Yushchenko Says Honeymoon Over For Customs Service

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko has demanded that the customs service carry out a fundamental purge of its staff in the next two months -- and wants the results of an inspection of 50 customs-houses on his desk in a month's time.

Yushchenko made his announcement in Kiev while presenting the new head of the State Customs Service, Vladimir Skomarovsky.

"We need new staff here. I'm allowing another 60 days, and I want a report back that this problem in the customs service has been solved: that worthy people capable of carrying out these duties have been appointed. Those found unworthy should either go to prison, or, if they don't deserve that, then to other jobs", said Yushchenko. "A fundamental purge of the service -- that is my demand. I won't agree to half-measures", he stressed.

The president said that in today's customs service everything had been "betrayed", and that the people within the service who ought to have been representing the interests of the state had not been carrying out their duties.

"Our customs service is riddled with holes", Yushchenko stated, accusing the leadership of the service of replacing the interests of the state with their families' and their personal interests. "You have failed the test of professionalism and good conduct", the president said.

The president also touched on the lack of professional customs policy at state-level. Addressing the customs officers present, he said that they were anathema in many Ukrainian businesses; the customs service's policies were putting Ukraine's domestic producers under threat.

In this context the president stressed that customs tariffs often exceed 100% of the price of the goods themselves. "If people are interested in this sort of trade, what are they supposed to do? Resort to bribery... That's why all the crooks are queuing up to see you", said Yushchenko, stressing that for identical goods tariff rates at different customs houses vary by as much as five times.

Yushchenko also highlighted another problem in the artificial lowering of customs tariffs for particular goods -- sometimes by as much as ten times. In particular this applied to illegal VAT compensation.

The president gave examples of computer equipment being falsely documented as bars of aluminium, of footwear declared at a value of $2/pair, when the true value was at least $20, and of completed television sets being passed off as television tubes.

"Last year 1,400,000 television tubes were imported, but the officially declared production of televisions only came to 400,000 sets. I ask you, what has happened to the other million tubes?" Yushchenko demanded of the customs service leadership. He also underlined that the first to answer for misdeeds would be those "with many stripes on their epaulets".

"Your honeymoon is over", Yushchenko said, stating that only professionals would be allowed to remain in the customs service. "In 30 days I want personal reports on my desk from 50 customs houses", the president said, noting that various agencies would take part in the inspection, including the State Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Prosecutor-General's Office.

Admissibility Decision Gongadze v. Ukraine

STRASBOURG, France -- The European Court of Human Rights has declared admissible the application lodged in the case of Gongadze v. Ukraine. The decision is available today on the Court’s Internet site (www.echr.coe.int). Judgment will be delivered at a later date. (The decision is available only in English.)

The applicant

The applicant, Myroslava Gongadze, is a Ukrainian national, who was born in 1972 and currently lives in Arlington in the United States of America.

Summary of the facts

Georgiy Gongadze, the applicant’s husband, was a political journalist and editor-in-chief of the “Ukrainskaya Pravda” internet journal. He was known for his criticism of those in power and for his active involvement in Ukraine and abroad in raising awareness about the lack of freedom of speech in his country. He reported on, for example, corruption among high level State officials.

Mr Gongadze disappeared on 16 September 2000 under circumstances that have not yet been established by the Ukrainian authorities despite the numerous demands and requests of the applicant.

For months prior to his disappearance Mr Gongadze had complained to his relatives and colleagues that he was being subjected to threats and surveillance.

On 17 September 2000 the applicant petitioned Moskovskiy District Police Department of Kyiv about the disappearance of her husband.

On 2 November 2000 the decapitated body of an unknown person was discovered in the vicinity of the town of Tarashcha, in the Kyiv Region. Forensic tests later established that the body was that of Mr Gongadze.

The case is still pending.

Complaints

The applicant complains under Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights that the death of her husband was the result of a forced disappearance and that the State authorities failed to protect his life. She further complained, under Article 2 that the State failed to investigate the case in a coherent and effective manner. She maintains that the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, as well as the incomplete and contradictory information provided during the investigation, forced her to leave the country and caused her suffering, contrary to Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) of the Convention. She also relies on Article 13 (right to an effective remedy).

Procedure

The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 16 September 2002.

Decision of the Court

The Court considered, in the light of the parties’ submissions, that the complaints raised serious issues of fact and law under the Convention, the determination of which requires an examination of the merits. It therefore declared the application admissible, without prejudging the merits of the case.

The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1 November 1998 it has sat as a full-time Court composed of an equal number of judges to that of the States party to the Convention. The Court examines the admissibility and merits of applications submitted to it. It sits in Chambers of 7 judges or, in exceptional cases, as a Grand Chamber of 17 judges. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the execution of the Court’s judgments.

ITERA Goes Back to Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia -- ITERA Group intends to go back to Ukraine this year and sell up to 4 billion cub. m. of gas there. To this effect, Naftogaz Ukraine managers are in active talks with ITERA-Ukraine, delving into all possible patterns of the company’s activities on that market. In his plans to demonopolize the gas sales of Ukraine, Naftogaz board chairman Alexey Ivchenko apparently counts on ITERA, as exactly with that company he cooperated as a gas buyer when he headed Intergaz.


ITERA Group President Igor Makarov
ITERA used to ship Turkmen gas from Turkmen/Uzbek border to the Russia’s/Ukrainian frontier, where the company sold it to Ukrainian intermediaries. In 2003, ITERA was forced out of the market of Ukraine by Gazprom. According to Ukrainian National Electricity Governance Commission, ITERA Energy (Kiev) sold 133.2 million cub. m. of Ukrainian gas on domestic market in 2004. TEK ITERA-Ukraine sold 25.2 million cub. m. of Ukrainian gas in the first two months of this year.

This year, ITERA Group is able to sell up to 4 billion cub. m. of gas in Ukraine, Valery Enkin, head of the power department at ITERA-Ukraine, announced in Kiev Wednesday, adding “if it gets an opportunity to import gas, which it plans to acquire under the foreign economic contracts.” Evidently, Enkin meant the Turkmen gas. Pursuant to agreement made between ITERA and Turkmenistan, the company may deliver up to 10 billion cub. m. of the natural gas till the year 2006. But the agreement was actually blocked by Gazprom in 2003-2004, when Russia’s gas monopoly didn’t seal the contract for Turkmen gas transit via Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Gazprom is skeptical about the yesterday’s statement of Enkin. “To ship gas, they need a contract with a buyer. ITERA has neither called on Gazprom with such requests, nor submitted its contract with Ukraine,” Igor Volobuev, Gazporm’s briefer, explained yesterday.

Sergey Lukyanenko, briefer at Naftogaz Ukraine, declined to confirm the company’s negotiations with ITERA. However, a source with the company told Kommersant on condition of anonymity “negotiations with ITERA are well underway. Alexey Ivchenko, as the head of Intergaz trader, which used to acquire gas from ITERA, intends to demonopolize the natural gas market and bring back the company on it, if not as a core deliverer, then at least as a gas trader.”

In view of the above it is not surprising that ITERA’s head Igor Makarov was among the Russian business giants invited by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to have a talk with.

Ukraine, Georgia Planning to Set Up Democratic Coalition

BISHKEK. Kyrgyzstan -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili want to establish a Ukrainian-Georgian coalition "Democratic Choice," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said in Kyrgyzstan's capital city of Bishkek on Thursday.

Tarasyuk and his Georgian counterpart Salome Zourabichvili are discussing Yushchenko's and Saakashvili's involvement in settling the crisis in Kyrgyzstan.

Asked if a new union could be set up to comprise Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, Tarasyuk replied, "We did not talk about unions."

At the same time, he did not rule out that Kyrgyzstan could in the future be included in the Ukrainian-Georgian coalition.

EU Keeps Ukraine at Arm's Length

KIEV, Ukraine -- An EU troika of foreign affairs heavyweights met their Ukrainian counterparts in Kiev on Wednesday to discuss the stepping up of EU-Ukraine relations in the post-Yushchenko era and Ukraine's role in the long-standing Transnistria conflict.

External relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn and the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, assured Ukraine Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyukin that the EU wants "to keep the momentum going" on the EU-Ukraine action plan.

The new Ukraine government, which took charge following the 'velvet revolution' in January, is not shy about its ambitions to join the EU.



Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has repeatedly said "for us, it is very important that Ukraine once again confirm its final goal - full membership in the European Union".

While the EU welcomed the change in power and Yushchenko's ambitious reforms, it has stopped short of proposing accession talks.

The EU flirted back with its EU-Ukraine Action Plan, a blue print for internal reforms aimed at achieving European standards, and preparing the county for WTO accession - a precondition for a future EU-Ukraine joint free-trade area.

