NEWSBRIEFS (11/02/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Border guards hunker down

TUZLA ISLAND, Ukraine - A Ukrainian border-guard unit deployed earlier this month to Tuzla Island in the Kerch Strait is preparing to spend the winter there, Interfax reported on October 29, quoting a State Border Troops spokesman. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said after his talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, in Moscow on October 24, and repeated on October 28, that the two men agreed that the contentious construction of a Russian dam in the Kerch Strait will not be extended any further toward Tuzla in exchange for the removal of Ukrainian border guards from the island. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry on October 27 refuted Mr. Kasyanov's assertion by saying that Mr. Yanukovych only stressed during the talks that Tuzla is an inalienable part of Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tuzla issue pushing Kyiv Westward

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said in the October 27 issue of the Moscow-based Izvestia that the construction of a Russian dam in the Kerch Strait is pushing Ukraine closer to the West, Interfax reported. "The closer the dam is to our shores, the closer we are in our moods to Europe and the West in general," Mr. Kuchma said. He suggested that the dam project is nourishing the imperial ambitions of some political forces in Russia. "One cannot help sympathizing with the Russian leadership that sometimes is forced to take into account neocolonial sentiments in Russian society, in the Russian ruling class, and among the Russian generals," Mr. Kuchma said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko: opponents trying to kill me

KYIV - Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the opposition Our Ukraine bloc, said on October 24 that his political opponents are taking measures to kill him, Interfax reported, quoting the Our Ukraine press service. "There are projects under which killers have already arrived and taken appropriate measures that cannot be described as jokes," Mr. Yushchenko claimed. He revealed that some 40 criminal cases have been opened against Our Ukraine lawmakers. "I am proud that, the pressure notwithstanding, there are 103 national deputies in the Verkhovna Rada's [Our Ukraine caucus] who are keeping Ukraine away from a tragic scenario," he added. Moreover, Mr. Yushchenko told a forum of democratic forces in Kharkiv on October 26 that a single platform and a single candidate of the democratic opposition for the next presidential election will be discussed at a democratic forum in Kyiv in six weeks' time. (RFE/RL Newsline)

SBU sees no threat to Yushchenko

KYIV - The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on October 28 said it sees no threat to the life of Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko but added that security has been provided for his protection, Interfax reported. The move was prompted by President Leonid Kuchma's order that the SBU and the Internal Affairs Ministry look into Mr. Yushchenko's recent allegations that political opponents are trying to kill him. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prime ministers discuss Tuzla

MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych met on October 24 to discuss the ongoing dispute over the Tuzla islet, Russian and international media reported. Russia agreed to suspend construction of a dam from the Russian mainland to the islet, which is located in the Kerch Strait connecting the Black and Azov seas, while the Ukrainian side agreed to withdraw its border guards from the island. The two sides will try to resolve the disputed status of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait within the next two-three months. Tensions, however, quickly re-emerged, with Russian media accusing the Ukrainian side of reneging on the October 24 agreement. "Ukrainian border guards, who were supposed to leave the Tuzla spit immediately, have not gone anywhere and, it would appear, have no intention of leaving," the ORT news service reported on October 25. The next day, ITAR-TASS reported that the Ukrainian government has appropriated $1 million to improve "amenities" at its border post on Tuzla. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Politicians take stands on territory

MOSCOW - Duma Deputy Dmitrii Rogozin, chairman of the Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, visited the disputed territory on October 25, ORT reported. Rogozin declared that no one had the right to "usurp" the Kerch Strait or to "take" the Azov Sea, which, he said, "are the internal waters of both Russia and Ukraine." Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, meanwhile, told izvestia.ru that some people in Russia have a "craving for imperial self-assertion." There are, he said, "neocolonial sentiments in Russian society, in the Russian ruling class, among Russian generals," the website reported on October 27. Duma Deputy Aleksei Arbatov (Yabloko), deputy chairman of the Duma's Defense Committee, highlighted the potential for the dispute to spiral out of control. Mr. Arbatov said that he could not rule out the possibility of "armed contacts of a limited character" between the two sides in the disputed area, RosBalt reported on October 24. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma rejects border change

KERCH, Crimea - Following his trip to the Tuzla island on October 23, President Leonid Kuchma told journalists in Kerch, Crimea, that he considers it inadmissible for Kyiv to change the current Ukrainian-Russian border in the Kerch Strait, Interfax reported. Mr. Kuchma stressed that the Kerch-Yenikal Channel, a deep fairway in the Kerch Strait, should remain the property of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president also dismissed the idea of building a bridge between Russia and Crimea over the Kerch Strait, as declared in a 2001 accord signed by Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov and then-Crimean Parliament Chairman Leonid Hrach. "It is impossible to build a bridge, as no pier will stand on the ground there [in the Kerch Strait]," Mr. Kuchma said, adding that he is in favor of launching a regular ferry connection between Russia's Krasnodar Krai and Crimea. Regarding the contentious issue of the border delimitation in the Azov Sea, President Kuchma said Kyiv wants to draw a borderline on the sea surface, not on the seabed, as postulated by Moscow, which wants the sea "for joint use" with Ukraine. "We are ready to agree that the Azov Sea is an internal sea of both countries, Ukraine and Russia, but the border should be drawn on its surface," RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service quoted Mr. Kuchma as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma views dike construction

TUZLA ISLAND, Ukraine - President Leonid Kuchma, who interrupted his Latin American tour due to the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian border dispute, visited Tuzla Island in the Kerch Strait on October 22 to watch the construction of a Russian dike that is reportedly some 100 meters from the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian and international news agencies reported. Mr. Kuchma also met with Ukrainian border guards on the island. Following a telephone conversation with President Kuchma, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly requested that authorities of Russia's Krasnodar Krai halt construction of the controversial dike, Interfax reported on October 23, quoting Mr. Kuchma's press service. Meanwhile, 17 Ukrainian jet fighters deployed in Crimea held an exercise on October 22 involving missile firings into the water in an area not far from Tuzla, ITAR-TASS reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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