NEWSBRIEFS

Rada has 61 percent new members

KYIV - As a result of the March 26 elections, the new Verkhovna Rada has 61 percent new members, according to the chairman of the experts' council of the Institute of Politics, Sergey Makeyev. The number of women will grow by 3 percent, as compared with the present composition and will reach 8 percent of the total of 450 deputies. Forty-nine percent of the Rada's members will be people over age 50, though there will be four 25-year old deputies (one of them Viktor Yanukovych Jr.). The oldest deputy, Gen. Ivan Gerasimov, 85, will represent the Communist Party of Ukraine. Five journalists have been elected under the party and bloc rolls. As many as 99 percent of deputies have completed higher education. The political expert noted that 78 percent of voters cast their ballots for parties and blocs that crossed the 3 percent barrier and entered the Parliament. (Ukrinform)

Vitrenko demands recount

KYIV - The leader of the Natalia Vitrenko People's Opposition Bloc demanded a total recount of ballot papers, as "the state failed to organize the elections honestly and democratically," she said at an April 3 press conference. Ms. Vitrenko charged that violations of electoral legislation were registered nationwide. The bloc approached local courts, constituency election commissions, the Central Election Commission and the Procurator General's Office with complaints of falsifications, as "every thousand votes affects the situation in Ukraine significantly." The Vitrenko Bloc fell short by 0.07 percent of crossing the 3 percent barrier to enter Parliament. (Ukrinform)

Parliament holds last session

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada of the fourth convocation (elected in March 2002) convened for its last session on April 4, Ukrainian media reported. The main issue on the agenda was the demand by some Ukrainian political forces that the Central Election Commission order a recount of the March 26 parliamentary elections. Representatives of some parties and blocs that failed to pass the 3 percent threshold qualifying for parliamentary representation - including Volodymyr Lytvyn's People's Bloc, the Yurii Karmazin Bloc, the Viche Party, the People's Democratic Party and the Natalia Vitrenko People's Opposition Bloc - held a picket in front of the parliamentary building, demanding a recount. (RFE/RL Newsline)

No recount of March 26 vote

KYIV - There will be no total vote recount of the March 26 elections to the Verkhovna Rada and local councils, as none of four bills submitted on the Parliament's agenda were supported by the necessary 226 votes. Representatives of the Viche Party, the Pora-Party of Reforms and Order Bloc, the Yuriy Karmazin Bloc and Volodymyr Lytvyn's People's Bloc, which failed to cross the 3 percent barrier, initiated calls for a recount, asserting that their votes were stolen. (Ukrinform)

CPU does not intend to join coalition

KYIV - The Communist Party of Ukraine, which garnered 3.66 percent of the votes in the March 26 parliamentary elections, does not intend to join any of the coalitions that are presently being negotiated, CPU leader Petro Symonenko said in an interview with the Kievsky Telegraf newspaper. "We are not going to bargain for posts," he said. Mr. Symonenko said there are two variants of the CPU's participation in the Parliament's work. According to the first variant, the CPU will back proposals by any of the forces that are aimed at protecting the interests of Ukrainian citizens. Under the second variant, political forces aiming to attract the CPU into a coalition should draft a parcel of first-priority measures for overcoming crises in Ukraine. According to Mr. Symonenko, the first-priority tasks should contain legal settlement of unemployment, increasing salaries and introducing state mechanisms for price regulation. (Ukrinform)

Akhmetov holds press conference

KYIV - Rynat Akhmetov, who participated in Ukraine's March 26 parliamentary elections on the Party of Regions' candidates list, told a press conference in Kyiv on March 30 that he is not seeking to become prime minister, Interfax reported. The Party of the Regions won a plurality in the election and Mr. Akhmetov - the party's main financial backer and Ukraine's richest man - has frequently been named as a potential prime minister in the next government. Mr. Akhmetov also announced that his party wants to hold a national referendum on the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. "As for NATO, we advocate a democratic approach. As far as we know, 75 percent of the population of Ukraine is opposed to joining NATO," Mr. Akhmetov said. Commenting on the Party of the Regions' intention of giving Russian the status of an official language in Ukraine, Mr. Akhmetov said that "society needs the Russian language and the authorities have to take this into account." He also promised to learn Ukrainian. During his Kyiv press conference Mr. Akhmetov also denied allegations that he has a criminal past and described his business dealings as completely legal. He owns a 90 percent stake in the Donetsk-based System Capital Management Corp. (SCM), which he founded in 2000. SCM controls more than 90 companies concentrated in the iron ore, coal, steel and energy-generation sectors, as well as interests in insurance and banking, food and beverage services, and hotels and hospitality. He said that recent rumors that he plans to sell his business to Russian, American, or Indian businessmen are not true. "We only acquire" he told journalists. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Winner of Kyiv race officially announced

