NEWSBRIEFS (07/27/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukrainian NGOs to receive USAID grants

KYIV - Thirteen Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) carrying out projects to further civil society within the framework of the Ukrainian Community Action Network (UCAN) will receive grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Interfax reported on July 17. The grants range from $10,000 to $50,000. The same day, grant agreements were signed between NGOs and UCAN in Kyiv, marking the end of the first year of the UCAN grant program. Some 250 Ukrainian NGOs competed for grants in late January under that program. USAID awarded grants to projects aimed at agricultural reform, the defense of women's and children's rights, transparency in the work of Parliament, the improvement of regional economic policy, and housing and utilities reform. USAID intends to provide 60 Ukrainian NGOs with grants totaling $1 million. (RFE/RL Media Matters)

Kuchma issues FATF-approved decree

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma signed a decree intended to counteract money laundering and the funding of terrorism from the proceeds of criminal activity, Interfax reported on July 23. The decree obliges the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Bank of Ukraine to ensure the introduction of 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) that were approved by FATF last month. The Cabinet is to create an integrated information system for the prevention of money laundering and the funding of terrorism by unifying the existing information resources and databases of ministries, government agencies and state committees by January 1. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Grain import duty temporarily abolished

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma signed into law a recently approved bill eliminating the duty on grain imports until the end of this year, Interfax reported on July 22. Ukraine's grain shortfall is reportedly expected to reach 2.8 million tons in 2003-04. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Military export agreement is signed

YALTA, Ukraine - Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Kasyanov, signed an agreement in Yalta on July 18 on cooperation in military exports to third countries, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. "Russia and Ukraine will not hamper one another in third countries' markets," Mr. Kasyanov said of the deal. The men also discussed the planned creation of a Ukrainian-Russian gas consortium and the joint construction of the AN-70 cargo plane. Contrary to expectations expressed in some Ukrainian media, the prime minister did not sign a prepared 15-year agreement on the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine. Russia is ready to sign the agreement only after Ukraine agrees to allow Russian oil producers to use the Odesa-Brody pipeline, Interfax reported, citing Mr. Kasyanov. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko greets reform bill's withdrawal

KYIV - Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko on July 19 welcomed President Leonid Kuchma's suggestion that he might withdraw the constitutional-reform bill he submitted to the Verkhovna Rada last month, Interfax reported. But Mr. Yushchenko also expressed concern over Mr. Kuchma's possible intention to defer the presidential election in 2004 in a proposal to elect Parliament, local councils and the president in the same year for five-year terms. Mr. Yushchenko said that provision is not of primary importance for constitutional reform in the country. He stressed that a proportional general election is a priority because the so-called first-past-the-post system "has proven undemocratic." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Journalist killed in car crash ...

KYIV - On July 16 the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the Ukrainian government to thoroughly investigate the cause of a July 14 road accident that resulted in the death of Vladimir Efremov, newspaper and TV editor. Mr. Efremov's car collided with a truck near the eastern town of Verkhniodniprovsk. The Internal Affairs Ministry's local representative has been named to head the investigation. Mr. Efremov, a correspondent for the press freedom organization Institute of Mass Information in Dnipropetrovsk, was editor of the newspapers Sobor and Dnipropetrovsk and founder of the regional television station TV 11, which supports former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, an opponent of President Leonid Kuchma. Mr. Efremov had agreed to testify at Mr. Lazarenko's August 18 trial in the United States. (RFE/RL Newsline)

...had been threatened, pressured

KYIV - Vladimir Efremov, in the official paper Holos Ukrainy on October 13, 2001, wrote that he feared he would be killed - probably in a staged road accident - due to his work as a journalist. Mr. Efremov had been detained for two days in January 1999 in Dnipropetrovsk for alleged irregularities in a 1995 loan agreement involving Sobor. Mr. Efremov claimed he had fully repaid the loan, believing he was arrested because TV 11 had broadcast a New Year's message from Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko rather than from President Leonid Kuchma. Ukrainian authorities closed Mr. Efremov's TV station on March 9, 1999, for alleged technical reasons - although its broadcast license was valid until 2001 - and seized its transmitters eight days later. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Draft agreement on oil transit is OK'd

KYIV - The Ukrainian government on July 16 approved a draft 15-year agreement with Russia on the transit of oil through Ukraine, Fuel and Energy Minister Serhii Yermilov told Interfax. The government thus authorized Mr. Yermilov to sign the agreement, which applies to all Ukrainian pipelines except the Odesa-Brody project. The document allows Russian oil companies to transit up to 79.5 million tons of oil annually through Ukraine. Ukraine is currently using less than half of its pipeline network's capacity, according to Mr. Yermilov. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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