NEWSBRIEFS (09/16/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

A warning on Gongadze anniversary

KYIV - Yurii Smirnov told Interfax on September 5 that the police will react with "tough measures" if the opposition resorts to "provocation" during its actions on September 15-16 to mark the first anniversary of the disappearance of independent journalist Heorhii Gongadze. "I do not want another 60 of our employees to suffer for nothing," Mr. Smirnov added, referring to scuffles between riot police and demonstrators on March 9. The anti-presidential Forum for National Salvation has said it intends to hold a march commemorating Mr. Gongadze in Kyiv on September 15. The following day Ukrainian journalists plan to gather in Kyiv and set up a Journalistic Ethics Commission in order to react to defamatory media campaigning in the upcoming parliamentary elections. (RFE/RL Newsline)

AN-225 claims world cargo record

KYIV - Ukraine's Antonov Aircraft Co. on September 11 said the world's biggest plane, the AN-225 - dubbed "Mria," or Dream - has set a world record for cargo lifting, various international news agencies reported. The company said a cargo of 253.8 tons (four tanks) was carried at an altitude of two kilometers for 1,000 kilometers on a flight from Kyiv to the Black Sea's Serpents Island and back. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Bulgaria to require visas for Ukrainians

SOFIA - The Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry said it will introduce a visa regime for all visitors from Ukraine, Russia and Georgia beginning on October 1, Reuters reported on September 11. The ministry said in a statement that the visas are in line with an agreement Sofia made with the European Union. The union lifted visa requirements for Bulgarians in April on the condition that the Balkan country tighten its borders to the East and curb illegal immigration. The statement added that discussions with the three affected countries will take place to find ways of easing visa restrictions for businessmen and tourists. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Two Rukhs join Yuschenko bloc

KYIV - The National Rukh of Ukraine led by Hennadii Udovenko and the Ukrainian National Rukh led by Yurii Kostenko on September 8 declared their accession to the Our Ukraine election bloc led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, Interfax reported. In addition, Messrs. Udovenko and Kostenko pledged to take steps to reunite their Rukhs into one organization. Speaking at a joint conference of the two Rukhs, Mr. Yuschenko announced that Our Ukraine's core will consist of "five to seven parties"; however, he failed to name them. (RFE/RL Newsline)

EU to delivers tough message to Kyiv

KYIV - Senior officials of the European Union, including foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, issued a strong message to Kyiv on the eve of their September 11 meeting in Yalta with President Leonid Kuchma and members of the Ukrainian government. "If President Kuchma is serious about Ukraine's European choice and putting the Gongadze affair and other scandals behind him, he must clarify relations between the state and the media and ensure safety for foreign investors," Reuters quoted EU official Timo Summa as saying on September 7. Mr. Summa said the EU is also worried about the lack of independence in Ukraine's judiciary, and pledged that Brussels will closely monitor the country's parliamentary elections next spring. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kinakh sees Poland in oil consortium

KRYNICA, Poland - Speaking to journalists at a Poland-East economic forum in Krynica (Krynytsia) on September 8, Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh said Ukraine regards Poland as a potential participant in an international consortium to implement the project for constructing and exploiting a Eurasian oil transport corridor, UNIAN reported. Mr. Kinakh noted that a group comprising experts from Ukraine, Poland and the United States, and well-known oil-extracting and oil-refining companies is to prepare a feasibility study for setting up such a consortium. (RFE/RL Newsline)

UNA-UNSO stages bloody protest

KYIV - Two men from Ukraine's radical nationalist Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defense Organization (UNA- UNSO) on September 6 slashed their stomachs and attempted to stick posters onto Kyiv's independence monument with their blood, Reuters reported. The men were protesting against the continued detention of their 16 brothers-in-arms, including UNA-UNSO leader Andriy Shkil. Police had arrested them on April 9 during a violent anti-presidential protest. The two protesters were detained and transported to a hospital. Police said their wounds are not life-threatening. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Envoy denies report of Turkish claims

