NEWSBRIEFS (09/24/06)

NEWSBRIEFS

Yanukovych defers Ukraine's NATO bid

BRUSSELS - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said in NATO headquarters in Brussels on September 14 that Kyiv is putting on hold its aspirations to join NATO's Membership Action Plan because of public opposition to NATO membership, international and Ukrainian news agencies reported. "The level of support [for Ukraine's membership in NATO] is at 12 to 25 percent [of the population]. This is not enough for taking such a step. Therefore, we should proceed gradually. We have learned that support [for NATO membership] has decreased in society in the past two years. This means that there now is a need to significantly strengthen the information campaign, which we will do. When the time comes, the next step will be taken," Mr. Yanukovych said at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Defense minister calls move 'mistaken'

KYIV - Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko told a news conference in Kyiv on September 15 that Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's statement in Brussels that Ukraine is unprepared to join NATO's Membership Action Plan was "mistaken," Ukrainian media reported. "The Defense Ministry has carried out and will continue to carry out a plan of action to acquire membership in the alliance, regardless of any statements made at any visits," Mr. Hrytsenko said. "This is required by legislation, [as well as] directives and orders of the president who, according to the Constitution, provides guidance in this sphere, and we will continue to do this," he added. Minister Hrytsenko was appointed to the Yanukovych Cabinet by President Viktor Yushchenko, who under constitutional reform enforced this year has the right to nominate the foreign affairs and defense ministers. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President condemns PM's stance on NATO

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko said on September 15 that Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's statement in Brussels the previous day about Ukraine not being ready for a NATO Membership Action Plan was "wrong," Ukrainian and international news agencies reported. "I believe this argument ... represents a point of view that is wrong, does not meet national interests, and must be corrected," Reuters quoted Mr. Yushchenko as saying at a news conference after talks with Mr. Yanukovych that the president described as "not particularly pleasant." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Presidential aide slams Rada on NATO

KYIV - Viktor Baloha, newly appointed head of the Presidential Secretariat, said on September 19 that a resolution adopted by the Verkhovna Rada earlier the same day to support Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's stance on NATO is of a "confrontational character," Ukrainian media reported. Mr. Yanukovych said at NATO headquarters in Brussels last week that Ukraine is not ready yet to join NATO's Membership Action Plan. "The resolution is of a purely political character and entails no legal consequences. Parliament broke [its own] rules and procedures, as the draft resolution had not been considered by the relevant Verkhovna Rada committee," Mr. Baloha added. Mr. Baloha's predecessor as head of the Presidential Secretariat was Oleh Rybachuk, who was dismissed by President Viktor Yushchenko on September 15. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada sets rules on deputies' factions

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on September 19 amended the provision in its statutes stipulating that the parliamentary caucus of a party or bloc must comprise the same number of deputies as were elected from the election list of that party or bloc, Ukrainian media reported. Under a new rule, at least 15 deputies are needed to form a caucus in Parliament. Moreover, lawmakers renewed the former rule allowing a deputy expelled from his/her caucus to declare himself/herself independent and to subsequently join the opposition or the ruling coalition. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Mine blast kills at least 13

DONETSK - An explosion in the Zasiadko coal mine in Donetsk on September 20 killed at least 13 miners and injured 62, UNIAN reported. The fate of nearly 30 miners remains unknown. Officials said the explosion was caused by a mixture of coal powder and methane. Blasts in the same mine killed 50 miners in May 1999, 55 in August 2001 and 20 in July 2002. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Poroshenko comments on Transdniester

KYIV - Petro Poroshenko, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council in 2005, said in an interview with the Kyiv-based Channel 5 on September 17 that Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov had considered the idea of holding a referendum on the unification of the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniester with Ukraine. "I can confirm that, during my personal meetings with Smirnov, he more than once expressed the intention of holding a referendum on joining Ukraine," Mr. Poroshenko said. Furthermore, he called the September 17 referendum in Transdniester on secession from the Republic of Moldova and a potential merger with Russia a "dangerous precedent." "It could be easy to move after this to self-determination for Ossetia, Abkhazia, and a referendum in Crimea on secession," Mr. Poroshenko added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

A time-out in coalition talks

KYIV - The Party of the Regions, the core of the currently ruling coalition in Ukraine, has taken a break to study proposals from the pro-presidential Our Ukraine for building a broader coalition, Interfax-Ukraine reported on September 14. "We have asked for several days to study a new version of the coalition agreement. Then we will be prepared to sit at the negotiating table and proceed," Party of the Regions lawmaker Yevhen Kushnariov told journalists. Meanwhile, Our Ukraine lawmaker Anatolii Matviyenko has accused the Party of the Regions of dragging out the coalition talks and warned that Our Ukraine may join the opposition. According to a poll held earlier this month by the Ukrainian Academy of Political Sciences, 39.4 percent of Ukrainians support the creation of a broader coalition by Our Ukraine, the Party of the Regions, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party, while 37 percent oppose such a move. Our Ukraine, which has several ministers in Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's Cabinet, is not a signatory to the coalition agreement signed by the three other parties in July. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko organizing opposition bloc

