NEWSBRIEFS

Ukrainian right-wing forces unite

KYIV - Some 30 political parties and public associations have created a union of national democratic forces called the Ukrainian Right Wing (Ukrainska Pravytsia), Interfax reported on January 21. In particular, the union includes the Rukh, the Fatherland Party, the Ukrainian Republican Party, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Ukrainian Kozaks. The union's declared goal is to coordinate efforts for "embodying the Ukrainian national idea" and create an electoral bloc of the right-wing forces. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Poland OK military cooperation

YALTA - On January 22 in Yalta, Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk and his Polish counterpart, Bronislaw Komorowski, signed an accord on military cooperation in 2001-2003, Ukrainian news media reported. Minister Kuzmuk told Minister Komorowski that Ukraine could help Poland modernize its MiG-29 and Su-22 military aircraft at Ukrainian aviation repair plants to bring them in line with NATO standards. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma meets with German chancellor

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and German President Johannes Rau during his January 18-20 visit to Germany. Many commentators see Mr. Kuchma's trip as an attempt to improve his international standing, which has become significantly marred by Ukraine's tape scandal implicating the president in the abduction of independent journalist Heorhii Gongadze. President Kuchma presented Chancellor Schroeder a manuscript from the Berlin Music Academy's Bach Archive that was looted by Soviet soldiers at the end of World War II and was discovered in 1999 in Ukraine. Some 60 people on January 15 had picketed the German Embassy in Kyiv to demand that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder cancel his meeting with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma during the latter's trip to Germany scheduled for later this week, Interfax reported. "We appeal to you [Schroeder]: cancel Kuchma's trip, show that there is no place in Europe for leaders who could not deny horrible accusations of their complicity in murders, terror and attempts to restore totalitarianism," the civic committee Ukraine Without Kuchma said in a statement handed over to the embassy's chargé d'affaires. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Russia agree on joint projects

KYIV - Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev meeting on January 18 in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksander Kuzmuk, signed a cooperation plan on 52 joint projects in 2001, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. In particular, the accord foresees the creation of a joint-command post in Sevastopol and a joint rescue detachment of the currently divided Black Sea Fleet. "Russia is categorically against NATO's expansion to the East," Minister Sergeev said after his talks with Minister Kuzmuk. Mr. Kuzmuk, whose country actively cooperates with NATO, responded that "we are proceeding from the principle that it is the sovereign right of each state to choose its own path." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Legislative group to promote Slavic union

KYIV - Communist National Deputy Pavlo Baulin on January 17 announced the creation of a parliamentary group named For the Union of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia (ZUBR), Interfax reported. Mr. Baulin added that the path to Ukraine's rebirth is possible only in its union with Belarus and Russia. The group consists of 20 lawmakers from several caucuses. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka pays visit to Moscow

MOSCOW - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on his departure from Moscow on January 17 that there were not "any unexpected developments" in his visit to the Russian capital, Interfax reported. And he expressed himself satisfied with the content of discussions. But the newspaper Segodnia reported the same day that some in Moscow are thinking about replacing the outspoken Belarusian leader "with a figure less antipathetic to the West." Specifically, the paper said, there are "rumors" about the Kremlin preparing to "help" Mr. Lukashenka not be re-elected. Meanwhile, a poll conducted by monitoring.ru as reported by Interfax found that 60 percent of Russians support the creation of a single state embracing both Russia and Belarus and that only 16 percent oppose the establishment of such a state. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lawmakers slam procurator general

KYIV - Serhii Holovatyi and Viktor Shyshkin, members of the ad hoc parliamentary commission to investigate the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze, have accused Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko of seeking to hide evidence in the Gongadze case, Interfax reported on January 11. Valerii Ivasiuk, the commission's expert, noted in connection with the Gongadze case that Ukraine "has created a forensic-medical system to annihilate people and hide crimes." Robert Menard, head of the international group Reporters Without Borders, told journalists in Kyiv the same day that he recommended to President Leonid Kuchma that Mr. Potebenko be dismissed because of the unsatisfactory investigation progress in the Gongadze case. Mr. Menard added that President Kuchma "did not speak in [Potebenko's] defense." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rallies held in support of president

KYIV - Heavily attended marches and rallies took place in many Ukrainian cities on January 10 in support of President Leonid Kuchma. The demonstrators' primary demand was that the Verkhovna Rada implement constitutional reform in line with last year's referendum giving Kuchma more powers. According to official data quoted by Interfax, 50,000 people participated in a pro-Kuchma rally in Kharkiv, 30,000 in Luhansk, 10,000 in Lutsk, 6,000 in Symferopol and 4,000 in Bila Tserkva. However, the Eastern Economist Daily called the pro-Kuchma demonstrations "suspicious," citing some media as saying that people were either forced to attend those demonstrations or received special privileges for doing so, such as an extra day off. President Kuchma commented that he asked the executive authorities in the regions "not to organize meetings and demonstrations in my support." The same day an anti-Kuchma picket in Kyiv gathered only 300 people. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Council of Europe offers help on tapes

