NEWSBRIEFS (05/20/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Appointment of PM 'very complicated'

KYIV - Roman Bezsmertnyi, the presidential permanent representative in the Verkhovna Rada, told Interfax on May 14 that the process of nomination of a new prime minister will be "very complicated." According to Mr. Bezsmertnyi, there will be several variants for tackling this problem, which will be "contradictory to a significant extent." President Leonid Kuchma earlier pledged to propose a candidate for the post of prime minister by the end of May. Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko noted that the Parliament can approve a new prime minister no earlier than in June. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Patriarch condemns pope's visit

MOSCOW - Russian Patriarch Aleksei II and visiting Greek Archbishop Christodoulos on May 11 issued a joint statement saying that Pope John Paul II should have secured the approval of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine before planning to go there, Russian and Western agencies reported. In other comments, they said that "the future will show whether the pope was sincere" in his apology for past Roman Catholic actions against the Orthodox, and they criticized efforts by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to involve himself in what they called the internal affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine and Estonia. On May 12 some 1,500 people in Moscow assembled to protest the papal visit to Ukraine, Interfax reported. One of the organizers was arrested, the news agency said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Do authorities know who killed Gongadze?

KYIV - "As far as I am informed, [investigators] have practically traced the assassins [of journalist Heorhii Gongadze]," the Ukrainska Pravda website quoted President Leonid Kuchma as saying on Russia's ORT television channel on May 14. Mr. Kuchma did not elaborate. The same day the Left Center parliamentary group addressed the Procurator General's Office with a long list of unanswered questions regarding the Gongadze case and the eavesdropping on President Kuchma's office by former bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. Left Center noted that eight months after Mr. Gongadze's death the public still does not know who killed Gongadze and for what reasons. Meanwhile, Myroslava Gongadze has said the body of her husband can finally be buried, since there are no reasons to distrust the recent findings of U.S. experts who confirmed that the beheaded corpse found near Kyiv last year is that of Mr. Gongadze. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Presidents satisfied with accords

KYIV - Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan expressed satisfaction over nine cooperation accords they signed in Kyiv on May 14, Interfax reported. Apart from an agreement on Turkmen gas supplies in 2001-2006, both sides signed an accord on mutual economic cooperation in 2001-2010, as well as a number of intergovernmental agreements. Mr. Kuchma said the signing of the accord on Turkmen gas deliveries to Ukraine in 2001-2006 is a "historic" event. "Everybody perfectly understands what gas means for Ukraine's economy: it means not only economy but also politics and energy security," he added. "There is no area that we dropped out of our cooperation," President Niyazov said of the bilateral accords he signed with President Kuchma. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin taps Chernomyrdin for Kyiv

MOSCOW - Announcing on May 10 that he has appointed former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to be the ambassador to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said that "the time has come to approach seriously the development of relations with one of our basic partners - Ukraine, and for this we must create the necessary preconditions, including in personnel." Russian commentators and political figures generally praised the move and suggested that the naming of this political "heavyweight" will help resolve problems in bilateral ties between the two countries. Nezavisimaya Gazeta on May 11 said that President Putin has given the newly appointed ambassador "unprecedented" powers to resolve the economic and political ties between the two countries. Vremia MN said on the same day that Mr. Chernomyrdin will undoubtedly focus on gas debts. But Kommersant-Daily described the appointment as meaning that Mr. Chernomyrdin "has again become prime minister but now the Ukrainian one." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow to step up pressure on Kyiv?

KYIV - "This is an attempt to establish an even stronger diktat of the Russian economy over the Ukrainian one," Rukh leader Yurii Kostenko commented on May 10 on Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement to appoint former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin as Moscow's ambassador to Kyiv. "Chernomyrdin's appointment [means] that Ukraine has lost some part of its sovereignty," Kyiv-based political scientist Volodymyr Polokhalo said. According to political analyst Mykola Tomenko, Chernomyrdin supports "economic, not political, pragmatism" in Russian-Ukrainian relations and will promote Russian economic interests in Ukraine "more vigorously." Ousted Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko said Mr. Chernomyrdin's appointment is Moscow's "wonderful and reasonable step," adding that the latter's mission in Kyiv will boost economic cooperation between both countries. Citing "an informed source," Interfax reported on May 10 that the appointment of Viktor Chernomyrdin as ambassador to Ukraine reflects the Kremlin's desire to make use of former officials who have immense experience and who have "not lost their political weight and personal connections." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russian-Ukainian crew arrested