KYIV - The Kyiv City Election Commission announced on April 4 that Leonid Chernovetskyi was elected Kyiv's mayor in the March 26 local elections with nearly 460,000 votes, UNIAN reported. Mr. Chernovetskyi, a deputy of the Our Ukraine caucus in the fourth Verkhovna Rada, beat famous Ukrainian boxer Vitalii Klitschko and incumbent Oleksander Omelchenko. Mr. Chernovetskyi received more than 450,000 votes; Messrs. Klitschko and Omelchenko received 341,000 and 305,000 votes, respectively. However, Kyiv prosecutors on April 3 had opened a criminal case against Mr. Chernovetskyi, following Mr. Omelchenko's complaint that Mr. Chernovetskyi bribed voters during the election campaign. Mr. Chernovetskyi denied the charges, accusing unspecified people of staging a provocation against him. "Less than a week before the voting day my election staff was informed that some people on my behalf were distributing low-quality products among Kyiv residents and openly calling on them to vote for Leonid Chernovetskyi," Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying on April 3. The next day, the Procurator General's Office announced that it had stopped legal proceedings against Mr. Chernovetskyi. (RFE/RL Newsline, Ukrinform)

Local deputies' immunity canceled

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on April 4 passed amendments to the law "On the status of the deputies of local radas" and canceled their immunity, with 296 national deputies voting for the measure. Criminal proceedings against a local rada deputy can be instituted by procurator general of Ukraine, deputy procurator general of Ukraine, the Crimean procurator, regional procurators, as well as the procurators of the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. (Ukrinform)

Rada again fails to swear in judges

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on April 4 failed to swear in six Constitutional Court judges who were appointed to that body by the Congress of Judges and President Viktor Yushchenko last year, Ukrainian news agencies reported. The Party of the Regions caucus blocked the parliamentary rostrum, as well as the government's and the president's seats in the session hall during the debate on the issue. Mr. Yushchenko, who was expected to attend the planned swearing-in ceremony, did not appear in the Parliament. It was the third time that lawmakers torpedoed the procedure of establishing the judges in office and reactivating the Constitutional Court, which ground to a halt in October 2005. Some Ukrainian media reported that Constitutional Court Chairman Vasyl Maliarenko and four other Constitutional Court judges have tendered their resignations. Some political forces in Ukraine fear that President Yushchenko could use the Constitutional Court to cancel the 2004 constitutional reform, which limits his prerogatives in favor of the Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers. In January President Yushchenko announced that he may seek a referendum on this reform. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yanukovych wants talks on coalition

KYIV - Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych on April 4 called on all other parties that won representation in the March 26 parliamentary elections to immediately begin negotiations on the creation of a ruling coalition in Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine reported. "We are ready to view and accept such principles for forming the coalition that focus not on the distribution of portfolios but on how to secure economic growth and stability in the country," Mr. Yanukovych said. "Stop dividing the country. The people have made their choice; please be good [enough] to take it into account. You cannot divide the parliamentary parties into democratic and undemocratic. By doing this you continue to increase the split in society." Mr. Yanukovych was apparently referring to the term "democratic coalition" that President Viktor Yushchenko and some other politicians have recently begun using in reference to a potential coalition of the Orange Revolution allies, that is, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine and the Socialist Party. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moroz: speed up coalition's formation

KYIV - According to the press service of the Socialist Party, party leader Oleksander Moroz addressed leaders of the Our Ukraine Bloc and the leader of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, insisting on speeding up the formation of a parliamentary coalition. Having analyzed the draft protocol of intent of participants in the coalition, Mr. Moroz said in a letter to likely participants in the coalition that the document is actually a regression from "previous agreements of the parties, which were reflected in the text of the memorandum on forming the coalition of democratic forces." Thus, Mr. Moroz believes the document cannot be adopted. The reference is to a protocol that was proposed on April 3 during a meeting between Ukraine's prime minister and the No. 1 candidate of the Our Ukraine People's Union, Yurii Yekhanurov, and SPU Chairman Moroz. (Ukrinform)

Regions faction leader comment

KYIV - Party of the Regions faction leader Raisa Bogatyreva told 1+1 Channel viewers on April 4 that, in a matter of days, the Party of the Regions will present its parliamentary coalition concept. The Regions Party has come to power in 10 out of Ukraine's 24 regional councils as a result of the March 26 elections. According to Ms. Bogatyreva, regional power now belongs to the Regions Party, and the party's faction will be the new Parliament's most numerous. She said the faction will be ready to form a new government to be led by Viktor Yanukovych on its own or in a coalition with other forces represented in the Parliament. Ms. Bogatyreva stated the Regions Party's intention not to cede ground on such key points as abandoning the idea of Ukraine's membership in NATO and proclaiming Russian as Ukraine's second state language. (Ukrinform)

