NEWSBRIEFS (05/27/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kinakh pledges to continue reforms

KYIV - Anatolii Kinakh, who has been named by President Leonid Kuchma as a candidate to head the Cabinet of Ministers, told the Ukrainska Pravda website on May 22 that, if approved by the Verkhovna Rada, he will continue the previous Cabinet's "market reforms and move to civil society." Mr. Kinakh added that this condition is "the border of compromise" in his upcoming talks with parliamentary groups. The Greens, Social Democratic Party (United), Ukraine's Regions and Solidarity parliamentary groups have already declared their support for Mr. Kinakh. Mr. Kinakh's appointment as prime minister seems to be dependent on the stance of the 112-strong Communist Party parliamentary caucus. Its leader, Petro Symonenko, said the Communists will support Mr. Kinakh if he agrees to implement their socioeconomic program. A parliamentary vote on the nominee is expected next week. On May 18, President Kuchma had said Mr. Kinakh and Serhiy Tyhypko, leader of the Labor Ukraine parliamentary group, were his two main candidates for the post of prime minister. He added that First Vice Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Viktor Medvedchuk had asked not to be nominated for the post because he faces a lot of work in the Social Democratic Party (United), the party he leads. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Cronies accused of money laundering

KYIV - National Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko told the Verkhovna Rada on May 22 that he has received from abroad documents affirming "the laundering of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars by certain persons from the Ukrainian president's entourage," Interfax reported. Mr. Omelchenko said he asked Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch to impart this information to President Leonid Kuchma, adding that one of the candidates currently being considered for the post of prime minister is involved in money laundering. Mr. Omelchenko did not disclose the name of that candidate. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Moldova forge closer ties

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and his Moldovan counterpart, Vladimir Voronin, pledged in Kyiv on May 18 to forge closer ties and resolve all existing problems between the two countries, the Associated Press and Interfax reported. Presidents Kuchma and Voronin signed several accords, including one on visa-free travel between their countries. Mr. Kuchma commented that Mr. Voronin's latest contacts with the leadership of the Transdniester breakaway region have raised hopes for a solution of the Moldovan-Transdniester conflict. President Kuchma called on Moldova to grant the Transdniester region "wide authority." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Voronin speaks on Ukrainian Communists

CHISINAU - In an interview with Infotag on the eve of his visit to Ukraine, President Vladimir Voronin had said his country is linked to Ukraine through "our common history and present-day reality" and by the fact that the Ukrainian minority is Moldova's largest. Asked to comment on the recent statement by Ukrainian Communist Party head Petro Symonenko that Ukraine will become the second Communist republic after Moldova in the former Soviet Union, Mr. Voronin replied: "This is a domestic Ukrainian affair. Will the Communists [there] be second after us? God help them win! Communists, after all, do not wage the worst policy, do they?" But he assured the interviewer that when he meets Mr. Symonenko during his visit to Kyiv "we will not be plotting to export revolution to Ukraine, the more so as the Moldovan Communists have come to power democratically, as acknowledged by the whole world." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tatars recall 1944 deportation

SYMFEROPOL - Some 15,000 Tatars gathered in Symferopol on May 18 for a mass prayer to mark the 57th anniversary of the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars by Joseph Stalin, Reuters reported. They called on the Ukrainian government to grant land rights to Tatar families in Crimea as well as improve welfare and support for returnees. "The land issue is the most painful issue for us. Ukraine's existing laws cannot solve the problems of the Crimean Tatar people and do not take into account that the indigenous people are returning to Crimea from where they were deported," Tatar leader Mustafa Jemilev told the agency. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow protests attack on Russian center

LVIV - Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry on May 18 protested an attack on the Russian cultural center in Lviv, calling on Ukraine to take steps to avoid further incidents, Interfax reported. Moscow said it "expects an appropriate reaction by the Ukrainian authorities to the action of western Ukrainian radical right-wingers." The previous day unknown attackers set fire to a side door of the center, smashed a window, and painted an inscription reading "The Revenge of Galicians." ITAR-TASS reported that the arson attack was staged by the "Galician Wolves," a nationalist organization hitherto unknown to the police. Meanwhile, Andrii Bolkun from the Lviv Oblast Administration said the attackers wanted to thwart the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine, the Eastern Economist Daily reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv opens embassy in Baghdad

KYIV - Ukraine opened an Embassy in Baghdad on May 20 in a ceremony attended by Ukraine's First Vice Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov, Reuters reported. Earlier in the day Mr. Yekhanurov delivered a message to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Iraq's leader said Baghdad is keen to develop ties with Ukraine in various economic and trade areas. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada fails to overcome veto on election bill

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada failed on May 17 to override President Leonid Kuchma's veto of a bill that would have permitted only political parties to field candidates for the legislature. The measure was supported by 259 deputies, 41 votes short of the required two-thirds majority. The current electoral law stipulates that 225 lawmakers are elected under a proportional party-list system, while the other 225 in one-seat constituencies. This was President Kuchma's second veto of the election bill. The Parliament had sidestepped the former veto by adopting an amended version of the vetoed bill. (RFE/RL Newsline)

MP surprised at Gongadze case statement

KYIV - Oleksander Zhyr of the Reforms-Congress parliamentary group said on May 16 that he is surprised it was Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Smirnov who made public the results of an investigation into the death of journalist Heorhii Gongadze. Mr. Zhyr noted that the investigation is being conducted by the Procurator General's Office and the Security Service, not the Internal Affairs Ministry. Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz said "top leaders of the Internal Affairs Ministry have become so entangled in lies" in the Gongadze case that now they need to find some credible explanation for them. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv increases economic growth forecast

KYIV - Minister of the Economy Vasyl Rohovyi on May 16 said the dismissal of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's Cabinet has so far not affected Ukraine's economy, Interfax reported. The State Statistics Committee reported that the country's GDP in January-April increased by 8.5 percent compared with the same period last year. Mr. Rohovyi said the government has increased its economic predictions for 2001 and now expects GDP to grow by 6.2 percent. The government announced previously that it expects the economy to grow 4 percent in 2001. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moldova's leader explains quest for union

CHISINAU - Russia and Belarus will form a single economic space by 2007, and by joining the Russia-Belarus Union, Moldova will be able to receive energy deliveries from those countries at prices considerably lower than world market prices, President Vladimir Voronin told the Japanese Sankei Shimbun daily newspaper, according to an ITAR-TASS report of May 18. He said he considers Russia "a strategic partner" and sees the bringing of "Moldovan-Russian relations to a new stage" as one of his main tasks as president. Mr. Voronin also said Moldova should study the reform experience of the Chinese Communist Party. (RFE/RL Newsline)

| Home Page |