KYIV - The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (YTB) has said it can sign an accord on the creation of a parliamentary-opposition alliance with Our Ukraine on September 22, Interfax-Ukraine reported on September 18. According to the YTB, the signing ceremony, which was planned for September 19, was postponed by three days to give Our Ukraine time to finally decide on its status in Parliament. Our Ukraine has reportedly been in talks on signing an expanded coalition deal with the Party of the Regions, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party since early September. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said on September 18 that he wants to see an "effective" opposition in Ukraine. He added that a potential law on the opposition should introduce "a mechanism of effective control over the actions of the authorities." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yanukovych for Transdniester autonomy

LUHANSK - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych told journalists in Luhansk on September 18 that autonomous status for the secessionist Transdniester would be the best way to resolve the region's conflict with Moldova, Ukrainian media reported. "To my mind, the future pattern should be like that: Transdniester and Moldova should divide powers but remain a single country; there should be two parliaments, here and there; and a certain time should be assigned for solving pressing problems," Mr. Yanukovych said. "Nowhere is [the September 17 referendum in Transdniester] recognized as official, but the people held this referendum, and it is perhaps of an advisory nature, and we should speak about it with respect. But, does it exacerbate the conflict or not? I would say yes rather than no," he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

EU, Kyiv sign accord on gas, oil meters

BRUSSELS - The European Union and Ukraine on September 14 signed a memorandum of understanding paving the way for EU financing of oil and gas meters on pipelines traversing Ukraine's borders, Reuters reported. The signing took place within the framework of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's visit to Brussels. "This is a very concrete cooperation scheme to increase transparency, reliability and safety of supplies to Ukraine, but also transit to the European Union," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told journalists after talks with Mr. Yanukovych. The flow of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe was briefly disrupted in January when Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over gas pricing. On September 13, the European Commission promised to start a discussion early next year on a broader cooperation agreement with Ukraine that could include a free-trade deal. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Deputies scuffle over gas tariffs probe

KYIV - Lawmakers from the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc on September 13 blocked the parliamentary rostrum and scuffled with colleagues from the pro-government coalition following a vote on a special commission to investigate steep gas-price increases this year, Ukrainian media reported. Former Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov's Cabinet raised gas tariffs two times this year, by 25 percent as of May and by nearly 100 percent as of July. The investigative commission was proposed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who said that private Ukrainian consumers now pay 414 hrv ($82 U.S.) per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, whereas the real gas cost is 114 hrv. The Verkhovna Rada approved the commission with 230 votes, but rejected a candidate for its chairman proposed by the opposition. In addition, deputies from the ruling coalition of the Party of the Regions, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party mandated the commission to look into a government decision to write off debts of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, which Ms. Tymoshenko headed in 1995-1997. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prutnik to head state TV/radio

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych on September 12 nominated and the Verkhovna Rada on September 14 approved the candidacy of Edvard Prutnik (Party of the Regions) for chairman of the State Committee on Television and Radio. Mr. Prutnik is head of the subcommittee on legal safeguards of economic, technological and ecological security that is part of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense. Mr. Prutnik formerly was an advisor to Prime Minister Yanukovych during the Kuchma administration and prior to that was vice-chairman of the Donetsk Oblast Administration headed by Mr. Yanukovych. Several deputies voiced reservations about Mr. Prutnik's candidacy for the TV/radio post, noting that it would be better if the position were filled by a journalist or media expert. A total of 244 deputies voted in favor of the nomination. During the 2004 presidential election Mr. Prutnik was known as a businessman linked to Mr. Yanukovych. He was involved with U.S. lobbying and image-making on behalf of the erstwhile presidential candidate. Mr. Prutnik traveled to Washington in November 2004 to prepare U.S. policymakers and the press for what he expected to be a Yanukovych victory in the presidential election. (Ukrayinski Novyny, The Ukrainian Weekly)

Putin aide tells Poland to forget past

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko said on September 12 that Poland should forget about its past grievances against Moscow if it wants better relations with it, Reuters reported. He argued that "the current state of Russian-Polish cooperation ... lags behind the high standard of respect and trust [we have] with the majority of other countries. This atmosphere is not getting any better because of various slogans and a constant going back to events that are real and painful, but are a long way back in the past, and because of a constant search for someone to blame. This should be put aside in favor of positive engagement." His remarks are most likely aimed at those Germans and other Western Europeans who often find Poland's conservative government a difficult partner that uncomfortably questions some accepted practices and attitudes within the European Union. Moscow infuriates many Poles by what they regard as its continuing great-power chauvinist behavior toward them and its refusal to acknowledge Soviet crimes that led to the deaths of thousands of Poles in the years after the outbreak of World War II. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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