The EU is also accelerating the signing of agreements to provide access to EU markets for Ukraine’s steel and textiles exports (which amount to 30% of Ukraine’s exports to the EU), with an EU-Ukraine textile agreement having been adopted by the Council this week.

The Plan, which upgrades an existing cooperation and partnership agreement signed in 1998, is a part of the EU Neighbourhood policy, which aims to create "a ring of friends" around the Union.

The EU is also the biggest donor in Ukraine, having contributed with over one billion euro to Kiev's coffers in the period of 1998-2004, and has committed itself to increasing its assistance in the next budget period.

During the meeting, the issue of the long-standing Transnistria conflict in neighbouring Moldova was discussed with the European Commission calling for stricter border management between Ukraine and Moldova, a key element to the settlement of the conflict.

"Finding a peaceful solution is in the interests of Moldova, Ukraine and the EU," said Ferrero-Waldner on Tuesday (29 March).

The Commission is set to open an EU Delegation in Moldova this year.

More Than 18,000 Children From Chernobyl Treated In Cuba Over Last 15 Years

HAVANA, Cuba -- More than 18,000 children with health problems believed linked to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine have received treatment in Cuba over the last 15 years, officials said.

Hundreds of those children and their relatives gathered to mark the 15th anniversary of the program, launched in 1991 after the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded and caught fire in 1986. The initial blast and fire caused 31 deaths but the radiation plume that spread from the crippled power plant eventually killed and sickened many more.

"For many mothers, Cuba was the only hope," said Svetlana Saslavskaya, whose son showed officials and diplomats attending Tuesday's event how he could stand up from a wheelchair and move slowly after several operations for an unidentified illness.

The children receive treatment at a coastal sanatorium at Tarara, east of Havana. Cuba pays for all medical treatment, room and board. The average stay is 2 1/2 months.

About 250 children are at the sanatorium at any one time. They live in houses surrounding the medical facility, often with their parents.

When the program began, most of the young patients suffered from leukemia, other forms of cancer and cerebral palsy - health problems doctors believe are related to the radiation.

But any sick child from the affected region is eligible for the program, regardless of their affliction.

Ukraine, Turkey Win World Cup Qualifiers

SAN FRANCISCO, USA -- France managed just a 1-1 draw at Israel, leaving the teams tied Wednesday atop their group in a battle to reach next year's World Cup finals.

David Trezeguet scored in the 50th minute in the World Cup qualifier, but Walid Badier tied it for Israel in the 83rd. France was playing with 10 men at the time because Trezeguet was sent off in the 55th for head-butting. He faces a three-match ban from qualifying play for the straight red card.

France and Israel have 10 points apiece to lead their qualifying group. The winners of Europe's eight groups qualify automatically for next year's World Cup finals in Germany. The best two second-place teams also advance, with the other six playing for three spots.

The United States played Guatemala in a night match in Birmingham, Ala., one of three games in the North and Central America and Caribbean group. South America featured four games.

On a night of 21 games across Europe, England and Poland picked up wins their tightly contested group.

Steven Gerrard and David Beckham scored as England beat Azerbaijan 2-0 in Newcastle to improve to 16 points and remain one in front of Poland.

The Poles defeated Northern Ireland 1-0, getting a goal in the 86th-minute from Maciej Zurawski. In another group game, Austria defeated Wales 1-0.

Ukraine stayed atop its group with a 1-0 victory over Denmark on Andriy Voronin's goal in the 68th minute. With 17 points in seven games, Ukraine is trying to reach its first World Cup finals.

European champion Greece, second in that group, won 2-0 at home against Albania to improve to 14 points. Angelos Charisteas scored in the 35th, and Giorgos Karagounis added the clincher in the 85th.

Turkey won 5-2 at Georgia, giving the 2002 World Cup semifinalist 12 points in seven games. Fatih Tekke scored two goals and set up another. Tolga Seyhan, Mustafa Avci and Tuncay Sanli also scored for Turkey.

Another European group has a tie at the top between Slovakia and Portugal, which played to a 1-1 draw in Bratislava. The result left them with 14 points each, three ahead of Russia. Miroslav Karhan gave Slovakia a 1-0 lead on an eighth-minute penalty, with Portugal equalizing on Helder Postiga's 61st-minute strike.

Russia and Estonia drew 1-1 in Tallinn. Andrei Arshavin scored for Russia and Sergei Terehhov tied it early in the second half. In the same group, Latvia defeated Luxembourg 4-0.

The Netherlands defeated Armenia 2-0 to stay in the lead in its group with 16 points. Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Romeo Castelen scored for the Dutch. The Czech Republic has 15 points after a 4-0 win at Andorra. In another game, Romania won 2-1 at Macedonia to improve to 13 points.

Norway played a 0-0 draw at Moldova to improve to eight points in its group. Leader Italy, with 12 points, did not play. In another group game, Belarus and Slovenia drew 1-1.

Serbia-Montenegro drew 0-0 in Belgrade against Spain. Serbia improved to 11 points and Spain moved up to nine in that group. Lithuania and Bosnia-Herzegovina played a 1-1 draw, which gave Lithuania nine points. In another match, Belgium defeated San Marino 2-1.

Dado Prso scored twice and Igor Tudor once in Croatia's 3-0 victory over Malta in Zagreb. The victory moved Croatia into first place in its group with 13 points, one ahead of idle Sweden. Prso scored in the 23rd and 36th minutes, while Tudor scored in the 70th. In the other group game, Bulgaria drew 1-1 at Hungary.

In Asia, Japan and South Korea kept their World Cup bids alive. South Korea defeated Uzbekistan 2-1 and Japan topped Bahrain 1-0. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia played to a scoreless tie, and Iran topped North Korea 2-0.

Wednesday marked the halfway spot in qualifying. The next rounds are June 4 and June 8. Qualifying ends Oct. 12, with playoffs in November.

Ukraine's President to Address US Congress

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko, is to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress next week.

Senate Majority leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert say they look forward to hearing from the Ukrainian leader April 6.

In a statement, the lawmakers said Mr. Yushchenko's election last year is inspiring the spread of democracy throughout the world.

Mr. Yushchenko meets President Bush at the White House Monday.

Last year's presidential election in Ukraine was a bitter contest marred by controversy.

Mr. Yushchenko defeated his rival Viktor Yanukovych in a repeat election held after Ukraine's Supreme Court threw out the results of a previous vote because of widespread fraud.

Ukraine's Sweet Smell of Success

KIEV, Ukraine -- It may look like an ordinary range of perfumes. Tall see-through glass bottles contain different fragrances. But it is the orange ribbons attached to each of them that sets them apart.

"We feel very proud about the Orange Revolution and we wanted to create something to remember that special time," says Lydmila Bedrina, director of the Russian Cosmetics Company, which is based in Kiev.



"Every one of our employees stood on Independence Square during the big demonstrations by the opposition."

The company has developed a fragrance for each round of Ukraine's presidential elections, as well as the inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko.

Fragrant Support

They use orange ribbons like those worn by the opposition.

Their mass protests were sparked by a disputed ballot in November.

The perfume for that round of the vote is marketed as smelling of bitter oranges.

"I like the one dedicated to the day that Yushchenko came to power, as it best reflects the strong emotions I felt when I saw him as our president for the first time," says Masha Ulyanchenko, a shopper in her 20s.

They each cost around $6.

As commiseration for the supporters of the losing presidential candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, the company has also produced a collection of blue-and-white perfumes.

But it is being outsold by the orange range.

Building Trust

Last winter hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Kiev's Independence Square.

More than three months on, the protesters are gone.

But there is a growing trade in memorabilia commemorating the "Orange Revolution".

Former president Leonid Kuchma was unpopular in many parts of Ukraine - while Victor Yushchenko enjoys a high approval rating.

The latest opinion poll conducted in all regions of the country found the new president to be trusted by more than 60% of respondents.

That is a third higher than during the elections.

"The revolution was a success and the right man won. People want to associate themselves with that success," says Hryhoryi Nemyrya, a political analyst.

"Young people especially are moved by the romantic aspect of Ukraine's revolution. It has become very symbolic and almost like a legend now."

Thriving Business

In a subway under Independence Square a new store has opened.

Called "The Orange Revolution Shop and Museum", it only sells items which celebrate the mass protests.

There are portraits of Mr Yushchenko, as well as T-shirts, key rings, calendars featuring pictures of the new president and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

You can also buy orange flags, jumpers, bags, pens, and mugs.

Many of the open air stalls which line the capital's main street are also cashing in.

"It seems to me that you can buy more orange things than ever before, even compared to when there were all the demonstrations. It's not about making a political statement any more, but a fast buck," remarks Oleg Lazarev on his way through Independence Square to his office.

