NEWSBRIEFS

Radio refuses to broadcast live from Rada

KYIV - The National Radio Company leadership has said the Verkhovna Rada's resolution on media coverage of this fall's legislative session is a "direct infringement on the company's creative process," Interfax reported on September 12. The Parliament on September 5 passed a resolution, proposed by leftist caucuses, obliging national radio to carry live broadcasts of parliamentary debates. According to the radio leadership, such broadcasts would take up too much air time and disrupt the company's programming schedule, including programs made under contract and advertisements. The company assured the lawmakers that it is seeking ways other than live broadcasts to inform citizens about the parliamentary session. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Communists protest NATO exercises

FEODOSIIA - Crimea's Communists have launched a protest against the NATO-sponsored exercises "Kozak Steppe 2000," which are currently taking place on the peninsula, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported on September 12. Troops from the United Kingdom, Poland and Ukraine are practicing peacekeeping operations in ethnic conflict areas. Since September 11 Crimea's Communists have been staging pickets and rallies in Feodosiia to demand that NATO's "occupational troops" be removed from the peninsula. (RFE/RL Newsline)

SBU claims it foiled attempt on Putin's life

KYIV - Leonid Derkach, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), told Interfax on September 12 that his service had foiled an attempt to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin at the CIS summit in Yalta last month. Mr. Derkach noted that the SBU was tipped off about the planned assassination by "several special services" from outside the Commonwealth of Independent States. He added that the SBU passed on the information to Russia and detained several people in Crimea, who were subsequently expelled from Ukraine. Mr. Derkach had said earlier that four Chechens and several persons from the Middle East were detained in connection with the foiled plot. Meanwhile, Russia's Federal Protection Service spokesman Sergei Deviatov told Interfax that it was Russian special services that informed their Ukrainian colleagues about the Yalta assassination plot against Mr. Putin. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM reports payment of pension arrears

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko on September 10 said he has fulfilled his pledge to pay off pension arrears by September 15. "I want to apologize to all our pensioners for what they had to go through. The government has done everything possible in order to avoid a repeat of such a situation," Interfax quoted Mr. Yuschenko as saying. At the beginning of this year, wage arrears in Ukraine stood at 1.25 billion hrv ($230 million). Mr. Yuschenko also pledged that the government will seek to increase pensions. The average monthly pension in Ukraine is some 50 hrv ($9.20 U.S.). (RFE/RL Newsline)

Medvedchuk denies presidential ambitions

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada First Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk on September 11 denied that he intends to run for the post of president in the event of early elections, Interfax reported. Mr. Medvedchuk was responding to a recent statement by the All-Ukrainian Youth Association accusing "some clans hiding behind the mask of political parties" of "launching a campaign to prepare public opinion for a possible ouster of the guarantor of the Constitution [President Leonid Kuchma] because of his poor health." The association said that plans prepared by, among others, Mr. Medvedchuk's Social Democratic Party (United) provide for Mr. Medvedchuk becoming prime minister, President Kuchma's dismissal and paving the way for Mr. Medvedchuk's victory in early presidential elections. Mr. Medvedchuk commented that a "legal and psychiatric examination" of the authors of the statement would be in order. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Donetsk pensioners take to streets

DONETSK - Some 3,000 pensioners in Donetsk took to the streets on September 11, less than two weeks after their recent protest action, Interfax reported. The protesters demanded that the local authorities grant official status to the Russian language in the region, stabilize prices for bread and necessities, lower utility payments, and increase minimum wages and pensions. After picketing the oblast administration building, the protesters blocked traffic in the city center. The Donetsk Oblast Council promised to examine the protesters' demands at its emergency session, but noted that giving official status to Russian in the region is beyond its powers. (RFE/RL Newsline)

GUUAM to acquire new member?

