NEWSBRIEFS

Trial of Gongadze suspects opens

KYIV - The Kyiv Appellate Court on January 9 opened hearings in the case involving the murder of Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze in 2000, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Journalists have been barred from the proceedings, which concern three former police officers - Mykola Protasov, Valerii Kostenko and Oleksander Popovych - suspected of killing the journalist. "I've spent a lot of time in the Procurator General's Office reading files of the case and I think that these people are guilty of perpetrating the murder," Myroslava Gongadze, Gongadze's widow, told journalists before the hearings. "But I think this is insufficient, since these people had no personal motives for killing Heorhii; they were just fulfilling a criminal order." Meanwhile, Lesia Gongadze, the slain journalist's mother, told journalists that she does not consider it necessary to attend the trial. "The hearings in the case are the same game that has been played by five prosecutors-general in a row," the Ukrayinska Pravda website quoted her as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko lauds gas deal with Russia

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko said on Ukraine's NTN television channel on January 7 that last week's deal on gas supplies to Ukraine between Russia's Gazprom, Ukraine's Naftohaz Ukrayiny, and the Swiss-based RosUkrEnergo company is a "brilliant achievement," Interfax-Ukraine reported. "Only those who do not understand anything about the gas issue may criticize [the deal]," Mr. Yushchenko noted. "Ukraine got the prize of $95 [for 1,000 cubic meters of gas]. Look at the map of Europe. Who else has got such a price? What have we surrendered? Nothing." Meanwhile, critics of the five-year gas deal maintain that the price of $95 per 1,000 cubic meters is valid only for the first six months of 2006 and will be revised upward in the second half of the year, while the cost of Russian gas transit across Ukraine - $1.6 per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers - was set until 2011. "Ukraine and its energy diplomacy made a strategic mistake; the night of January 3-4 [when the gas deal was worked out] was a Pearl Harbor for the Ukrainian diplomatic service," former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Oleksander Chalyi told the BBC on January 6. "The consequences [of the deal] will be disastrous, particularly in the second half of the year," he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Vitrenko wants heads to roll

KYIV - Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the opposition Progressive Socialist Party, has called on the Verkhovna Rada to begin impeachment proceedings against President Viktor Yushchenko over the gas deal Kyiv signed with Russia, Interfax reported on January 5. Meanwhile, the opposition movement Ne Tak, which is led by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, called the deal "destructive for the country's economy" and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov. Russia and Ukraine struck a gas deal on January 4. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... while officials defend gas deal

KYIV - Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk and Naftohaz Ukrayiny Chairman Oleksii Ivchenko defended the gas deal in a briefing for foreign diplomats on January 5, saying it is in the interests of both Moscow and Kyiv, Interfax-Ukraine reported the same day. Speaking to ambassadors from various European Union countries, as well as from the United States, Canada, Japan, Bulgaria, Turkey and representatives from the European Commission, Mr. Tarasyuk said the agreement ends the possibility for Moscow to pressure Kyiv with ultimatums. He added, however, that Ukraine has come to the conclusion that it should not rely on a single supplier for gas in the future. "We have plans to work with a number of countries on alternative routes of gas supplies to Ukraine and other countries," he said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yulia to challenge deal in court

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko said on January 5 that she will challenge in court the deal Ukraine reached with Russia's Gazprom, Interfax-Ukraine reported. "It is necessary to cancel all [gas] deals that contradict national law," Ms. Tymoshenko said. She also pledged to request that the Procurator General's Office open a criminal case against Ukraine's state gas company Naftohaz Ukrayiny and the Energy Ministry. Under the deal, RosUkrEnergo - a Swiss-based joint venture between Gazprom and Austria's Raiffeisen Zentralbank - will purchase gas from Gazprom at $230 per 1,000 cubic meters and sell it to Ukraine for $95 per 1,000 cubic meters. Ms. Tymoshenko, former prime minister of Ukraine, has denounced RosUkrEnergo, which was set up by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's government, as a "criminal canker on the body" of Naftohaz Ukrayiny, Reuters reported on January 5. Critics have said the complicated and opaque arrangement could lead to widespread corruption, Reuters reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. criticizes Russia on gas dispute