When the protests started the opposition supplied much of the orange gear as it was their election campaign colour.

But there was so much demand that street traders also started selling the goods.

Now their biggest customers are Ukrainian tourists and foreign visitors.

"You want a piece of history?" Oleksandr, a street trader, asks passers-by in English.

"Just two dollars for a hat, three for a scarf."

New Markets

Visiting the scene of the mass protests has become part of the tourist trail.

For $150 you can even go on an "Orange Tour" of Kiev.

"You will feel the atmosphere which was created by the supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, who defended the democracy and freedom of Ukraine," says the website of Sun City, the Ukrainian tourist agency which offers the trip.

Far from winding down, this orange industry is now preparing for a new market.

In May Ukraine hosts the Eurovision Song Contest.

It is thought that the memorabilia will be popular amongst many of the thousands of people who are expected in the capital.

Ukrainian Parliament Continues Shift Towards Yushchenko

KIEV, Ukraine -- As Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko prepares to visit Washington, DC next week, his support in the Ukrainian parliament grows even stronger. The camp that supported the Kuchma regime has shrunk, after several groups defected from it to join the factions linked to parliamentary chair Volodymyr Lytvyn. The Yushchenko's faction, Our Ukraine, has consolidated, choosing a liberal ideology based on free markets and is starting to shake off its right-wing nationalist element. The parliamentary opposition to the government now consists of former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych's Regions of Ukraine, former presidential administration chief Viktor Medvedchuk's Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (United) (SDPUo), and the Communists.



The establishment of Viktor Yushchenko's new party, the People's Union Our Ukraine, earlier this month has strengthened Yushchenko's faction in parliament. From a coalition of several party groups cemented by Yushchenko's charisma, it has been transformed into an alliance between the People's Union and the moderately conservative People's Movement of Ukraine (PMU). This has been the result of the dissolution of three groupings within the faction -- the Razom (Together) group of former businessmen, the center-left Solidarity, and the liberal Our Ukraine (formerly Reforms and Order) -- and the defection of the right-wing Ukrainian People's Party (UNP).

Most of Razom's members have become government ministers, leaving parliament. Solidarity, the party of National Security and Defense Council Secretary Petro Poroshenko, has merged with the People's Union. Viktor Pynzenyk's Our Ukraine is about to do the same. And the UNP left the Our Ukraine faction for ideological reasons, according to its leader, Yuriy Kostenko. The UNP, he explained in recent interviews, is a right-wing nationalist party, but the People's Union is a liberal formation, which makes a merger impossible. Kostenko pledged that his party would continue to back the Yushchenko government. At the same time, the UNP may remain outside Yushchenko's coalition in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Kostenko views the PMU and another right-wing group, Sobor, as possible allies for the upcoming electoral campaign. This means that the PMU's defection from Our Ukraine is not ruled out either.

For the moment, Our Ukraine's 85 deputies, the UNP's 22, the 24 seats of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc, the 17 deputies from First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh's Industrialists and Entrepreneurs group, and the 28-strong Socialist Party form the pro-government camp in parliament. This camp may grow, given the high popularity of its leaders, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. The newly elected leader of the Our Ukraine faction, Mykola Martynenko, has predicted that Our Ukraine will grow to 100-120 members in the near future.

The second strongest camp for the moment is Lytvyn's. Currently it consists of the 31-strong People's Party (not to be confused with the UNP) and the 19-strong Democratic Ukraine faction. Three more factions -- United Ukraine (22), Democratic Initiatives (14), and Union (13) -- are viewed as satellites. This camp is set to grow at the expense of the People's Democratic Party of former prime minister Valeriy Pustovoitenko, which currently numbers 11 deputies and is on the verge of dissolution. The groups flocking under Lytvyn's wing had once been parts of former President Leonid Kuchma's mega-faction, United Ukraine, which broke apart at the end of 2002. The People's Party is the former Agrarian Party, which Lytvyn hijacked from the previous government's agricultural bosses. Democratic Ukraine was formed on the ruins of the once largest pro-Kuchma faction, Labor Ukraine, in January. Democratic Ukraine is headed by the former leader of Labor Ukraine, Ihor Sharov, and includes Kuchma's son-in-law, the steel and media tycoon Viktor Pinchuk. Yushchenko, speaking at his People's Union founding congress in early March, named Lytvyn's party as a possible coalition partner for the 2006 elections, but Sharov revealed in a recent interview with Glavred that he is going to persuade Lytvyn to form a separate list for the elections. The list may include Pinchuk, but there will be no place for Kuchma in it, Sharov said.

The three factions in the opposition to Yushchenko have been shrinking. Between early December 2004 and late March 2005, membership in the Communist faction dropped from 59 to 56, Regions of Ukraine shrank from 62 to 53 deputies, and the SDPUo shrank from 34 to 21 members. There has been little coordination among the three opposition groups so far. The March 25 voting on amendments to the state 2005 budget demonstrated that it would be too early to speak of an opposition alliance, let alone a united opposition. Only Yanukovych's Regions of Ukraine behaved as real opposition, refusing to take part in the voting. But the SDPUo and the Communists voted "in favor." As a result, support for the budget amendments providing for an increase in social spending and cancellation of tax breaks was very high -- 376 ballots "in favor" in the 450-seat body (428 deputies were present during the voting).

Ukraine: New Government Moving On Reforms -- But Not Fast Enough For Some

PRAGUE, Three months have passed since Ukraine's Orange Revolution. Viktor Yushchenko and other opposition figures who led last winter's street protests now occupy government offices. Analysts say the government is trying to implement the reforms it promised -- and is succeeding in some cases. But many Ukrainians are hoping to see more reforms -- and sooner.

Igor Losev teaches history and philosophy at Kyiv's Mohyla Academy. He says the Orange Revolution has brought some immediate benefits to his country -- like a new tolerance for freedom of expression, particularly in the media.



"Ukraine never knew such press freedom before. We've never had such freedom to criticize the authorities -- not only in semi-underground opposition newspapers, but also in very respectable ones. And sometimes this criticism really pushes the boundaries," Losev said.

The new government has moved quickly on reforms since Yushchenko's inauguration on 23 January. Officials have taken steps to cut back industry tax breaks and investigate past privatization deals. Parliament last week approved a revised 2005 budget supporters hope will lay a course for aggressive economic reform.

There have also been changes in the way the government appears to view its electorate. Stuart Hensel of the Economist Intelligence Unit says authorities now treat society with respect.

"There seems to be a general change in the tone of the leadership in Ukraine, which is a very positive thing," Hensel said.

Still, observers say it is still too early to talk about major reform. Hensel says the new government's work is still largely rhetorical -- and focused more on small changes rather than sweeping actions.

"It's still very early to look for any concrete changes. They [the new administration] in fact spent most of the past two months focusing on issues like personnel changes, and haven't actually come up with any really concrete pieces of legislation that they can move through parliament," Hensel said.

Such delays are not surprising to some. One of the first tasks of Ukraine's new government is to streamline the state apparatus by creating a firm separation between business and politics. But it's a delicate maneuver. Many on Yushchenko's team are themselves successful entrepreneurs.

The administration has also begun the difficult task of reforming the police, secret service, and border and customs officials.

The most visible change to date may be in foreign policy. Ukraine has moved quickly to ingratiate itself with Western bodies like the European Union. Still, such gestures will have little impact until Kyiv is able to fully implement its internal reforms.

Losev of Mohyla Academy says the enthusiasm and excitement that infused the Orange Revolution have faded as the government gets down to the practicalities of holding good on its promises. He says many Ukrainians are impatient, and want to see reforms instituted as fast as possible.

"I think that a lot of things have changed, but people's expectations are too high. We have a specific mentality. A person thinks that if he comes to a rally today, by tomorrow everything in the country should have changed -- and changed exactly the way he wants it to," Losev says.

Still, most Ukrainians still appear to have trust in their new government.

A February poll shows 63 percent of people support Yushchenko -- a rise of 27 percentage points over last October, before the height of the Orange Revolution.

By contrast, support for his former rival, Viktor Yanukovych, has dropped by 8 percentage points, to 29 percent.

Alfa Delves Deeper Into Kyivstar

MOSCOW, Russia -- M&A Russia's Alfa Group Consortium said Tuesday, March 29, it has taken full control of a 43.5% stake in Ukraine's second-largest mobile operator, CJSC Kyivstar GSM, in what analysts said is further evidence of the improved investment climate in the country since the election of President Viktor Yushchenko.

The reformist Yushchenko in December won a rerun of the previous disputed presidential election on a platform to clean up the rampant corruption that allowed state assets to be sold to relatives and cronies of the previous regime for a fraction of their true value. Since coming to power, the new government has held talks with a number of foreign investors and launched investigations into several suspicious privatizations.

