NEWSBRIEFS (11/25/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukraine amnesties $2.8 B in tax debts

KYIV - State Tax Administration Deputy Chief Fedir Yaroshenko told journalists on November 19 that his agency wrote off some 14.8 billion hrv ($2.8 billion) in tax debts and rescheduled the overdue payment of 4.8 billion hrv, Interfax reported. This massive tax amnesty became possible under a law that provided for writing off unpaid taxes accumulated until the end of 1999, and for restructuring the payment of taxes due in 2000 over a period of five years. Mr. Yaroshenko added that as of November 1 the new tax debt in Ukraine totaled 6.6 billion hrv, including 5.6 billion hrv to the state budget. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma dismisses energy minister

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has dismissed Stanislav Stashevskyi from the post of fuel and energy minister, Interfax reported on November 19. Last week, Mr. Stashevskyi was severely criticized by Mr. Kuchma and the Parliament for failing to accumulate sufficient stocks of fuel at power stations for the winter. Mr. Kuchma also appointed Ihor Storozhuk as the president of the National Television Company. Mr. Storozhuk, who serves as the Ukrainian president's spokesman, will replace Vadym Dolhanov. Both Messrs. Stashevskyi and Dolhanov were relieved of their duties with the formulation "in connection with a transfer to another job." (RFE/RL Newsline)

New anti-piracy bill submitted to Rada

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada First Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk has registered a new draft bill on the manufacturing, export and import of discs for laser recorders recently submitted to the Parliament by the government, UNIAN reported on November 19. Mr. Medvedchuk said the rejection of a bill curbing audio and video piracy on November 15 was a "drawback" in the work of the Parliament and added that the currently submitted bill must be passed as soon as possible and should be treated "very seriously," because the United States is threatening Ukraine with economic sanctions. Four days earlier, only 140 deputies - well below the required majority of 226 votes - had voted for a bill that would establish licensing for production of compact discs and thus put a barrier to widespread piracy of music CDs in Ukraine. According to estimates, illegal production of compact discs in Ukraine costs up to $300 million a year in damages to the global record industry. Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov said at the time that the government will insist on an additional hearing of the bill. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Nationalist party elects leader

PUSCHA-VODYTSIA - The far-right radical Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA) elected Mykola Karpiuk as its new leader and changed party symbols at its congress on November 18 in Puscha-Vodytsia, Ukrainian media reported. The assembly's former leader, Andriy Shkil, who is currently in a remand center on charges of organizing mass disturbances in Kyiv on March 9, was relieved of his post but remains in the party leadership. The Ukrainian National Assembly announced that it is going to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections on its own and has no plans to join any electoral bloc. Some Ukrainian observers doubt whether the party will be able to overcome the 4 percent voting hurdle in the elections. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Nuclear plant contaminates river

RIVNE - The management of the Rivne nuclear power plant in western Ukraine confirmed on November 17 that transformer oil leaking from the plant's reactor has contaminated the local river, Styr, ITAR-TASS reported. Because of a malfunction in the reactor, personnel drained the oil in rainy weather. As a result, more than 20 kilograms of oil were washed away into a sewage system and then into the Styr. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Envoy assures Kyiv of warm relations

KYIV - Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin told the Kyiv-based ICTV television on November 18 that Russian-Ukrainian relations will not suffer as a result of improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia in their new cooperation against international terrorism. Regarding Russian plans to build a gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine, Mr. Chernomyrdin noted that other pipelines will indeed be built, but added that none of them will have a throughput capacity comparable to that of existing Ukrainian pipelines. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainian delegation in Miensk

MIENSK - A delegation headed by Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Vasyl Rohovyi visited Miensk on November 15-16 for economic talks and the signing of two accords on cooperation between the central banks of both countries. Belarusian Television reported that the sides also touched upon the problem of Ukraine's Soviet-era debt to Belarus, but provided no details. A Belarusian-Ukrainian governmental commission is expected to tackle this problem at a meeting in Chernihiv in mid-December. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Chisinau, Kyiv fail to solve border issue

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh and his Moldovan counterpart, Vasile Tarlev, signed an agreement in Kyiv on November 17 on the passage of goods through five checkpoints at their border, but failed to reach an agreement on the joint checkpoints at the border with Transdniester, ITAR-TASS reported. They instructed experts to work further to reach an agreement on the two checkpoints at that border within 15 days. (RFE/RL Newsline)

IMF makes money to Ukraine conditional

KYIV - Julian Berengaut of the International Monetary Fund, said on November 15 that the fund may release a subsequent tranche of $370 million to Ukraine in January 2002 if by that time the Verkhovna adopts a "realistic budget," an international auditing firm completes the audit of the state-run Naftohaz Ukrainy oil and gas giant, and the government agrees to increase tariffs for electricity supplied by privatized energy distribution companies, Interfax reported. Vice Prime Minister Vasyl Rohovyi said the previous day that IMF experts fully support the government's budget draft, which is currently being considered by the Parliament. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Senate links aid to probe's progress

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate has adopted amendments to legislation providing for the U.S. government's assistance for the independent states of the former USSR in 2002, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported on November 13. According to the bill, out of the $795.5 million appropriation proposed for the former Soviet republics, Ukraine is to receive $180 million, including $35 million to increase the safety of its nuclear reactors. The Senate makes assistance to Ukraine contingent on the Ukrainian government's progress in investigating the murders of Ukrainian journalists and obliges the Department of State to submit a relevant report on this progress to the Congress. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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