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington on January 5 that Russia was wrong to launch its recent "politically motivated" natural-gas dispute with Ukraine and warned Moscow to stick to international rules, Reuters reported. "The game just can't be played [by making arbitrary changes]," she said, adding that "when you say you want to be a part of the international economy and you want to be a responsible actor in the international economy, then you play by its rules." Dr. Rice said she feels that international attention will be paid to the "distance between Russia's behavior on something like this and what would be expected by a leader of the G-8," whose rotating chair Russia now holds. She pointed out that Moscow launched the gas dispute "with an obvious political motive" and noted that "it was ironic and not good that they [cut back supplies on January 1], the day they became G-8 chairman." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia rejects U.S. criticism

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on January 7 that it does not accept a recent statement by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Russia sought to pressure Ukraine in the recent gas price dispute for political reasons, regnum.ru reported. "The agreement reached on Russia's initiative in bilateral format with Ukraine lays the basis for stable ... supplies of Russian gas to Europe in the long [term] and is an important contribution to providing energy security for the European continent," the statement claimed. It added that Moscow "cannot agree with [Dr. Rice's] opinion that Russian activities [are not in keeping] with its status as a G-8 member ... Without even mentioning the Russian-Ukrainian agreement, Ms. Rice [in effect] accused Russia of politically motivated actions." The statement concluded that "it is not at all clear on what her assertions are based." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin seeks to reassure EU over gas

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin told Gazprom Chairman Aleksei Miller at a Moscow meeting on January 4 that the Russian-Ukrainian gas agreement "creates stable conditions for Russian gas supply to European customers for many years ahead," Reuters reported. But Martin Bartenstein, who is economy minister of Austria, which holds the rotating chair of the European Union, said in Brussels that the EU must reduce its dependency on Russia and other outside suppliers by making more efficient use of energy, improving infrastructure, and making greater use of renewable energy sources. He added that he hopes the Russian-Ukrainian agreement "will ensure ... the long-term security of supply of gas" to the EU. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Germans debate Russia's reliability

BERLIN - Following recent criticism of the Baltic underwater gas pipeline (NEGP) backed by President Vladimir Putin and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, leading German Social Democratic Party legislator Ludwig Stiegler said in Berlin on January 4 that "the problems arising in the process of the transit of natural gas through somebody else's territories indicate the need for its transportation without intermediaries along the bottom of the Baltic Sea," ITAR-TASS reported. He called the pipeline a "strategic investment in the uninterrupted gas supply to Germany and Western Europe" and a contribution to the energy security and future of the continent. But the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote the following day that Moscow has needlessly set off a debate in the European Union on the reliability of Russian gas supplies and strengthened the hand of the EU's newest members, who have long warned against placing too much trust in Russia as a partner. The daily charged that Moscow's decision to launch the dispute had nothing to do with market-related issues, but rather stem from political considerations, including shoring up a growing corrupt and authoritarian system at home, in which the oil and gas industry plays a central role. The paper predicted that this will not be the last confrontation over gas launched by Moscow, but when the next one comes, Russia will not find Chancellor Angela Merkel as easy to deal with as Mr. Schroeder. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Merkel has 'concerns' about Russia

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the weekly Der Spiegel of January 9 that she hopes that Russia will take as democratic a path of development as possible. She added that one must understand the traditions from which Russia is emerging and be careful not to "systematically transfer our understanding of democracy" to Russian conditions. Ms. Merkel noted, however, that "there are developments [in Russia] that cause me concern, such as the new legislation regarding NGOs." She argued that the lesson for her country of the recent Russian-Ukrainian gas price dispute is that Germany needs to have "good, stable relations with Russia," but also to diversify its energy sources so as not to be dependent on any particular supplier. It will be necessary to import Russian gas, but that must not be the only or primary source of Germany's energy supplies, the chancellor said. She described German-American relations as "friendship" because they are deeply rooted in "the normal lives of the people." She used the term "strategic partnership" for Berlin's ties to Moscow, however, adding that "we do not yet share as many values with Russia as with America." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine discovers new gas reserves

KYIV - Additional reserves of natural gas have been discovered at Ukraine's gas-condensate field in Kharkiv Oblast, Interfax-Ukraine reported on January 5. The press service of the oblast administration said the reserves were discovered after the opening of a new well in the field. Kharkiv Oblast Administration Chairman Arsen Avakov said that as a result of the new reserves, the region would increase gas production by 3-5 percent in 2006. "But if there are further pleasant surprises like this, I think the growth will be higher," Mr. Avakov said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Interdenominational church for Kyiv