OOO Alfa Telecom, a subsidiary of Mikhail Fridman's financial-industrial conglomerate, said it has raised its stake in Storm Ltd. to 100% from 50.1%. Storm owns a 43.5% stake in Kyivstar.

Kirill Babaev, vice president for external communications at Alfa Telecom, did not disclose the price paid, though Norway's Telenor ASA, which owns the remaining 56.5% in Kyivstar, acquired a 7.7% stake in the operator in 2002 for $31 million, suggesting a total market cap then of about $400 million. Kyivstar's revenue rose 72% in 2004 to $640.7 million, so it would appear to be worth more now.

In an interview with Ukrainian business journal Kontrakty, Alfa Telecom's managing director, Pavel Kulikov, said talks to gain take full control of Storm have been ongoing since the Russian firm purchased an initial stake two years ago in the Ukrainian company, the ownership of which remains obscure.

Analysts suspect the owners of the stake in Storm that has been sold to Alfa Telecom are individuals close to the former president, Leonid Kuchma.

"The motivation for the sale was probably to secure cash before the new government launches wider probes into the wrongdoings of its predecessor," said Alexander Kazbegi, an analyst at Moscow investment bank Renaissance Capital.

Alfa's foray into Ukraine's telecom sector is testament to how much the investment climate has changed in the country, especially given that Russia's largest mobile operator, OAO Mobile TeleSystems, was involved in a murky legal dispute last year over its purchase of 51% of the country's largest mobile operator, Ukrainian Mobile Communications, from state-owned telecom OAO Ukrtelecom.

That lawsuit has since been dismissed, though analysts at the time believed the prosecutor general's office was being used by politically influential local investors as a tool to attack Mobile TeleSystems and perhaps prevent it from taking part in the planned privatization of Ukrtelecom.

Ukrtelecom is one of 27 of the biggest state monopolies that are being audited by the government ahead of sales to private investors later this year. The government has set up a special commission to carry out an audit of these companies to prevent the kind of abuses seen in prior privatizations, where they were sold off too cheaply.

Ukraine to Buy Russian Gas for New Higher Prices — Paper

MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukraine’s new government has agreed to buy natural gas from Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom at higher prices in return for increased gas transit fees, Russia’s Kommersant daily reported on Tuesday, March 29.

According to the paper’s information, officials from Ukraine’s Energy Ministry and state oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukraine went to Gazprom’s Moscow headquarters to negotiate a switch to international prices for natural gas. The move is a bid on both sides to make their relationship more transparent. Kommersant reported that the price of Russian gas supplied to Ukraine would rise from $50 to $80 per 1,000 cubic meters, costing Russia’s neighbor an extra $690 million a year in total.



Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko wants to turn Ukraine into a major energy trading center and to move it out of Russia’s shadow. He has already attempted to negotiate with Turkmenistan so that the Central Asian country comes over to manage Ukraine’s vast network of gas pipelines.

The negotiations have not been completed because of the price issue, but Yushchenko is intent on getting rid of Russia’s virtual monopoly on the Ukrainian energy market. Around 80 percent of Russia’s total gas exports flow to Europe through Ukraine. The other problem that Yushchenko faces is securing cooperation from Gazprom, which can make or break gas exports from landlocked Turkmenistan.

Last year Gazprom and Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank agreed to reclassify $1.2 billion of Ukraine’s debts to Russia as prepayments for gas transit. The transit tariff was set at $1.09 per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers of transit until 2009. But the Russian daily said that in the process of negotiations the parties agreed to raise the transit price to between $1.75 and $2 beginning in 2006 and to stop barter deals under which Gazprom pays for transit with gas.

According to the paper, Russia pipes around 130 billion cubic meters of gas through Ukraine annually. Ukraine receives some 23 billion cubic meters of gas in lieu of transit fees.

Yushchenko Plans Constitution Reform

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko wants to reform Ukraine's constitution this fall, Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The changes are intended to raise the efficiency of local self-government across the former Soviet republic, the pro-Western president told a press conference.

"I am a great supporter of creating true self-government in Ukraine, starting with making this system legally self-sufficient. This process is promising. I, as president, will support it. I think we will see the constitution made stronger by appropriate amendments this fall," he said according to the Interfax report.

"Political reform should be public and honest, without forcing the decision making process," Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko's proposed reform will change Ukraine's political system from the presidential to the parliamentary form of government, Interfax said. This will allow a coalition of parliamentary factions to form the government. The president also wants to extend the term of an elected parliament to five years, the news agency said.

The new arrangements will come into effect on Sept. 1 if the constitutional amendments are ratified in time, Interfax said.

Ukraine Want to Prove Worth Without Shevchenko

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine have a rare chance to dispel the myth of being a one-man team when they host Denmark in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday.

The Ukrainians, who lead European Group Two with 14 points from six matches, will be without captain and leading player Andriy Shevchenko, who is still recovering after fracturing a cheekbone and eye socket in a Serie A match last month.

The AC Milan striker has scored four goals in five qualifiers to help Ukraine open a three-point lead over European champions Greece with Denmark joint third in the group with Turkey, a further two points behind.

With the European Player of the Year on the sidelines, the home side will not only miss his scoring touch but more importantly his ability to lead the team in tough situations.

"Do we miss him? Of course we do," Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin told local reporters this week.

"It's like having two different teams, with Shevchenko or without him in the line-up. But it will give a chance for other senior players to prove their worth and show their leadership qualities," added the former Soviet international.

At least Blokhin will be allowed to guide his team from the bench after Ukraine's Appeal Court last week reversed an earlier decision and allowed the former Dynamo Kiev striker to keep his job.

Blokhin resigned this month saying he could not combine the coaching post with his other job as a Ukrainian parliament member, but the court said he could do both.

Gravesen Returns

"It has been a really tough week mentally for myself and the players," said Blokhin.

"I don't really know why someone in the parliament tried to create such turmoil, especially before a key match against Denmark. It is almost as if someone in our own group wanted us to lose, but I hope my players will prove them wrong."

Aside from Shevchenko, Ukraine will be missing injured Dynamo Kiev defender Serhiy Fyodorov and suspended Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk midfielder Oleg Shelayev.

Denmark, quarter-finalists at Euro 2004, beat Kazakhstan 3-0 at home on Saturday for only their second win in six qualifiers but welcome back Real Madrid midfielder Tomas Gravesen from suspension for a tougher assignment in Kiev.

"They must not take the lead because then they will pack themselves in front their own goal," warned coach Morten Olsen, quoted by the tabloid BT.

Defender Per Kroldrup is also available after serving a suspension.

Probable Teams

Ukraine - Olexander Shovkovsky; Andriy Nesmachny, Volodymyr Yezersky, Andriy Rusol, Oleg Gusev; Andriy Husin, Anatoly Tymoshchyuk, Ruslan Rotan; Andriy Vorobei, Olexiy Belik, Andriy Voronin

Denmark - Thomas Sorensen; Thomas Helveg, Christian Poulsen, Brian Priske, Niclas Jensen, Per Kroldrup, Thomas Gravesen, Jesper Gronkjaer, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Peter Moller, Martin Jorgensen

Referee: Michel Lubos (Slovakia).

Yushchenko Says Ukraine Must Improve Weapons Exports, Pledges Better Controls

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko said that the country's military industry should make more efforts to improve it own weapons designs instead of exporting Soviet-designed surplus arms, the Unian news agency reported March 28.

After appointing Serhiy Bondarchuk, his ally and a prominent technocrat, as the new director of the Ukrspetsexport, Ukraine's state-run weapons exporter, Yushchenko said that "the company's future objective should be to focus more on manufacturing (of weapons), instead of (simple) trade and overhauling."

Yushchenko also said that Ukraine "should not be satisfied that it earns some $500 million (385 million euros) in weapons exports" to about a dozen other countries. "I expect a new, aggressive business approach," he was quoted as saying.

After the Soviet breakup in 1991, Ukraine inherited a sizable military industry and it remains a major producer of weapons, including missiles, aircraft and tanks.

However, the country has long been under scrutiny for murky weapons deals under the former regime of President Leonid Kuchma and Yushchenko said that Ukrspetseksport "must operate transparently, with clean hands and within the law." "Because of weapons scandals we are losing customers," Yushchenko said.

Ukrainian prosecutors acknowledged recently that 18 unarmed nuclear-capable cruise missiles were sold illegally to Iran and China by weapons dealers four years ago, during Kuchma's administration.

In 2002, the United States alleged that Kuchma had approved the sale of sophisticated Kolchuga military radars to Iraq despite U.N. sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime, something Kuchma denied.

"We do not need ... deals that would later spark scandals," Yushchenko said.

