NEWSBRIEFS (06/16/02)

NEWSBRIEFS

United Ukraine to become less united?

KYIV - The United Ukraine parliamentary caucus has launched a "process of creating an inter-factional association" based on the bloc's deputies, the UNIAN news service reported on June 11, quoting United Ukraine lawmaker Mykola Onyschuk. According to Mr. Onyschuk, the parties currently constituting United Ukraine - Labor Ukraine, National Democratic Party, Party of the Regions, Agrarian Party, and Party of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists - want to create their own parliamentary groups within the United Ukraine "inter-factional association." Meanwhile, Communist Party lawmaker Heorhii Kriuchkov commented that the transformation of United Ukraine into such a group is "not a split but decomposition oriented toward obtaining a larger number of official offices and cars." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Survey says: Church most trusted

LVIV - According to a recent survey, 26.8 percent of Ukrainians trust the Church completely, and 33 percent are "more likely" to trust it, which was the highest score among other social and political institutions. The survey was conducted on May 21-28 by the Oleksander Razumkov Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies. The aim of the survey was to identify the level of trust in various social institutions and political parties, as well as the degree of support for their activities. It also aimed to find out people's preferences concerning the future presidential elections. The Ukrainian mass media is "trusted completely" by 13.3 percent of respondents, and 40.6 percent are "more likely" to trust it. Political parties received complete trust from only 4 percent, and with 38.3 percent scored highest on distrust. Public organizations received trust from 6 percent and distrust from 25.4 percent. Asked to assess freedom of speech using a 5-point system (1 for worst, 5 for best), 37.5 percent of respondents answered "3" and only 6.8 percent answered "5." The survey, in which 2,015 Ukrainian citizens over 18 years old took part, was carried out in 24 oblasts of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Kyiv. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

New impeachment effort is initiated

KYIV - Lawmakers from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc - including Yulia Tymoshenko, Hryhorii Omelchenko and Anatolii Matvienko - have submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft bill called "On the Initiation of Impeachment of President Leonid Kuchma and the Creation of a Special Temporary Investigative Commission," UNIAN reported on June 10. The Ukrainska Pravda website commented the same day that the impeachment issue is likely to be put on the parliamentary agenda (150 votes are necessary for this purpose), but added that there is "no hope" that the bill can muster 226 votes necessary for starting the impeachment process. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Europeans support move toward NATO

LJUBLJANA - Meeting at an informal summit in Slovenia on 1 June 1, the presidents of 14 Central European countries hailed Ukraine's decision to seek NATO membership, Ukrainian media reported, quoting President Leonid Kuchma. "They accepted this decision as a long-awaited one," Mr. Kuchma said following the summit. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia plays Ukraine card re Kaliningrad

MOSCOW - The Russian government is not concealing the fact that its switch away from routing energy supplies through Poland is connected with the hard line taken by Warsaw and the European Union on the Kaliningrad issue, RIA-Novosti reported on June 10, citing an unnamed official in President Vladimir Putin's administration. If Poland continues to rebuff Russian proposals for a visa-free transit corridor between Kaliningrad Oblast and the rest of Russia, the official said, the country stands to lose this lucrative pipeline, as well as several billion dollars' worth of related development projects. The pipeline issue is political, not economic, and by dealing with President Leonid Kuchma, Moscow is sending a clear signal to Warsaw that it expects a concession on Kaliningrad, the BBC's Russian Service commented. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada rejects prosecution of Tymoshenko

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada has rejected an appeal from the Procurator General's Office to pursue criminal proceedings against former Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the eponymous opposition faction of Parliament, according to an Associated Press report of June 6. Deputy Procurator General Mykola Obikhod appealed to the Parliament on June 3, asking for permission to continue a criminal investigation into charges of corruption against Ms. Tymoshenko. Parliament Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn rejected the prosecutor's appeal on June 5, citing legal imperfections. Prosecutors accused Ms. Tymoshenko last year of hiding hard-currency profits, large-scale theft of state assets and paying bribes to former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko while she was head of Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine. A Kyiv court dismissed the charges against Ms. Tymoshenko on April 30. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Turkey arrests former UES executives

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the eponymous opposition bloc in the Ukraine Parliament, asked Turkish authorities on June 3 to grant political asylum to four former executives in the Ukrainian power monopoly Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UES), including her father-in-law Hennadii Tymoshenko, ITAR-TASS reported the same day. Turkish police detained UES General Director Hennadii Tymoshenko, along with Chief Executive Officer Yevhen Shaho, former Chief Financial Officer Lydia Sokolchenko and current Chief Financial Officer Antonia Paliura in the Turkish resort of Antalya late last week. The four were on an Interpol list of wanted criminals in connection with a case in the United States against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. Ukrainian Deputy Procurator General Mykola Obikhod said in January that a district court in Kyiv had issued a warrant for the arrest of the four in connection with the concealment of $181.54 million of the company's hard-currency earnings in 1996 and 1997, as well as for large-scale misappropriation of government funds from 1997 through 1999. The four have also been accused of forging documents and of selling contraband natural gas with a value of $2.25 billion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv wants former UES execs

KYIV - Ukraine is seeking to extradite four former executives of Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UES) who were arrested in the Turkish resort town of Antalya last week, Reuters reported on June 4. The four - Hennadii Tymoshenko, the former general director of the company and father-in-law of Ukrainian opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko; former Chief Executive Officer Yevhen Shaho; and two former financial officers, Lydia Sokolchenko and Antonia Paliura - are accused by Ukrainian prosecutors of hiding hard-currency profits and stealing state assets. Yulia Tymoshenko said on June 3 that the extradition efforts are a politically motivated attack against her opposition activities. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko denies asylum request

KYIV - Ukrainian opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the eponymous parliamentary faction, said on June 5 that the former Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UES) executives recently arrested in Turkey asked for political asylum of their own accord, adding that she does not know how their case is progressing as she has not had regular contact with them, Interfax reported. Ms. Tymoshenko added that media reports that she has been seeking political asylum for the four former executives, including her father-in-law, Hennadii Tymoshenko, cannot be true since no one has the right to request asylum for someone else. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Turkmenistan, Ukraine agree on debt

KYIV - Agreement has been reached on a schedule for repayment of Ukraine's $46 million debt to Turkmenistan for supplies of natural gas received in 2002, Naftohaz Ukrainy President Yurii Boiko told journalists in Kyiv on June 8, according to ITAR-TASS. A protocol has also been signed on the repayment schedule for an outstanding $65 million debt for Turkmen gas supplied in 1999. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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