Our Ukraine is winner in Australia

CANBERRA, Australia - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's party, Our Ukraine, received overwhelming support from Ukrainian nationals residing in Australia who voted in Ukraine's parliamentary elections held on March 26. In Australia Mr. Yushchenko, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and other Orange Revolution parties received the support of the majority of voters: 46 percent supported Our Ukraine and 23 percent supported Ms. Tymoshenko's bloc. Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions received only 7 percent of the vote. "The message is loud and clear from Australia," said Stefan Romaniw, chairman of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations. "If Ukraine is going to progress, the pro-Orange Revolution team must work together, set fixed agendas and live up to the expectation of the nation." Ukrainian nationals traveled from Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne together with locals from Canberra-Queabeyan to vote at the polling station in Australia's capital. (Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations)

Yushchenko will respect voters' choice

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko devoted his scheduled, Saturday, April 1, radio address to the nation to preliminary returns of the March 26 parliamentary elections. He underscored that the elections' participants, Ukrainian and international observers were virtually unanimous in appraising the election campaign and the elections as democratic. More importantly, he said, the people of Ukraine view the elections as fair. The president said he will respect the citizens' choice and will work with both the parliamentary majority and the opposition. The president aired his regret over the fact that democratic forces participated in the elections separately. This has taught them a good lesson as their leaders' personal or party ambitions and political short-sightedness have frustrated the hopes of many Ukrainians who wished the democrats victory, Mr. Yushchenko said. He also expressed his concern about foot-dragging on forming a democratic parliamentary majority. There is much talk about sharing portfolios, but too little is said about the principles of forming the coalition, he added. (Ukrinform)

Tymoshenko says choice of PM is clear

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the eponymous bloc, told Channel 5 viewers on April 1 that voters who supported her bloc on March 26 virtually elected a new prime minister. According to Ms. Tymoshenko, before the elections the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc was quite outspoken in stating its intention to nominate its leader for prime minister. Ms. Tymoshenko said she sees no alternative to her candidacy. She said she sees the post of prime minister as an instrument for implementing the policy the people of Ukraine supported with their ballots on March 26. (Ukrinform)

Moroz: coalition talks need transparency

KYIV - According to the Socialist Party's press service, the party's leader, Oleksander Moroz, insists on the transparency and openness of coalition talks. He added that he does not rule out forming a broad coalition composed of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, the Socialists, Our Ukraine and the Party of the Regions. After meeting with the ambassadors of the United States, Russia and France, Mr. Moroz said he saw two likely scenarios of the Regions Party's involvement in the new authority, through either extending the coalition format to four parties or determining the Regions Party's quota of executive authority posts. (Ukrinform)

Regions could enter broad coalition

KYIV - Yevgenii Kushnarev, chief of the Party of the Regions election campaign staff, told Channel 5 viewers that his party might enter a broad parliamentary coalition, if the leader of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc withdraws her claim to the prime ministership. According to Mr. Kushnarev, the Party of the Regions is engaged in bipartite negotiations with all the winners of the parliamentary elections. Viktor Yanukovych has met with Our Ukraine's No. 1 candidate, Yurii Yekhanurov, and was expected to meet with Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz and Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko. Mr. Kushnarev said the Regions Party intends to nominate Mr. Yanukovych for prime minister. (Ukrinform)

Pinchuk under investigation by PGO

KYIV - Viktor Pinchuk, a son-in-law of former President Leonid Kuchma and one of Ukraine's richest men, is under investigation by the Procurator General's Office (PGO) for possible fraud related to the Nikopol Ferrous Alloy Works he owns, Kommersant Ukrayiny reported on March 31. The newspaper reported that prosecutors are looking into $450 million that two companies Steelex and Travis - both alleged to be owned by Mr. Pinchuk - may have made from the sale of alloys produced by the Nikopol plant. In a related development, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, head of the Dnipropetrovsk-based Privat company, filed a suit in the U.S. state of Massachusetts against Mr. Pinchuk and his Nikopol partners Jerry Margolis, Viktor Vekselberg and Oleksander Abramov. Mr. Kolomoyskyi alleges in the suit that Mr. Pinchuk and his partners paid a bribe of $50 million to unnamed Ukrainian officials to prevent the renationalization of Nikopol Ferrous Alloy Works, the Russian daily Vedomosti reported on March 31. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Pustovoitenko resigns party leadership