He also pledged that the state will establish full control and supervision of weapons production, stockpiles and exports.

Last month Ukrainian authorities ordered military commanders to conduct an inventory of all military weapons and equipment in Ukraine after two anti-aircraft missile systems were discovered missing from a navy depot.

Poland Tapping Up Ukraine for Oil

WARSAW, Poland -- A proposed pipeline bringing oil from Ukraine to Poland could come onstream within three years and pay for itself within eight.

The chief executive of PERN, Wojciech Tabiś, has proposed bringing Caspian Sea oil to the Baltic via an extension of Ukraine's Odessa-Brody pipeline. In an interview with Reuters, he said that the zł.2 billion extension needs a throughput of 15 million tonnes a year to be profitable.

Originally, when Ukraine built the pipeline, it planned to ship Caspian crude to Gdańsk in Poland, but Kiev reversed the plan under Russian pressure. However, the new administration, under President Viktor Yushchenko, is moving away from Russia and towards the EU at a rate of knots, and wants to implement the original idea. Tabiś is confident that the project will be carried out.

"This pipeline will certainly be built - the only question is when. Ukraine needs it, Poland needs it, and Europe needs it," he said. Prime Minister Marek Belka said that Ukraine and Poland will set up a working group to push the project forward, and Tabiś said the next step is to draft a business plan for the extension to Gdańsk.

"The tender for a consultant to write the feasibility study should be announced in May, and according to the current schedule, the oil should start flowing 2.5 to three years after the study is completed," he said. "The investment should pay off in seven to eight years."

Poland appears anxious to find a non-Russian source for crude oil, although the new pipeline may be unsuitable for many Polish refineries as they are currently configured to refine high-sulfur Russian crude.

Georgia, Ukraine Form "New Axis"

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Tbilisi from Kiev on Saturday, after a three day visit to Ukraine during which he discussed cooperation between the two countries and signed an agreement on strategic cooperation with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko.

The two countries also signed an agreement of cooperation between the Black Sea regions of Odessa and Adjara, which according to Georgian media includes cooperation in trade, economic, technical, scientific and humanitarian issues.



Saakashvili was accompanied by Secretary of the National Security Council Gela Bezhuashvili, who signed a memorandum on mutual understanding between the National Security Councils of the two countries with his Ukrainian counterpart Piotr Poroshenko.

President Saakashvili, meanwhile, stressed Ukraine's importance in the region, saying Georgia considered Ukraine as the regional leader in economic, security and political issues as well as the "locomotive of European integration."

On Friday the two men signed a declaration on strategic cooperation that called for, among other items, mutual assistance in settling frozen conflicts in the region.

"The declaration we have signed reads that a new axis is being established from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. It is a very important strategic initiative," President Saakashvili stated.

The declaration also calls for demilitarization of the Black Sea region, utilization of energy transit potential, and reinforcement of humanitarian partnerships.

After the signing, Presidents Saakashvili and Yushchenko also discussed the forthcoming meeting of the leaders of GUUAM member countries - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova - to be held on April 22 in the Moldovan capital Chisinau, which Romanian President Traian Basescu is also expected to attend despite not being a member of GUUAM. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, has suspended its membership and has not said it will attend the summit.

The presidential website cites him as saying, "We have cooperated with the Baltic States, Ukraine and Romania for a long time… This means that these countries have common interests." He added, "GUUAM member states strive for EU and NATO membership and we openly declare that."

"We are speaking about the re-establishment of the Baltic-Black Sea frame of stability," the president continued, stressing that such a union was not directed against any third country.

At a joint press briefing on March 25, Saakashvili and Yushchenko also commented on the events taking place in Kyrgyzstan, and called for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, and also sought to downplay any strong connection between the Kyrgyz events and the revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine.

"We are not the exporters of revolution. Our revolutions were similar, but not because they were fabricated by someone; simply, the people reacted to injustice in a similar way," Saakashvili declared.

"Of course, this is an issue that must be solved within the country, but the issue of democracy and our sympathy towards restoring democracy in the country are of course international issues are well. All international observers described serious violations in the elections in Kyrgyzstan," the Georgian president added.

Yushchenko, meanwhile, called for a peaceful settlement of the conflict as the best way to put an end to the instability.

Saakashvili also met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, whom he invited to visit Georgia. She said that she would visit Russia only after Georgia.

"I received an invitation from the Georgian president to visit Georgia. I will certainly do so after overseeing the adoption of the state budget. For me Georgia is a unique and romantic country," Timoshenko said in an interview with the media, although she added that this would be her first visit to Georgia.

While in Kiev, Saakashvili was awarded the prize of Honorary Doctor from the National Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev.

2005 declared Year of Georgia

Saakashvili's visit concluded with a concert dedicated to the declaration of 2005 as the Year of Georgia in Ukraine at the Taras Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theater. Sandra Roelofs, who accompanied her husband to Ukraine, agreed to a schedule of events to mark the 'Year of Georgia 2005.'

Before the opening of the concert the presidents of the two countries addressed the audience, both highlighting the friendship between the two courtiers.

Saakashvili said that the fight for democracy in the world would be stopped by nothing. "This striving towards democracy will not be stopped by any army or use of force. I think that this force will lead us to greater kindness and, as I have already mentioned, kindness always wins," he told the audience gathered in the theater.

He promised that Georgia would respond be creating a 'Year of Ukraine' in 2006. After the speech the two presidents viewed the concert in which only Georgian singers and musicians took part.

At the back of the stage were hung screens depicting the revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.

At the end of the concert Georgia's First Lady also sang two Georgian songs Suliko and Verkhvis Potoltan together with Folk Rustavi.

In May, President of Ukraine Yuschenko is slated to visit Georgia for the opening ceremony of the Ukrainian house in Tbilisi.

Master Card Caught Fraud Perpetrators in Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia -- Friday night Master Card Europe distributed a press release saying that in Ukraine officials had stopped activity of a criminal group accused of committing fraud with credit cards. Master Card of Europe made this step to calm bankers and their clients because early Friday two Russian banks reported fraud through bank machines in Ukraine.

Two weeks ago, Raiffaizenbank (Moscow) stopped accepting its cards through bank machines in Ukarine. At that time, a member of the board of Raiffaizenbank, Alexander Koloshenko stated that recently “the cards that were used in the territory of Ukraine more than anywhere else were objects of schemes and frauds including compromising of the PIN code.” Last Friday two more Russian banks – Slavyaski Bank and Master Bank – shared the fears of Raiffaizenbank. They put on their web sites warning for clients about the high risk of fraud with the plastic cards in Ukraine.

For instance, the Department of Plastic Cards of Slavyaski Bank says in its warning “we ask that unless you have an urgent needs, do not use your bank cards to receive cash in the bank machine located in the territory of the Republic of Ukraine until the current situation is resolved.” The vice president of Slavyaski Bank Maxim Belov explained to Kommersant the appearance of such warnings was made after reading of the Kommersant article of March 15. The other reason, according to his words, was “we had two cases of fraud in ATM transactions in Ukraine this year. However, with only two cases from 100,000 (that’s how many cards the bank issued) we cannot make straight conclusions. In Southeast Asia at the same time there were many more frauds.” Belov thinks “it’s always better to overreact and warn the clients in the form of recommendation.”

Master Bank also warned its clients practically the same way. “Because of a large number of frauds with plastic cards in Russian banks in Ukraine, Master Bank does not recommend that use your cards in the territory of this state.” The bank also reminded clients that if they want to check all the operations done with cards they can join a free system of personal control. In other words, they can receive information on any transactions on the account online and through the cell phone as SMS message. The head of the payment transactions department of Master Bank, Oleg Safonov, explained to Kommersant “Our recommendation to the clients is based on the analysis of the developing situation in order to forecast and prohibit in the future possible increases in the number of fraud operations.”

The level of increased fraud among the Ukrainian bank machines from the fall of last year has become a hot topic among participants in the plastic card markets. The participants of this market noticed that percentage of compromised plastic cards in Ukraine was quite high, and that shows that the problem has a wide-spread character. The fraud of the PIN codes can be evidence of the existence of criminal groups which act from some processing center. Raiffaizenbank was worried about the existing situation and early this month asked Master Card and Visa to “find the root of the crime.” So far Visa did not react on the request of Raiffaizenbank. But Master Card of Europe, to calm down the Russian bankers and their clients, distributed an official press release last Friday.

“In August of last year, Master Card of Europe discovered fraud operations that were committed with Master Cards in ATM machines in Ukraine, says the press release. In order to prevent losses for card holders, Master Card, together with Ukrainian law enforcement, took measures for fast and effective resolution of this situation. The result of this active cooperation was halting fraud operations and arrest of culprits.” However the names of those arrested or the volume of the fraud, Master Card did not publish in its press release. “Master Card officially did not let us know about its actions and for that matter I think it would be not correct to comment on the situation right now,” said Koloshenko to Kommersant on Friday.