SYMFEROPOL - In a letter published in the Krymskiye Izvestia newspaper on September 6, the Turkish ambassador to Ukraine, Alp Karaosmanoglu, said he is surprised at pronouncements made by Crimean Parliament Chairman Leonid Hrach that Turkey allegedly has claims on Ukrainian territory, Interfax reported. The ambassador recalled that Turkey was among the first countries to recognize Ukraine's sovereignty in 1992. In July, Krymskiye Izvestia published Mr. Hrach's public speech in which he said that "Turkey has long ago begun making maps on which Crimea is tinged with Turkish national colors." Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Mustafa Jemiliev commented that Mr. Hrach has repeatedly made anti-Turkish and anti-Tatar statements and warned that Crimean Tatars want to unite the peninsula with Turkey. According to Mr. Jemilev, Mr. Hrach, who is also the leader of Crimea's Communist Party, is playing on pro-Russian and anti-Tatar sentiments on the peninsula in order to win as many votes as possible in next year's parliamentary elections. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Bulgarian Parliament hears Kuchma

SOFIA - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma addressed the Bulgarian Parliament on September 5, saying that, although his country today is not considering admission to NATO, it believes that "every state has the right to decide for itself" on the matter. International agencies reported that Mr. Kuchma said Ukraine views NATO enlargement as "the expansion of stability and strengthening of democracy on the European continent." He added: "I would like to congratulate Bulgaria for its choice of foreign policy priorities, which include NATO membership, and to wish Bulgaria success at the [2002] NATO summit." He also said Bulgaria and Ukraine "share the common goal" of achieving integration into the European Union. (RFE/RL Newsline)

2002 draft budget is endorsed

KYIV - The Cabinet of Ministers on September 5 endorsed a 2002 draft budget, setting revenues at 57.1 billion hrv ($10.7 billion) and spending at 61.3 billion hrv, Interfax reported. The budget deficit is equal to 1.7 percent of Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP). Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov explained that, in contrast to this year's zero-deficit budget, the 2002 budget has a deficit because privatization receipts are no longer included in budget revenues. Next year's privatization income is projected to be 5.8 billion hrv. The government plans to direct 52 percent of budget spending for social programs, increase wages for state workers by 15 percent, and keep the tax burden below 18 percent of the country's GDP. The document also provides for the spending of $400 million to pay off Ukraine's foreign debt. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Finland sign cooperation pact

KYIV - Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk and his Finnish counterpart, Jan-Erik Enestam, signed a memorandum on military cooperation between the two countries in Kyiv on September 3, Interfax reported. Mr. Enestam told journalists that Ukraine can be a partner in modernizing Finnish Soviet-era T-72 tanks if Helsinki opts to modernize the equipment instead of buying new technology. On September 4 Mr. Enestam and Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko discussed Finnish-Ukrainian cooperation on peacekeeping operations and within NATO's Partnership for Peace program. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Two-thirds want Kuchma to resign

KYIV - Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainians want President Leonid Kuchma to resign over allegations he was involved in the murder of an investigative journalist, a poll published on September 3 indicated. A total of 62.1 percent of those interviewed favored Mr. Kuchma's resignation, while only 37.9 percent backed the Ukrainian leader, according to the survey by the Razumkov political and economic think-tank, which was published by online newspaper Korrespondent.net. President Kuchma was re-elected in November 1999 for a second five-year term with more than 56 percent of the vote. Today, more than three-quarters of the population (77.3 percent) would vote against the head of state, the poll indicated. A total of 2,014 people across the country were interviewed in the survey. The Ukrainian opposition accuses the president of ordering the killing of journalist Heorhii Gongadze last year and has demanded a referendum on Mr. Kuchma's dismissal. The president denies the allegations. (Agence France Presse)