SAN DIEGO - The U.S. attorney in San Diego announced on May 14 that the Coast Guard had completed the largest seizure of cocaine ever made at sea aboard a 52-foot ship registered in Belize. Twelve tons of cocaine were seized, and the 10-member crew of Russians and Ukrainians was arrested. The Coast Guard made the seizure some 500 miles south of Acapulco, Mexico, and then brought the ship and its crew to San Diego. (The New York Times)

Yuschenko urges calm, consolidation

KYIV - Viktor Yuschenko told journalists in Kyiv on May 9 that the main problem for Ukrainian politicians this year is to find a "model that would not revolt society [and] could secure control over the socioeconomic situation," Interfax reported. Asked about what would happen if he were once again approved as prime minister, he said Ukrainians would see "a different Yuschenko." The ousted prime minister noted that only the consolidation of political forces that are ready to assume responsibility for the country "could force" him to go into politics "in a different quality." He added that the achievement of this consolidation is "much more difficult than to take out a placard and go to the opposition." The previous day, Mr. Yuschenko said it is possible to keep Ukraine's economy on track, adding that "the ball [now] is in the political rather than the governmental court," the Eastern Economist Daily reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma signs decree on armed forces

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on April 9 signed a decree "On the Concept of Ukrainian Armed Forces' Transition to Manning by Professional Servicemen for the Period until 2015." The first of the three transition stages aims to increase the number of professional servicemen to 30,000 by 2005 reaching almost 30 percent of the Ukrainian armed forces personnel. At the same time, the ministry will consider reducing the term of active duty service to 12 months and the term of junior specialists training in educational establishments to three or four months. The decree is the first document in a series of legal and regulatory acts that will be elaborated and approved in order to establish a professional military service system. (GUUAM News)

Modernization of AN-225 is completed

KYIV - Ukrainian aviators completed modernization of the world's largest airplane and its first test flight is to take place shortly. The AN-225 Mria is currently undergoing ground tests. The project was implemented by the Kyiv-based Antonov Aviation Design Bureau and Ukraine's Motor-Sich company. The project's cost was approximately $20 million. The six-engine plane, which has a wingspan of 291 feet, first flew in 1988 and was intended to transport the Soviet Buran space shuttle. The modernized AN-225 is capable of carrying 291 tons of cargo for a distance of 2,790 miles. (GUUAM News)

Moscow Helsinki Group marks 25th

MOSCOW - Yurii Orlov, Natan Sharansky, Lyudmila Alekseeva and other Soviet-era dissidents assembled in Moscow on May 12 to mark the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russian and Western agencies reported. Speakers noted both the progress that had been made over that period and the problems still remaining, with Ms. Alekseeva stressing the need to work with the government in order to defend human rights. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. at construction trade show

KYIV - The U.S. Commercial Attaché in Ukraine, David Hunter, opened a Product Literature Center at the Cottage 2001 trade show on April 26 at the Palace of Sport. The center features catalogues and promotional materials from 27 American companies involved in construction, repair, high-tech building materials, design and architecture. It is organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS), together with the U.S. Embassy's Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) in Kyiv. The Cottage 2001 trade show is a prestigious annual exhibition organized by JSC Arcada under the auspices of Ukraine's State Committee for Building and Architecture. It is the largest show of its kind in Ukraine. Featuring construction, repair and building materials, the exhibition traditionally launches the business year in the Ukrainian construction industry. (U.S. Embassy in Ukraine)

Kyiv hopes to raise real incomes

KYIV - The Ukrainian government is facing the task of ensuring the growth of real incomes by no less than 4.4 percent in 2001, and of increasing wages in budget-financed sectors by at least 25 percent, reported the BBC on April 25. Aside from this, the government hopes the level of minimal social allowances and average pensions will rise no less than 20 percent. President Leonid Kuchma told the government to pay compensation to those people who have lost part of their incomes due to disruptions in the schedule of wage payments to public sector employees. As well, no less than 600,000 new jobs should be created in Ukraine, and 230,000 unemployed should take part in public work projects. (Eastern Economist)

Bulgaria stops Ukrainian plane

SOFIA - Bulgarian officials are holding a Ukrainian jumbo airplane carrying 30 tons of arms bound for the east African country of Eritrea, which is under a United Nations embargo on military supplies, Agence France Presse reported. The plane, which was flying from an unnamed airport in the Czech Republic, landed in the eastern Bulgarian city of Burgas to refuel. It reportedly is loaded with Kalashnikov submachine guns and other ammunition and weapons. The plane is reportedly owned by the Ukrainian company Volare. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kerensky may be rehabilitated

MOSCOW - Aleksandr Yakovlev, the chairman of the Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Political Repressions, told Interfax on May 10 that Moscow may rehabilitate Aleksandr Kerensky and other members of the 1917 Provisional Government before the November 7 holiday. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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