Estimates of Chernobyl Radioactivity Over France Too Low: New Report

PARIS, France -- A new expert report on the radioactive cloud from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster over France suggests radioactivity measurements were sometimes much higher than at first suggested, a source close to the case said.

Judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, who has been leading the inquiry since July 2001, has just been handed new information from two experts, Paul Genty and Gilbert Mouthon, various French media organisations reported Saturday.

During their investigation into the matter the two experts relied on documents seized during searches in various ministries and organisations involved in the prevention of nuclear risks.

The accident at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986 was the world's worst nuclear power disaster, contaminating a large part of Europe over several days.

U.S. Ambassador Says Bright Prospect for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's planned visit to the United States would help usher in a new era in bilateral relations, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said, according to an interview published Saturday.

Yushchenko is set to meet with President Bush at the White House on April 4.

``We expect not only the revival of friendly ties that existed between our states seven-nine years ago, but the establishment of a qualitatively new level of relations,'' U.S. Ambassador John Herbst told the Kievskiy Telegraf weekly.

Ukraine has been cited frequently by Bush administration officials as an example of the movement toward greater democracy worldwide.

In Ukraine's so-called ``Orange Revolution,'' popular protests triggered by a fraudulent vote paved the way to Yushchenko's victory over a Russia-backed rival in December's court-ordered election rerun.

``Ukraine presses toward truly democratic changes in politics and economy,'' Herbst said. ``If it manages to fulfill its aspirations, our relations, I'm sure, will be absolutely close.''

U.S.-Ukrainian relations cooled under ex-President Leonid Kuchma, who was accused by Washington of selling a sophisticated radar system to Iraq despite U.N. sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime. Kuchma denied the allegations.

In what was widely seen as an effort to improve relations with Washington, Kuchma sent Ukrainian troops to serve in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq after the war. The deployment has been unpopular at home, however, and Ukrainian officials have vowed to bring the troops home this year.

``I see no problems in the withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops,'' Herbst said, emphasizing that Yushchenko had promised to consult coalition partners on details of the withdrawal.

Delta Couple Preparing to Start Life in Ukraine

DELTA, Ohio -- With the recent election of Viktor Yushchenko, a Delta native is hearing the call of Kiev.
Tim McQuillin, who served as an election monitor in Ukraine, is leaving the Fulton County countryside next week for his new home and job in one of the biggest cities in Europe.

"I had a vested interest in the outcome of the election," said Mr. McQuillin, 36, a 1987 graduate of Pike-Delta-York High School. His wife, Luda, is a native of Romny, Ukraine, where they met after Mr. McQuillin signed up in 1997 for a 15-month assignment as a consultant to help businesses in the former Soviet republic become private enterprises.


Tim and Luda McQuillin
Before the recent presidential election, Mrs. McQuillin, as well as many others in Ukraine, didn't pay much attention to politics, she said. "It was boring. It never made sense. It never made a difference." Today? "The country is changing," she said. "You can't stay indifferent to that."

Mr. McQuillin said that he knew in 2003 that he wanted to go back to Ukraine to live if the conditions were right. Term limits meant that a new president would be elected in 2004. "I knew there could be big changes," he said, and if the reform candidate won, "that would be the trigger."

Sensing an urgency to the outcome, the need to make sure that the election produced a respected leader who would help integrate Ukraine into Europe, Mr. McQuillin wanted to be involved in the process. He applied to be one of the election observers. He said he watched out for "any funny business" during two rounds of voting last fall.

In December, he and his wife went back - their third trip to Ukraine for the elections - to monitor a rerun of the Nov. 21 run-off between Mr. Yushchenko and pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whose victory was later annulled by Ukraine's Supreme Court amid evidence of widespread vote fraud and massive pro-Yushchenko protests.

It was amazing to witness the protest in Kiev's Independence Square, said Mr. McQuillin. Protesters, he said, were saying that "they didn't have to live like this anymore. It was the first time that I saw them take a stand."

The election marked a turning point for the country where democracy has struggled to take hold in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union. Mr. Yushchenko has pledged to clean up corruption and set the country of 48 million on a course toward European integration.

In January, the McQuillins attended the presidential inauguration, meeting Mr. Yushchenko, and then the couple returned to Berkeley, Calif., where they started to pack up belongings in their apartment. They were married in California in 2000. For the last couple weeks, they have been staying at the Delta home of his parents, Kathleen and Mark McQuillin.

Tim, who has a background in business, and Luda, whose area is finance, have created a firm called ROMDEL, a name that blends her hometown of Romny and his hometown of Delta. They will do business consulting and work with Sauder Woodworking of Archbold to export Sauder products to Ukraine, said Mr. McQuillin. "I would love to see Ohio become a leader in export/import with Ukraine," he said. "Ukraine could be a good source. Ukraine has been out in the cold for so long." But the business climate is changing, he said. The thaw, "It's happening."

Pink Revolution Rumbles on in Blood and Fury

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- First there was the rose, then the orange, now it's pink. Revolution seems to be contagious in former Soviet republics; this is the third in 17 months. After three days of looting and violence, Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary Speaker yesterday tried to place a seal on the week's uprising by announcing that presidential elections would be held on 26 June.


Kirgyz riot police officer inspects a vehicle
The accidental revolution erupted in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on Thursday morning when 1,000 people turned up outside the presidential administration for a protest over an election that President Askar Akayev had fixed to give his allies, son and daughter all but six of the 75 parliamentary seats.

The Akayev regime had anticipated such a protest and bussed in hundreds of sympathisers, mostly state industrial workers who were told by officials they were there to 'defend the motherland' and ordered to be ready to fight 'to the death'.

Together with thin lines of young, ill-equipped police, they encircled the presidential administration, next to the central square. Opposition leaders Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Roza Otunbayeva, now the country's acting President and Foreign Minister, were at the front of the protesters, while behind the crowd snaked and grew, a mixture of the impassioned and drunk. The marchers' fury was clear, but their aim was not.

Slogans and symbols almost replicated the electoral struggle which unseated Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma in November. Pink armbands were distributed to the crowd; they had been orange in Kiev. In Georgia, the symbol of 2003's revolution was a rose. Daffodils appeared in the marchers' hands, the opposition claiming the government had cleared the city of the initial symbol - tulips - out of fear.

Forty police, riot shields linked together, faced a volley of sticks and stones and dust rose over monuments in the city's central square as missiles flew between rival protesters.

Within an hour the crowds had broken through and were inside the presidential kitchen, drinking the presidential wine, riding the presidential Stairmaster and ransacking the safe.

They expressed their rage at the monopoly the Akayev government had on business and life in the central Asian state. Photocopiers, clocks, photographs of the President - nothing was safe from the rage of a crowd part ideological, part criminal, part drunk.

With no leader co-ordinating or calming the protest, mob fury ruled. The opposition, steeled by the peaceful success of crowds in Ukraine and Georgia, felt a repeat would be easy in Kyrgyzstan. But the infrastructure - parliament, economy, media and police - that held Ukraine together during its electoral crisis to ensure a clean transfer of power collapsed in Kyrgyzstan. At least five people died and more than 200 were treated in hospital.

There were also fears this weekend of further conflict. Last night some 3,000 Akayev supporters were marching on Bishkek from a town 55 miles away. Keneshbek Dushenbayev, Akayev's Interior Minister, said they were coming to 'help law enforcement tackle the youth looting the city'. Interfax reported that Akayev had fled to Russia and there were claims of an attempt on his life.

A second night of violence and looting hit the capital on Friday. 'Give me your watch or I will smash open your head,' one looter said to The Observer . Many police stood by, idly smoking. They said they wanted to impose a curfew but lacked numbers.

Yesterday morning, as the city appeared calm, Ruslan Akhimov picked through the wreckage of the supermarket Beta Stores, where he worked. 'We're all out of a job now', he said, 'and these criminal elements just want the place to fall apart.'

Ukraine Kicks off Corruption Clean-Up - with a Ban on Baths

MOSCOW, Russia -- Only in Ukraine would you think that the way to start a clean-up campaign is with a ban on baths. But the country's new leaders believe they can stamp out sharp practice by discouraging their underlings to steer clear of a centuries-old Slavic pastime, the banya or bath house.


A Ukrainian Banya
It may be the place where Ukrainians, and indeed Russians, go every week to wash away their sins and grime but Ukraine's new "Orange" government thinks it is also the place where many an official is "nobbled" by corrupt businessmen. Viktor Yushchenko, the country's crusading President, has therefore informally banned regional governors and other officials from going to the banya - traditionally a sacred part of Ukrainian and Russian culture.