Envoy urges investment in Russia

KYIV - Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin on August 29 called on Ukrainian businessmen to act "more bravely" on Russian markets, Interfax reported. Speaking at a news conference in Zaporizhia, Mr. Chernomyrdin said the Ukrainian government should create favorable conditions to stimulate investments in the Russian economy. Simultaneously, he noted that Russian capital in Ukraine has been operating at a "weak" level. According to official data, Russia is Ukraine's largest trade partner, having received 27.2 percent of Ukraine's exports and supplying Ukraine with 38 percent of its imports over the first six months of 2001. (RFE/RL Newsline)

5M Ukrainian citizens work in Russia

MOSCOW - According to an August 29 report published in Vremia MN, up to 5 million citizens of Ukraine are now working in Russia because they are paid better there. But their presence, the paper said, is an increasingly important factor in drawing the two countries together. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Paper notes little nostalgia for USSR

MOSCOW - Nezavisimaya Gazeta on August 22 summed up the attitudes of the leaders of CIS states under the headline: "Leaders of the states of the Commonwealth do not experience any nostalgia for the USSR." That same day Izvestia quoted former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk as saying that "the CIS has no future." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Russia to design new aircraft

KYIV - Dmytro Kyva, the first deputy designer-general of the Kyiv-based Antonov Design Bureau, said his firm and the Chkalov aircraft manufacturing plant in Novosibirsk, Russia, have decided to begin designing a version of the AN-38 aircraft for carrying airborne troops, UNIAN reported on August 15, quoting the Defense-Express agency. The new AN-38 is intended to deliver people and cargo both by landing and parachuting. Its payload will be three tons, or 22 paratroopers. The agency added that there currently are three potential buyers for this new plane but did not disclose their identities. Meanwhile, Russian Vice Prime Minister Ilia Klebanov said after talks with Ukrainian First Vice Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna in Moscow on August 15 that the two countries intend to pool efforts to internationally market the jointly developed AN-70 transport plane, Interfax reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

47% of Russians want return of Crimea

MOSCOW - According to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation and reported by Interfax on August 25, 47 percent of Russians want the Russian government to do whatever it takes to secure the return of the Crimea to Russian control. Thirty-seven percent more would like to see Russian sovereignty restored on Crimea, but only if that could be achieved without a worsening of Russian-Ukrainian relations. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine cited for money-laundering

LONDON - The international group devising financial measures against laundering of illegally obtained money and tracking down financial risks and safety of investment in countries worldwide has blacklisted Ukraine as a country involved in money-laundering schemes alongside with Costa Rica, Grenada and Palu island, the Ukrainian BBC service informs. According to a Ukrainian BBC report, the organization criticizes Ukraine for imperfect financial legislation, drawbacks of the banking system and customs control, which create loopholes that allow circulation of illegally earned money. Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers released an official statement on combating money laundering in which it officially recognized 40 recommendations provided by the group devising financial measures against laundering of illegally obtained money (FATF) and stated that its major assignment for the near future will be putting those recommendations into effect and incorporating them into Ukraine's national legislation. The statement reads that immediate measures will include exerting stricter control over law enforcement bodies to cap illegal money flows, as well as interdepartmental coordination in the investigation of cases of money laundering; forwarding a request to Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada to immediately discuss bills introducing new mechanisms of combating money laundering; assisting FATF experts; facilitating activity of regulatory bodies, public and private structures aimed at preventing laundering of illegally obtained money. (Infobank News Agency)

Transdnistria wants to join Ukraine

KYIV - The breakaway Moldovan Republic in Transdnistria, which is not recognized by the international community of countries, is ready to discuss its accession to Ukraine, the chair of the ZUBR caucus in the Transdnistria Parliament Oleksander Semeniuk told reporters on September 7 in Kyiv. He noted that a similar decision had previously been made by the leaders of Transdnistria and that its president, Ihor Smirnov, came to Kyiv to present the official request to join Ukraine. However, he was arrested and extradited to Moldova. Mr. Semeniuk stressed that the status of Transdnistria as part of Ukraine will be defined by Ukraine alone. (Infobank News Agency)

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