Ukrainian-Russian "zero option" settlement is stalled (03/09/97)

Ukrainian-Russian "zero option" settlement is stalled

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A Ukrainian delegation from the Cabinet of Ministers, meeting in Moscow with its Russian counterpart to resolve issues regarding the "zero option" settlement of the former Soviet Union's wealth, came away with nothing.

The group, led by Vice Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Anton Buteiko, was in the Kremlin the week of March 3 to obtain specific numbers on the value of Soviet assets today in Russia's hands.

They were looking for information on gold and diamond reserves, hard currency in international banks and the old central state banking system of the Soviet Union, and property abroad, as well as evidence of the real debt the Soviet Union left behind after it crumbled.

According to Mykola Doroshenko, director of the Russia section in the CIS department of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who took part in the talks, the delegation was told time and again by Russian Vice Prime Minister Valeriy Serov that "the information is not available." A Finance Ministry official insisted that information on Russia's gold and diamond reserves is a state secret "since six years have passed since Russia became a separate state," he added.

He said Minister Serov walked out of the initial session after calling the Ukrainian requests for information "dictates," but later returned to the table.

Vice Prime Minister Pynzenyk said at the weekly press briefing of the Cabinet of Ministers on March 6 that the negotiations were difficult and at times hostile, but "we did not think the issues would be resolved with one meeting and will continue to work to reach agreement."

Mr. Buteiko was more direct in his appraisal of the negotiations - and not as accommodating. "I believe that the major problem in Ukrainian-Russian relations is not concrete issues, but an unwillingness on Russia's part to accept an independent Ukraine," he explained.

The Moscow side was angered by the Verkhovna Rada's failure on February 19 to ratify an agreement in which the Ukrainian side would forfeit its share of the Soviet Union's assets in return for Russia assuming Ukraine's share of the foreign debt. Ukraine's portion of the USSR's $81 billion foreign debt was pegged at 16.37 percent in December 1991 at a meeting of the new states that emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union.

Instead of ratifying a 1994 agreement between Russia and Ukraine on the specifics of how the asset/liability issue would be settled, which was labeled the "zero option" agreement, the Verkhovna Rada passed, by a vote of 233 to 70, a declaration that the legislative body would consider ratification of the agreement only after Russia divulged the specifics regarding the value of Soviet assets and debts. It assigned Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers the mission of getting the numbers and making a recommendation to the Verkhovna Rada on the advisability of ratifying the "zero option" agreement.

It also tasked the Cabinet delegation with having Moscow acknowledge that it still owes approximately $700 million to legal entities in Ukraine and $18 million to private individuals as agreed in the 1994 accord, money that was held in the Soviet Union's Vneshekonombank. Mr. Doroshenko said the Russian side had agreed to make those repayments.

However, the rest of the issue will not be settled soon if current attitudes prevail. While Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada refuses to consider ratification of the "zero option" until Moscow spits up the numbers, Moscow has said that it will withhold information until Ukraine ratifies the 1994 agreement.

Ukraine is the only former Soviet republic that has not settled with Russia on the assets and liabilities of the Soviet Union.

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