TBILISI - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze told journalists in Tbilisi on September 11 that Romanian President Emil Constantinescu has informed him that Romania is ready to submit a formal request to join the GUUAM grouping, Interfax and Caucasus Press reported. Romania is the first non-Soviet successor state to state its readiness to join Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova in that alignment. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko: energy reform is working

KYIV - Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is in charge of reforming Ukraine's energy sector, has said consumers paid 663 million hrv ($122 million) for energy in August, which constitutes 70.8 percent of the total cost of energy supplies that month. She noted that, as a result of those payments, the government was able to repay nearly all debts in the sector, including wages. She said the government still has debts only to those coal enterprises that have not paid for electricity. Ms. Tymoshenko added that the government expects 100 percent payment for electricity in September, noting that at the beginning of the year only 13 percent of electricity supplies were paid for in cash. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Trade union leader is arrested

DONETSK - Yurii Pyvovarov, leader of the All-Ukrainian Trade Union Solidarnist, was arrested in Donetsk on September 6, Interfax reported. Donetsk Procurator Oleksander Almezov told journalists that the Kharkiv Procurator's Office had launched a criminal investigation into Solidarnist activists on charges of abuse of office and had ordered the trade union's headquarters in Donetsk to be searched. Mr. Almezov said Mr. Pyvovarov put up resistance to police officers and inflicted serious injuries on three of them when they tried to enter his office. Mr. Pyvovarov subsequently spent eight hours on a window ledge of the Solidarnist headquarters in protest against the search. After finally persuading Mr. Pyvovarov to leave the ledge, police interrogated and then arrested him after he had made two attempts to escape. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Greens want more funds for environment

KYIV - Some 1,000 members of the Green Party picketed in Kyiv on September 6 to demand more funds to upgrade waste storage facilities throughout the country, the Associated Press and Interfax reported. Green Party leader Vitalii Kononov said the state-run Radon storage site near Kyiv received only 2.5 billion hrv ($460,000) in funding this year, while its needs are nearly five times higher. Minister of the Environment Oleksander Zayets admitted to the protesters that the problem of waste storage is serious, but expressed hope that a new waste site being built near the Chornobyl power plant will improve the situation. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow reacts to religious freedom report

MOSCOW - An unidentified official with the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate in Moscow told Interfax on September 6 that the U.S. State Department's annual report on international religious freedom constitutes another example of U.S. interference in Russia's internal affairs. The report, which was released on September 5, noted that while the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for equality of all religions before the law and the separation of Church and state, "in practice the government does not always respect the provision for equality of religions and in some instances local authorities imposed restrictions on some groups." The report also cites information from the Russian presidential administration that "30 of 89 regions have laws and decrees on religion that violate the Constitution by restricting the activities of religious groups."(RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv seeks help of Gates, World Bank

KYIV - Education Minister Ivan Kremen on August 31 said his ministry had appealed to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the World Bank to help Ukraine computerize its schools, Interfax reported. Mr. Kremen added that the appeal has so far remained unanswered. The minister noted that the computerization of schools is one of the priorities in Ukraine's education system reform, which is currently under way. He said the government will spend 6.5 million hrv ($1.2 million) this year to buy computers and provide access to the Internet for schools in the countryside, adding that the Internet helps form "not provincial but global awareness." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuzmuk signs agreements in Slovakia

KYIV - Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk of Ukraine signed an agreement with his Slovak counterpart, Pavol Kanis, on sharing information and on the joint command of military exercises in Slovakia and Ukraine, CTK reported on August 31. Messrs. Kanis and Kuzmuk also discussed NATO enlargement and European security. Mr. Kanis said the two countries hold similar views on security and cooperation with NATO and that Kyiv has no reservations about Slovakia joining the Atlantic alliance. Minister Kuzmuk said an agreement on military and technical cooperation will be signed soon. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia, Belarus plan common currency