"It's all about showing the new face of Ukraine," Irina Geraschenko, Mr Yushchenko's spokeswoman, told The Independent on Sunday. "It's no secret that you get all kinds of unsavoury types there, and they are not the people with whom government officials should be mixing." Though she conceded that there was no way Mr Yushchenko could physically prevent his officials from frequenting banyas, she said that he had made it clear that banya-goers will be frowned upon.

In neighbouring Russia, banyas remain a staple of business culture - often replacing a business dinner or a boardroom meeting. Indeed, many legitimate business transactions are concluded amid the hot steam and beery atmosphere, where men traditionally wash themselves once a week.

However, stamping out corruption is Mr Yushchenko's No 1 priority. He has banned officials from accepting gifts worth more than £12 and from having any business interests, and has ordered them regularly to declare their outgoings as well as their income. Cronyism, fraud and corruption are Ukraine's biggest ills, he has declared, a legacy he blames on his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.

Mr Yushchenko has pledged that things will be different now. His task is Herculean. According to Transparency International's latest ranking of corrupt nations, Ukraine came 128th out of 146 - nestling between Sudan and Cameroon.

Mr Yushchenko's government has already started the process of reversing the privatisation of Ukraine's biggest steel producer on the grounds that it was "bare-faced robbery". A further 3,000 privatisations are set to be reviewed, and there have been flamboyant gestures. Yevhen Chervonenko, the new Transport Minister, promised to auction off a luxury Maybach limo worth £250,000 bought by the former head of the country's cash-starved railways.

However, there are signs that the corruption drive will not be plain sailing. At least one prominent government minister responsible for the campaign has complained of coming under "undue pressure" from outside interests.

Ukrainian President to Meet With Bush

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's planned visit to the United States would help usher in a new era in bilateral relations, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said, according to an interview published Saturday.

Yushchenko is set to meet with President Bush at the White House on April 4.

"We expect not only the revival of friendly ties that existed between our states seven-nine years ago, but the establishment of a qualitatively new level of relations," U.S. Ambassador John Herbst told the Kievskiy Telegraf weekly.

Ukraine has been cited frequently by Bush administration officials as an example of the movement toward greater democracy worldwide.

In Ukraine's so-called "Orange Revolution," popular protests triggered by a fraudulent vote paved the way to Yushchenko's victory over a Russia-backed rival in December's court-ordered election rerun.

"Ukraine presses toward truly democratic changes in politics and economy," Herbst said. "If it manages to fulfill its aspirations, our relations, I'm sure, will be absolutely close."

U.S.-Ukrainian relations cooled under ex-President Leonid Kuchma, who was accused by Washington of selling a sophisticated radar system to Iraq despite U.N. sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime. Kuchma denied the allegations.

In what was widely seen as an effort to improve relations with Washington, Kuchma sent Ukrainian troops to serve in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq after the war. The deployment has been unpopular at home, however, and Ukrainian officials have vowed to bring the troops home this year.

"I see no problems in the withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops," Herbst said, emphasizing that Yushchenko had promised to consult coalition partners on details of the withdrawal.

Ukrainian Parliament Passes Reform-Minded Budget

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament today approved a revised 2005 budget that supporters hope will help lay a course for aggressive economic reforms.

The vote was seen as a major victory for the Ukrainian government, which inherited major budgetary problems after last year's Orange Revolution succeeded in putting opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko in office.


PM Yuliya Timoshenko (l) Presenting Budget with Minister of Finance Viktor Pynzenyk (r)
Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko said the budget -- which cuts the country's deficit and scraps tax breaks for industry -- was the first step toward ending corruption and the shadow economy.

The budget had wide backing from parliamentary lawmakers. A total of 376 deputies in the 450-seat chamber backed the draft. The remainder abstained.

Tymoshenko said the broad agreement, which came after two days of talks, was a sign that the government and the parliament could work together to "produce results for every citizen."

Ukraine, Georgia Urge Kyrgyzstan to Avoid Violence

KIEV, Ukraine -- The presidents of Ukraine and Georgia, both catapulted to power by peaceful revolutions, urged Kyrgyzstan's new leaders on Saturday to shun violence after this week's revolt in the fellow ex-Soviet state.

Viktor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili won office in 2004 after "Orange" and "Rose" revolutions sent thousands onto the streets in their capitals to protest at fraudulent elections.


Viktor Yushchenko (l) and Mikhail Saakashvili (r)
Both came to power without violence, in contrast to the ouster of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev which was marked by clashes between police and protesters and an orgy of looting.

"We are very preoccupied by the situation in Kyrgyzstan .... Democracy can only be established through non-violence," Saakashvili told reporters at the close of a three-day visit to Ukraine.

"People everywhere -- in Kiev, Tbilisi, Bishkek, Minsk, everywhere -- deserve to live in a democracy, but only achieved through peaceful means."

Those cities are the capitals of Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus -- a fourth ex-Soviet republic where police broke up a rally on Friday by demonstrators demanding long-time President Alexander Lukashenko resign.

Both Ukraine and Georgia have offered to mediate in the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, where demonstrators stormed government buildings in rallies denouncing a parliamentary election as rigged.

Yushchenko expressed alarm that no talks were taking place.

"We offered again our services and ask the authorities to respect their nation -- that means a guarantee not to use arms and to sit down at the negotiating table," he said.

The presidents had issued a statement overnight expressing concern over possible violent confrontation but praised Akayev's "courageous step in giving no order to use force against his own people in the first days of the people's uprising".

Akayev fled his Central Asian homeland and media reports say he is now in Russia.

Saakashvili had sharply criticised Akayev on Friday, saying he had dismissed opposition leaders as criminals and rebuffed his own offer to help mediate in a "coarse and impolite" manner.

Shriners Aid Heroic Ukraine Burn Victim

BOSTON, USA -- She is a national hero in her homeland, hailed for plucking her little sister from their family home as it was consumed by flames.

Now, Nastya Ovchar, her body burned extensively during the rescue of her sister, lies in a room at Shriners Burns Hospital Boston, half a world away from her home in the Ukraine.

If they made a movie about Nastya, they could well call it ''The President and the Little Girl," for it was the intervention of a national leader who had endured his own share of physical suffering that assured the 5-year-old could receive lifesaving medical treatment.

On March 15 fire erupted in a home in the Ukraine's Kharkiv region, which sits on the border with Russia. Nastya and her 2-year-old sister, Lyuda, were in the house by themselves.

Nastya saved her sister from the fire; in the process, she sustained burns over 80 percent of her body, according to an Associated Press report from Kiev. Lyuda suffered comparatively minor injuries.

Tales of the rescue swiftly captured the attention of Ukrainians. That nation's newly installed president, Viktor Yushchenko, extended his assistance to Nastya. Yushchenko confronted pain and disfigurement last year, when he was poisoned during his campaign for president.

''Mr. Yushchenko always supported very young people. Children are the future of our country," said Iryna Bezverkha, press secretary of the Ukraine Embassy in Washington. ''This is a really inspiring story."

At first, Yushchenko, who spoke directly with Nastya, and his associates sought treatment in the Ukraine for the child.

''Unfortunately," Bezverkha said last night, ''these efforts were not enough for this little girl."

So the president, Ukraine lawmakers, and Yushchenko's wife banded together to secure treatment for Nastya outside their nation.

''And they found Shriners," said Kathy Golden, spokeswoman for the Boston hospital.

The Ukraine government arranged for the child to be flown to Boston, and she arrived Thursday night. The Shriners provide care free of charge at all of their hospitals.

Golden said privacy rules prevented her from releasing details of Nastya's condition, or even officially confirming her name, but she acknowledged that ''typically children with burns have many months of treatment."

The president intends to follow Nastya's recovery intently, the embassy spokeswoman said.

Golden said, ''They've been keenly interested in her care, because they really see her as a hero."

Court Ruling Allows Blokhin Return

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukraine Appeal Court has cleared the way for Oleg Blokhin to return to his job as national coach.

Blokhin, 52, resigned saying he could not combine the post with his other job as a member of parliament.

However, the court ruling has said he can combine the two posts.

"I would like to thank the court for its objective and fair ruling in my case," said Blokhin.

The head of Ukraine's federation, Grigory Surkis, had asked the court to rule on whether Blokhin legally had the right to remain as coach and keep his seat.

The constitution bars deputies from holding other jobs but Blokhin receives no financial gain from coaching.

Blokhin, voted European Player of the Year in 1975, was elected as a Communist but switched to another party backing former President Leonid Kuchma, who stepped down in January.