KYIV - The Interdenominational Church of St. Nicholas is to be constructed in the center of Kyiv, on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street. At the initiative of local residents, a chapel-wagon will be established on the sidewalk. The site for the construction of the future church was blessed on December 19, 2005, the feast of St. Nicholas on the Julian calendar. A joint prayer service was conducted by priests of three Churches of the Kyivan tradition: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC). In the past there used to be a St. Nicholas Chapel not far from the site, but it was ruined during the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, the people living in adjacent buildings were inspired to construct the church, mostly because of a threat: investors had decided to build a block of apartments there. The Kyiv City Council allotted the land for construction in 2003. But local residents fear that the construction will ruin their homes, as several holes have been fixed already. The new large-scale construction may create cracks. In that case, the old buildings will be declared hazardous and the residents will be moved to the outskirts of Kyiv, while "elite" apartments and offices will be constructed in the city center. A cross was placed in October as a sign that a new church will be constructed there and blessed by priests of the UOC-KP, UAOC and UGCC. Since that time, "the investors" tried to throw it away several times. "People have approached us and we are guarding the place," said Vitalii Boryshpolets, a member of the Kyiv Rescue Forum Civic Union. The men put up tents and spend nights there, while "the investors" threatened to take the case to court. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Husar speaks on Church unity

KYIV - "The transfer of the residence of the head of the Ukrainian Greek- Catholic Church [UGCC] to Ukraine's capital will further interdenominational dialogue," said Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the UGCC, at a press-conference in Kyiv on December 19, 2005. The cardinal stated that all previous attempts on the road to unification among the Churches have been unsuccessful. He noted that the hope for understanding appears when we can learn to see ourselves in our neighbor and, on the basis of this, will be ready to accept him or her the way he or she is. The head of the UGCC said he is convinced that the transfer of the center of the UGCC to Kyiv and the construction of the Patriarchal Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ should bring the Churches together, as it gives more opportunities to meet, to conduct discussions and to develop plans for future unification. "We lack a vision of possible unification," said Cardinal Husar. "How do we see this today? Either all Greek-Catholics join the Orthodox Church and become Orthodox or all Orthodox join the Greek-Catholic Church and become Greek-Catholic? But this is not the only variant there is. We have other possibilities. We have only begun to take the first steps which could bring us to the outcome where nobody would lose the good they have. Nevertheless, everybody would stay in full communion, as Jesus Christ would like it to be." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

New Greek-Catholic bishops named

LVIV - On December 21, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI blessed the decision of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) concerning the appointment of Father Dionisii Liakhovych, a priest of the Order of St. Basil the Great, as a curial bishop of the major archbishop of Kyiv and Halych (Cardinal Lubomyr Husar) and the appointment of Father Dr. Bohdan Dziurakh, a priest of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), as auxiliary bishop of the UGCC's Kyiv-Vyshhorod Archeparchy. At a press conference conducted by Cardinal Husar, head of the UGCC, in Lviv, it was announced that Father Liakhovych will be ordained bishop in his native Brazil on February 2, and Father Dziurakh will be ordained bishop in Lviv on February 15. Cardinal Husar also stated that the former Kyiv-Vyshhorod Exarchate of the UGCC has been raised to the level of archeparchy, as it holds the residence of the head of the UGCC. It was also reported that Father Mykhailo Mazur will be ordained to serve as bishop in Brazil. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

9,000 to run for 450 Rada seats

KYIV - The total number of candidates for national deputies, who were nominated by 19 election blocs and 33 political parties for the March elections, has reached 9,133 persons, Chairman Yaroslav Davydovych of the Central Election Commission said. As of December 27, 2005, documents from 22 political forces arrived for registration at the CEC. December 30 was the last day to receive documents for registration, the CEC chairman noted. The elections of national deputies to the Parliament and to local councils will be held on March 26. For the first time ever, the election will be held on a completely proportional basis. If all political forces stating their intention to compete for 450 parliamentary seats are registered, 52 political forces will participate in the elections. (Ukrinform)

