NEWSBRIEFS (04/13/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Canada concerned about agro-sector

KYIV - Canada's Ambassador to Ukraine Andrew Robinson said in Kyiv on April 3 that his country is concerned about the situation in Ukraine's agriculture sector, including the grain market, and by the arrest of former Vice Prime Minister for Agricultural Reform Leonid Kozachenko, Interfax reported on April 4. The ambassador said Ukrainian agricultural reforms make it an engine of economic growth in the country, adding that small and medium-sized agribusinesses have been boosted by a free market absent of heavy state intervention. "I know that former Vice Prime Minister Kozachenko was one of the main defenders of the reform policy in agriculture," Ambassador Robinson said. Meanwhile, Mr. Kozachenko's lawyer, Ihor Usenko, told journalists on April 7 that the Procurator General's Office recently charged Mr. Kozachenko with accepting a bribe in 2000, in addition to earlier charges of tax evasion and abuse of office. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yanukovych urges direct trade with Greece

ATHENS - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych met with his Greek counterpart, Konstandinos Simitis, and Greek businessmen in Athens on April 8, Ukrainian media reported. Mr. Yanukovych said after the meetings that Ukraine must overcome negative trends and cut out intermediaries in trade with Greece. "There have been some unhealthy relations recently ... In some cases, Ukrainian products are supplied to Greece via offshore zones, and the Ukrainian economy does not benefit from such operations," Interfax quoted Mr. Yanukovych as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Cabinet upbeat on economic growth

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada's Economic Policy Committee on April 8 endorsed a government action plan and will recommend that the legislature approve it, UNIAN reported, quoting First Vice Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. The plan aims for economic growth of 5 to 6 percent in 2003 and 8 percent in 2004. It also calls for raising the minimum monthly wage gradually to reach the subsistence minimum of 342 hrv ($64) in early 2007. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President appoints new minister

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has appointed Ivan Tkalenko as minister for ties with the Verkhovna Rada, Interfax reported on April 8, quoting presidential spokeswoman Olena Hromnytska. Mr. Kuchma created this post last month. Mr. Tkalenko was a national deputy of the Ukraine's Regions caucus in the preceding Parliament. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Government urged to raise pensions

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on April 7 instructed the government to increase pensions in Ukraine, UNIAN reported. Speaking at a meeting with regional executive leaders in Kyiv, Mr. Kuchma said such an increase should be based on a "real economic foundation." The State Statistics Committee reported the same day that Ukraine's industrial output in the first three months of 2003 grew by 10.7 percent from last year. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainian NBC battalion deployed

KYIV - The airlifting of a Ukrainian anti-nuclear, -biological and -chemical (NBC) battalion to Kuwait has been completed, UNIAN reported on April 7. A total of 448 troops and 125 pieces of military equipment were transferred to Kuwait, the news agency reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Bogus posters target Yushchenko

KYIV - The UNIAN news service reported on April 7 that sham posters and leaflets apparently intended to discredit Our Ukraine head Viktor Yushchenko have appeared in Rivne, northwestern Ukraine, and the Vasylkiv Raion of Kyiv Oblast. The posters in Rivne depict Mr. Yushchenko with President Leonid Kuchma at a rally and bear the inscription: "Look, father, the fascists are coming." The leaflets in Kyiv Oblast are in the form of Mr. Yushchenko's open letters to voters, in which he purportedly pledges to distribute land among private farmers after he becomes president. "The mass scale of similar actions and the audacity with which they are conducted, as well as the lack of any positive results in investigating [who was responsible for] them, testify to the fact that this is being done with the knowledge of the authorities," National Deputy Serhii Oleksiuk of the Our Ukraine bloc commented. In mid-February unidentified people and/or institutions disseminated in several Ukrainian regions a bogus letter "signed" by Mr. Yushchenko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Probe into journalist's death is ended

KYIV - Prosecutors in Kyiv said on April 2 that in March they closed an investigation into last year's death of Mykhailo Kolomiyets, founder and head of the Ukrainski Novyny news agency, UNIAN reported. Mr. Kolomiyets was found hanged in a forest in Belarus in November 2002. Prosecutors declared the journalist's death a suicide. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada defines and bans censorship

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on April 3 voted 252 to 1 to approve a law defining and banning state censorship in the Ukrainian media, Interfax reported. The law defines censorship as any demand by state or local officials that a journalist or an editor-in-chief, founder, co-founder, publisher or distributor of a media organization submit information for approval before publication (except when such a demand is made by the author or other owner of copyright or associated rights to it). The definition also deems as censorship any ban (aside from court bans) or the hampering in any way of the publication or distribution of information by bodies of state power, local government or their officials. The law also prohibits the creation of any bodies of state power, institutions or posts to control media information. According to the law, no one may be sued for expressing "statements of evaluation," which are defined as statements containing no factual data: criticism, evaluation of actions, and texts involving hyperbole, allegory or satire. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Commission to examine grain market

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on April 3 set up an ad hoc commission to examine the situation on Ukraine's grain market, UNIAN reported. The commission will be co-chaired by Mykhailo Melnychuk (Socialist Party) and Vasyl Havryliuk (People's Power). The Procurator General's Office, following an order from President Leonid Kuchma, is investigating the situation on the grain market - in particular, a shortage of grain in some regions and a rise in bread prices. In late March, former Vice Prime Minister for Agricultural Reform Leonid Kozachenko was arrested on charges of abuse of office and tax evasion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Symonenko weighs in on Lavra

KYIV - Petro Symonenko, head of the Communist Party of Ukraine, recently sent a letter to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, asking that the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv be transferred to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). The complex is now a national monument in government possession. The press service of the UOC-MP posted the news on March 26. Mr. Symonenko proposed that, at the first stage, all the buildings of the national reserve be under the control of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, but that the UOC-MP should be allowed to hold services there. According to Mr. Symonenko, state authorities should allocate funding for the reconstruction of the monastery, make access to the reserve free of charge, and evict all commercial organizations not related to the history of the reserve from the territory of the monastery. In addition, the CPU leader proposed starting a commission for the complete transfer of the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves to the UOC-MP. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

| Home Page |