KYIV - The Council of Europe on January 17 offered to arrange for an expert evaluation of the audio recordings that allegedly implicate President Leonid Kuchma in the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze and are widely known as the "Moroz tapes." The council added that it will take such a step only following the Ukrainian Parliament's official request for help in establishing the authenticity of the tapes. Interfax reported that the same day that the Parliamentary committee headed by Oleksander Lavrynovych decided to send the tapes as well as genetic samples of the body believed to be Gongadze's to the Council of Europe for independent tests. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow protests Ukrainianization

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry on January 3 issued a press release saying that it is surprised by Ukrainian efforts to ban Russian-language programming on that country's television and radio channels, ITAR-TASS reported. It said that "squeezing the Russian language out from the Ukrainian mass media is a policy underlying de-Russification of all sides of Ukraine's social life." The ministry added that this creates the impression that "somebody in the Ukrainian political establishment does not like the improvement of Russian-Ukrainian relations, including in the humanitarian field, which gained significant momentum during the recent visit of Leonid Kuchma to Russia." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv advises Tbilisi against "zero option"

TBILISI - Georgian Parliament Deputy Koba Davitashvili told journalists in Tbilisi on January 11 that the Ukrainian government has urged the Georgian Parliament not to ratify the so-called "zero option," whereby Georgia will forfeit any claim to a share of the assets of the former USSR in return for the restructuring of its $179 million debt to Russia, Caucasus Press reported. Ukraine and Georgia are the only two former Soviet republics that have not yet formally abjured any claim to the assets of the former USSR. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has argued in favor of the "zero option," noting that its ratification is a key condition for disbursement of a new loan by the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Davitashvili argued that Georgia's share of Soviet assets, which is estimated at between $2.5 billion and $5 billion, is enough to pay off not only its debts to Moscow but the entire state debt, which he said totals $1.4 billion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Gas deliveries to companies halted

MOSCOW - The gas-distribution company ITERA said on January 16 that it has suspended deliveries of natural gas to four Ukrainian energy firms because they had fallen behind in their payments, ITAR-TASS reported. ITERA said that it had warned the firms two weeks ago that they will be cut off. The four owe the Russian company some $64 million. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: 2001 to be breakthrough year

KYIV - In a televised address to the Ukrainian people, President Leonid Kuchma said that he will seek to make 2001 "a year of breakthrough in the social sphere," Interfax reported on January 3. Mr. Kuchma said that "one would like to believe that Ukraine has already overcome the most difficult transition stage" and he viewed Ukraine as "a mature state" in the 10th year of its modern independence. The Ukrainian leader used this speech to reiterate his demands for constitutional changes to end the deadlock between himself and the Verkhovna Rada. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM says state debt has decreased

KYIV - The state debt of Ukraine fell from 64.9 billion hrv ($11.8 billion U.S.) in January 1999 to 54.6 billion hrv today, ITAR-TASS reported on January 3. Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko said that 72.1 percent of this indebtedness is domestic, while 27.9 percent is to foreign lenders. He added that Ukraine's debt now is less than 50 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). (RFE/RL Newsline)

Wallenberg's fate still disputed

MOSCOW - Citing the "disappearance" of several key documents, a joint Russian-Swedish working group on January 12 acknowledged that it has been unable to reach a definitive conclusion on the fate of World War II-era Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, Interfax reported. Russian officials said they are able to say only that Wallenberg died on July 17, 1947, but not how, ITAR- TASS said. Agence France Presse, however, carried a report that Aleksandr Yakovlev had told that service that Joseph Stalin had ordered his execution. Meanwhile, London's Independent reported on January 13 that Wallenberg may have had links to the wartime U.S. intelligence organization, the OSS, and that Russian officials may have assumed he was an agent. Swedish members of the working group said they would continue to investigate the case. On January 16, Col. Vladimir Vinogradov of the Federal Security Service, who served on the joint Swedish-Russian panel that investigated the Wallenberg case, said Russian authorities are willing to continue the probe but via requests to the Foreign Affairs Ministry rather than via the commission itself, Reuters reported. In a related development, Interfax reported on January 18 that a statue in honor of Wallenberg will be erected in the Russian capital. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 28, 2001, No. 4, Vol. LXIX

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