Peace Corps inducts 103 volunteers

KYIV - One hundred three new volunteers of the U.S. Peace Corps swore an oath in late December 2005 to strengthen respect and friendship among the people of Ukraine and the United States, becoming the 29th group of volunteers that has been working in Ukraine since 1992. Peace Corps volunteers assist Ukrainian pupils and students in learning the English language and actively participate in public events, promote healthy lifestyles and conduct ecological campaigns. (Ukrinform)

Ukraine not ready for NATO

KYIV - Ukraine is not ready to become a full-fledged member of NATO, according to former U.S. ambassador to NATO and U.S. representative to the West European Union Robert Hunter. In an interview published in mid-December 2005 by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Hunter said: "I can say that Ukraine is not ready to become a member of NATO, NATO is not ready for that and NATO-Russia relations are not ready, too." A nation, stating its intention to join the alliance, must be fully ready to become a part of the West, he explained. Any state may join NATO, if it meets internal demands of the organization, realizing that NATO doesn't threaten any subject of international relations. Mr. Hunter said there are two summits slated at this point. One will almost certainly take place in Riga, Latvia, probably next October or November; a smaller summit is planned for the last year of the Bush administration. Some people are saying that the second summit should issue an invitation to Ukraine to join along with possibly one or two other countries, like Croatia. He said this is going to force a major debate - a more serious debate than any other on NATO enlargement since the very first one at the Madrid Summit in 1997 over the entrance of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - for a couple of simple reasons. Among these he named both internal and external factors. For one thing, it is still not clear that the democratic experiment in Ukraine is taking hold and there are certain differences in the Western and Eastern populations' perception of NATO integration. (Ukrinform)

Late pope's book presented in Kyiv

KYIV - A presentation of the last book by the late Pope John-Paul II, which was translated into Ukrainian, took place here on December 14, 2005. The book, titled "Memory and Identity: At the turn of the Millennium," was printed through joint efforts by Litopys publishers, the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv) and the Italian Culture Institute in Ukraine. According to the institute's director, Franco Balloni, the book is composed of the pope's separate conversations, in which he discussed the roots of evil in humans, which reached its acme last century. The book presentation was attended by the primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar. Cardinal Husar noted that the book allows the reader to get a better insight into the pope's thoughts, which are very close to ordinary people's needs, worries and interests in the modern world. (Ukrinform)

Antonov plane presented in Berlin

KYIV - The O.K. Antonov Aircraft Design-Manufacturing Complex and the Russian company Volga-Dnepr in December 2005 presented their joint project of resuming serial manufacture of AN-124-100 Ruslan jumbo transport planes in the German capital, Berlin. The program is broadly viewed as one of the most promising Ukrainian-Russian joint projects, noted Antonov designer Dmytro Kiva. According to Mr. Kiva, thanks to Ukrainian aircraft designers' efforts, the newest version of the Ruslan plane will be unrivaled. The new plane is equipped with the most advanced avionics; its load-carrying capacity has been raised to 150 tons; and the plane's range will be longer, too. In addition, the plane's crew will be numerically smaller. Mr. Kiva said the new Ruslan plane's technical performance characteristics make it superior to America's C-17 plane, though the Ruslan's price is much lower. As Volga-Dnepr company president Aleksei Isaikin noted, the AN-124 project, which was launched in 2003, embraces two decades and provides for making 100 planes. The project's implementation will cost $6 billion (U.S.), Mr. Isaikin disclosed. He said the first AN-124-100 will be assembled in 2008 by the Russian aircraft producer Aviastar-SP in Ulyanovsk. The AN-124-100 Ruslan is the civilian modification of the military plane AN-124, the world's biggest serially made transport plane, second only to the Mria (there is only one such plane in the world, which Ukraine has designed, made and keeps operating). The Ruslan is equipped with four D-18T turbojet engines. The plane can operate in all climatic zones. Its maximum speed is 865 kilometers per hour; its cruising speed averages 800 kilometers per hour. With maximum load the plane can reach destinations 4,500 kilometers away. The plane's maximum take-off weight is 392,000 kilograms. The plane needs a 900-meter runway and consumes 12 tons of fuel per hour. The plane has two decks. The crew's cabin, the relief crew's cabin and the cabin for personnel, who accompany the cargo (21 persons) are located on the upper deck. Cargo compartments are located on the lower deck. The cargo compartment's volume is 1,050 cubic meters. (Ukrinform)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 15, 2006, No. 3, Vol. LXXIV

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