MOSCOW - Following a discussion of the macroeconomic situation in Russia and Belarus in the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus, the two countries have agreed to use the Russian ruble as their common currency beginning in 2005, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasianov told Interfax on August 30. In other comments, he said the two countries will discuss creating a union television and press system at their October sessions. Belarusian Prime Minister Vladimir Yermoshin, for his part, said that he is displeased with the work of the union state staff up to now, but said there are "reasons to hope" for improvement in the near future. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Filaret: authorities oppose single UOC

KYIV - Patriarch Filaret, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, has criticized the authorities' approach to the creation of a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Interfax reported on August 30. "There are declarations but no desire; on the contrary, there is opposition [by the authorities]," Filaret noted. He said President Leonid Kuchma should have asked the Russian Orthodox Church to grant, not autonomy, but autocephaly to its branch in Ukraine. Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, Filaret argued, could provide canonical grounds for the unification of the Moscow-subordinated Church with the two other Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Patriarch Filaret said the only way to create a single Church under current circumstances is to convene an All-Ukrainian Council of Bishops that would make a decision to that effect. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin blames oligarchs, media

MOSCOW - A transcript of President Vladimir Putin's August 22 remarks to the families of the sailors of the Kursk, published by Vlast on August 31, has him blaming Russia's military fortunes on the oligarchs and independent media. The oligarchs, Mr. Putin said, "have embezzled enough, bought up the media and are now manipulating public opinion." He suggested that these people have ruined the country over the last 15 years and are now trying to "show the military and political leadership that we need" the media. But Mr. Putin added that he is "ready to account for the 100 days that I have been president." With regard to the Russian navy's shortage of rescue equipment, Mr. Putin said, "it has been ruined and there isn't a fig left. There isn't a fig left in the country." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Zhirinovskyi blames tragedies on West

MOSCOW - Vladimir Zhirinovskyi, the leader of the extreme chauvinist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, announced on August 31 that he plans to tell the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at its September session in Prague about the role that he claims U.S. special services have played in recent Russian events, Interfax reported. "Every recent event, in particular the bomb blast on Pushkin Square in Moscow, the sinking of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea and the fire in the Ostankino television tower, seems to have its own causes," Mr. Zhirinovskyi said, "but they fall into the pattern of episodes in 'World War III,' which NATO started against Russia in 1949." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Official categorizes Moscow ethnic gangs

MOSCOW - Deputy Chief Vladimir Novokschenov of the Moscow region criminal police said on August 30 that currently there are 74 ethnic criminal groups operating in Moscow, ITAR-TASS reported. He noted that those groups have developed certain specializations: the Georgian group is engaged in robberies, the Azerbaijani group controls marketplaces and the flower business, and the Chechen-Ingush group engages in highway robberies. He noted that many of these groups have close ties with some customs offices. Meanwhile, the Internal Affairs Ministry reported that these groups obtain weapons, ammunition and explosives from combat zones in the North Caucasus under the guise of rescue equipment. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia tops in parking tickets

MOSCOW - Of the top 25 countries with parking violations committed in New York City, Russia is No. 1, with 63,834 parking tickets worth $7,194,522, New York City Mayor Rudolf Giuliani wrote in an open letter to President Bill Clinton, The Moscow Times reported on September 12. Indonesia ranks No. 2. Ukraine and Belarus also made the top 10 list. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Power cables blamed for epidemic

KYIV - The head of the state commission investigating the Pervomaisk area's outbreak of toxidermia supported the theory advanced by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense that the outbreak was caused by dioxides that appeared as the result of melted power cables. However, only an animal test and model cable melting experiment can prove this theory, Yurii Kundiev explained. The cost of such a test is high and it is unclear who would fund it, though the Ministry of Defense will supply the cable for the test. Mr. Kundiev added that he was certain from the outset that toxidermia had been caused by toxic gases. On July 4 more than 400 residents of five villages in the Pervomaisk area of the Mykolaiv Oblast were reported to be suffering from toxidermia. (Eastern Economist)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, September 17, 2000, No. 38, Vol. LXVIII

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