NEWSBRIEFS (12/23/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Miensk tough on Kyiv's Soviet-era debt

CHERNIHIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh and his Belarusian counterpart, Henadz Navitski, met in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, on December 18 to discuss trade and economic issues, Belarusian and Ukrainian media reported. The prime ministers endorsed a plan of bilateral economic cooperation for 2002 calling for an increase in annual trade turnover to $1 billion from the current level of some $700 million. However, the sides did not address the contentious issue of Ukraine's Soviet-era debt to Belarus because an intergovernmental commission has failed to produce a relevant joint resolution. Mr. Navitski told Belapan that Miensk will not ratify the border agreement with Ukraine as long as Kyiv fails to repay its Soviet-era debt to Belarus. In 1997 Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that debt amounted to $217 million. In a recent intergovernmental agreement, the figure shrank to $113 million, and Ukraine offered some property in Crimea to cover some of the debt. Mr. Navitski told Belapan that Ukraine is seeking to get rid of the clause for turning over the property and wants the debt figure to be reduced to $51 million. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma hopes for workable new Rada

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on December 18 expressed hope that a new Parliament elected in the March 31 ballot will be more efficient in contrast to the current one, Interfax reported. He criticized the current legislature for inefficiency and political rows. "It's impossible to advance in economy and politics if the government has no support in the Parliament," Mr. Kuchma noted. "I extremely dislike when ultra-leftists unite with ultra-rightists [in the parliament]," he added, referring to the recent ouster of First Vice Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Viktor Medvedchuk. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... insists on implementing referendum

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma said he is still hopeful that the results of the referendum held on April 16, 2000, will be implemented, reported the UNIAN news agency. The referendum approved proposals to grant the president the right to dissolve the Verkhovna Rada if lawmakers fail to create a stable parliamentary majority; cut the number of lawmakers from 450 to 300; abolish the lawmakers' immunity from prosecution; and introduce a second legislative chamber. "I will never sign another decree on holding a referendum, even if one is urgently needed, because I have no right to do so until the results of the previous referendum have been implemented," the president said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma opposes joint border checkpoints

KYIV - "We are ready to consider joint border checkpoints with Moldova. But we cannot accept this on the border with the Transdniester region," President Leonid Kuchma told journalists on December 18. Mr. Kuchma recalled that Moldova wants "to place Moldovan customs officers on Ukraine's territory" and added that such a possible move should be approved by the Ukrainian Parliament. However, he noted that "we don't want to fight with the Transdniester region or impose an economic blockade on it." In a bid to tighten control over what Chisinau calls smuggling from and to the Transdniester, the Moldovan government asked Kyiv earlier this year to allow its customs officers access to checkpoints located on the Ukrainian side of the border. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prez predicts rise in electricity tariffs

KYIV - The president said Ukraine will have to increase tariffs for electricity consumption. Leonid Kuchma added, however, that the increase will not be implemented as "spontaneously" as envisaged in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's loan offer for completing two nuclear reactors in Ukraine to compensate for the closure of Chornobyl. President Kuchma also said the tariffs will not be raised this winter. He revealed that the recently signed accord on Russia's assistance in completing the two Ukrainian reactors provides for a Russian credit of $150 million in 2002. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada seeks probe of presidential staff chief

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on December 18 supported a motion that the Procurator-General's Office launch a criminal case against presidential administration chief Volodymyr Lytvyn, deputy Ihor Bakai, and others, UNIAN reported. The motion is called "On investigating the circumstances of illegal appropriation by Lytvyn, Bakay, and other officials of state intellectual property worth hundreds of millions of hryvni and gross tax evasion, bringing the guilty individuals to book, and taking action to recover the losses incurred by the state." (RFE/RL Newsline)

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