ukraine on gas debt payoff

KYIV - On August 13 Ukraine offered Turkmenistan improved terms for the repayment of a $280 million debt for Turkmen gas supplies, the dpa wire service reported. Last week Ashgabat rejected Kyiv's offer to reschedule Ukraine's debt to Turkmenistan on the same terms that the Paris Club agreed to in July. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma meets Tatarstan's Shaimiev

CRIMEA - During his vacation in Crimea, President Leonid Kuchma has met with Tatarstan's President Mintimer Shaimiev and discussed cooperation between Ukrainian regions and Tatarstan, Interfax reported on August 12, quoting the Ukrainian president's press service. Kuchma and Shaimiev are reportedly interested in ensuring the steady operation of the joint company Ukrtatnafta. Ukrtatnafta was created in 1994 to incorporate the oil refinery in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast. The Ukrtatnafta management has repeatedly complained that the Tatar cofounders of the company fail to meet their obligations, in particular those regarding supplies of Tatar oil to the refinery. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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