KYIV - Valerii Pustovoitenko, leader of the People's Democratic Party, submitted his resignation as chairman, stating that he bears personal responsibility for the party's setback in the parliamentary elections. The PDP collected only 0.49 percent of the ballots - well below the 3 percent threshold. Mr. Pustovoitenko was Ukraine's prime minister in 1997-1999. The Greens Party leader, Vitalii Kononov, whose party collected 0.54 percent of the votes, was removed by party members. Mr. Kononov disagreed with the political council's March 29 decision to sack him, saying the session was illegitimate. (Ukrinform)

Putin pledges cooperation with Ukraine

MOSCOW - Russian President Putin told his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko, by telephone on March 29 that Moscow is ready to cooperate closely with Ukraine following the March 26 parliamentary elections, news agencies reported. Mr. Putin congratulated Mr. Yushchenko on the completion of the March 26 elections. He said the vote demonstrated the predominant aspirations of Ukrainian citizens to develop comprehensive relations with Russia. The two leaders also discussed the Russian president's visit to Ukraine later this year, for which a date has yet to be set. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow says U.S. is stalling on WTO

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said on March 29 that the United States is stalling on Russia's admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is a top policy goal of the Putin leadership, RIA Novosti reported. "We have received a list of questions from our American colleagues that require additional agreements that we thought had been settled long ago," Mr. Putin told a group of leading businessmen. "The negotiating process is being artificially set back. We are interested in joining [the WTO], but we will take this step [only] if it satisfies all participants in the process, and primarily Russia and the [Russian] economy," he added. Konstantin Kosachyov, who chairs the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, said in Moscow on March 29 that the United States is stalling on Russia's admission to the WTO to enable Ukraine to join that body first, Interfax reported. He argued that Moscow has received unspecified promises on its membership from Washington but "nothing is happening because [Washington] has decided to prevent Russia from entering [the WTO] before Ukraine does. ... We have the impression that the [United States] is playing a 'double game,' artificially dragging out Russia's accession, setting forth new conditions as far as issues already [dealt with] are concerned, [and] waiting for the moment when it can step aside and leave the dirty work - setting forth new terms - to be done by Ukrainian negotiators." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine has new envoy to Russia

KYIV - Russia gave its agreement on the appointment of Oleh Diomin as Ukraine's ambassador to Russia, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin told journalists in Symferopol on March 16. Oleh Diomin, a native of the Tula region, Russia, graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Radio Electronics and the High Party School under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Between May 1994 and July 1996 he worked as deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. Between July 1996 and October 2000 he chaired the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, then worked as first deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Administration (under Leonid Kuchma). The previous ambassador to Russia, Mykola Biloblotskyi, who was in office almost for six years, was relieved on December 6, 2005. (Ukrinform)

NATO to sign deal for Ruslan

MOSCOW - The Russian-Ukrainian joint venture called Ruslan SALIS is slated to sign an agreement with NATO in Leipzig, under which the joint venture will provide large Antonov-124 (aka Ruslan) transport aircraft to 15 NATO member-countries and Sweden at short notice, lenta.ru reported. Under the terms of the agreement, Ruslan SALIS will provide two Antonovs capable of carrying troops and heavy equipment on three days' notice. Within six to nine days, it will supply four additional Antonovs. The deal is aimed at alleviating a shortage of heavy-lift transport aircraft among European NATO members. The 15 NATO countries involved in the deal are: Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Sweden has many years of experience in international peacekeeping missions and is a member of the European Union but not of the Atlantic alliance. Some 56 Antonov-124 aircraft have been built since 1986, of which 49 are still in service. The AN-124 is the only aircraft in the world that can carry a load of 150 tons with a diameter of 6.5 meters. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Turkmenistan, Ukraine agree on debt

KYIV - A Ukrainian delegation headed by Naftohaz Ukrainy Commercial Director Anatolii Popadiuk has confirmed that Ukraine owes Turkmenistan $169.6 million for 2003-2005 shipments of natural gas, turkmenistan.ru reported on March 26, citing a press release from the Turkmen Foreign Ministry. The ministry said that the two sides agreed that Ukraine owes Turkmenistan $169.6 million, $46.8 million in cash and $122.8 million in commodities. The two sides signed an agreement that Ukraine will make a cash payment of $60.6 million to cover its cash debt and an additional cash payment of $27.7 million toward its commodity debt. Ukraine will also supply pipes to cover $58.3 million of its commodity debt, with other goods shipments to cover the remainder of the commodity debt. The cash debt will be settled in the "near future," while the commodities will be shipped by August 10. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 9, 2006, No. 15, Vol. LXXIV

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