He was named national coach in September 2003, replacing fellow ex-Soviet international Leonid Buryak, who was sacked following a string of poor results.

Immediately after his appointment, the former Soviet and Dynamo Kiev striker said his goal was to guide the country to their first major international finals -- the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The Ukrainian Football Federation also voted last week to keep Blokhin, who has led the former Soviet Republic to the top of European qualifying Group Two with 14 points from six matches, six ahead of European champions Greece.

Ukraine host Denmark, in third place with six points from five games, next Wednesday at Kiev's Olympic stadium.

"I think it (the court ruling) is great news for me and my players ahead of a very important qualifier," said Blokhin.

"Definitely, it will give all of us a big boost next Wednesday against Denmark."

Putin Loses Another Ally As Ex-Soviet Dominoes Go Down

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost another ally in the uprising in Kyrgyzstan, the latest ex-Soviet government brought down by people power after Georgia and Ukraine, press commentators said on Friday.

"Putin is losing his mates," said the French daily Liberation after the mostly peaceful ouster of President Askar Akayev by the masses in Bishkek infast-moving events Thursday.


Russian President Vladimir Putin
"A domino effect in Moscow’s backyard," was how Austria’s Die Press described the uprising, which followed the change of government in Georgia in late 2003 and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution at the end of last year.

The Russian president on Friday blasted as "illegitimate" the change of power in Kyrgyzstan, where parliament appointed opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev acting head of state.

Bakiyev immediately announced plans for fresh elections in June following the Kyrgyz uprising, which like in its fellow ex-Soviet states was triggered by contested elections.

In Spain, the El Pais daily agreed that the events in Bishkek, like those in Tbilisi and Kiev before them were "a serious warning to Putin."

"The democratic tide which swept first through Georgia and more recently in Ukraine seems able to reach to the furthest corners of the former Soviet Union," said the centre-left newspaper.

The domino metaphor was used by many newspapers, including in Britain where the Independent commented that "Russia and the US have already reached an apparently amicable agreement to share influence."

But the Times voiced another concern, the threat that Islamicist movements could exploit the political uncertainty.

The Daily Telegraph struck a more positive note, welcoming the fact that "the strengthening of Kyrgyz democracy will powerfully affect a region characterised by authoritarian leaders."

It cited Harvard expert Marshall Goldman as asking: "What could prevent opposition groups in neighbouring Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan doing the same, given that as regards democracy their situation is even worse?"

"The truth is that democracy is a contagious disease," he said.

"It is widely known that elections have been rigged in ex-Soviet republics at least since the middle of the 1990s. A protest movement was only a question of time," it said.

In Hungary, which like the Czech Republic is one of eight ex-communist countries, which joined the European Union last year, press reaction was equally unsurprised.

Meanwhile Kyrgyzstan’s deposed president Askar Akayev on Friday slammed the ouster of his regime as an "unconstitutional coup d’etat," Kyrgyz and Russian media reported.

"An unconstitutional coup d’etat has occurred in the republic. A group of irresponsible political conspirators embarked on the criminal path of grabbing power by force," Akayev said in a message sent to a Kyrgyz news agency." The rumours about my resignation are not true," he said.

Leaders of the opposition movement that has taken charge in Kyrgyzstan plan to hold a presidential election in June, a prominent opposition figure said on Friday.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called on Friday on the people of Kyrgyzstan to refrain from violence and behave "responsibly," after the uprising, which ousted the president there.

Solana added that the EU would support efforts by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help restore calm in the ex-Soviet country.

Solana "strongly appealed to the people of Kyrgyzstan to behave responsibly, to ease restoration of law and order throughout the country and to refrain from violence and looting," said a statement issued by his office.

"The EU will continue to support the efforts of the OSCE mission in Bishkek," it added.

Turkey on Friday sent an official delegation to Kyrgyzstan to convey appeals for moderation amid the turmoil in the country, officials said.

The delegation, led by Metin Goker, a senior diplomat who served as Turkey’s ambassador to Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s, flew on a plane that will also evacuate Turkish nationals from the Central Asian nation, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters.

The minister said the delegation’s schedule was not immediately clear, but added that it would meet with people "who carry weight" in the country, where the opposition toppled the regime of president Askar Akayev.

Ukraine Pressed to Reopen 'Accident' Case

KIEV, Ukraine -- On a night six years ago Friday, a car carrying a charismatic opposition politician slammed into the side of a truck, instantly killing him. Despite what the authorities called it, most Ukrainians suspected the death of Vyacheslav Chornovil was anything but an accident.

Doubts grew when the government refused to investigate any other possibility and quickly granted amnesty to the truck driver, dashing the opposition's hopes for an open trial. A video confession of alleged police involvement surfaced but was mysteriously misplaced.

Now, pressure is building on President Viktor Yushchenko to order a new investigation into Chornovil's death on March 25, 1999, a case that -- like the 2000 abduction and beheading of opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze -- could lead to the very top of Ukraine's former government.

"The previous regime left numerous scars," said Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk. "The death of Vyacheslav Chornovil is one of the most painful wounds. We won't keep silent."

Former President Leonid Kuchma's government had long dismissed allegations that Chornovil's death was a political killing, aimed at removing a potential contender on the eve of the 1999 presidential campaign. Kuchma, who earlier this month faced prosecutors' questioning in the Gongadze case, could not be reached for comment.

But Chornovil's colleagues and his son, Taras, insist they have computer mock-ups of the accident, expert testimony and enough discrepancies in the crash report to suggest foul play. Taras Chornovil also noted that staging car accidents "is an old Soviet method."

"The security services are conservative," he said. "If something works they stick with it." At least five high-profile Ukrainians have died in car crashes in the last decade.

Mykola Stepanenko, head of a commission set up by Rukh, Chornovil's party, to investigate the death, said there is an abundance of evidence indicating the crash was orchestrated.

"We have been collecting material on (Chornovil's) death for six years, and our party investigation, which never stopped, found a dozen and a half confirmations of the fact that it was not just a road accident," said Stepanenko.

Tarasiuk personally appealed not only to the president but also his Cabinet colleagues, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, to reopen the long dormant case. Taras Chornovil met with his old opposition ally, Oleksandr Turchinov, to ask that his agency, the State Security Service, get involved.

Marina Ostapenko, spokeswoman for the security service, said the request was under consideration.

The crash occurred as Chornovil was returning to Kiev from a campaign trip. The ex-Soviet dissident was being coy about his intentions to run for president, but his son said, "realistically, everyone knew that he would."

It's unknown how much of a threat Chornovil would have posed: Rukh had fractured and Chornovil lacked financial support. But he had proven he could win more than 20 percent of the vote, a potential obstacle to Kuchma's goal of facing Communist Party candidate Petro Symonenko in the run-off -- a showdown lawmakers said Kuchma was sure to win because of residual fears over electing a Communist.

As the car carrying Chornovil sped down the Boryspil-Zolotonosha highway outside of Kiev, a heavy Kamaz truck carrying grain seed apparently missed its turnoff and began making a slow U-turn across the dimly lit road. Chornovil's car barreled into the side of the truck; the top of the car was sheared off, killing the politician and his driver. A third person in the car survived.

Almost immediately, then-Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko called it an accident and dismissed suggestions of foul play. Kravchenko was found dead from an apparent suicide earlier this month, on the day he was supposed to testify about the Gongadze case.

The truck driver was granted amnesty -- before being convicted of anything, Taras Chornovil said. Then, a videotaped confession made by an unidentified special forces colonel was found by powerful Ukrainian politician, Yevhen Marchuk, Stepanenko said. In the video, the colonel allegedly "tells how the murder was planned, organized and performed," Stepanenko said.

Then the video disappeared, and Marchuk was named to head the State Security Service under Kuchma, Taras Chornovil said. Marchuk could not be reached for comment, but at the time, he defended his inattention to the video, saying it was clearly a fake.

Just this month, someone allegedly broke into Stepanenko's car and stole a briefcase containing materials related to the case. The papers were mostly just copies, but lawmaker Heorhiy Manchulenko believes the message was clear.

"The goal wasn't to steal something, but to apply pressure, psychological pressure on those attempting to investigate Vyacheslav Chornovil's death," he said.

Tarasiuk acknowledged that Chornovil's case hasn't captured the same attention that Gongadze's did. However, Chornovil's portrait still hangs reverently on bus dashboards and in homes in western Ukraine -- one of Yushchenko's main support bases.

"We will do our best so that the case is not forgotten," Tarasiuk said.

Ukraine, Georgia Discuss Alliance

KIEV, Ukraine -- New efforts by Georgia and Ukraine to resuscitate an anti-Russian axis may prove to be of little benefit considering the alliance's last experience.

With President Mikhail Saakashvili visiting Ukraine, Georgia has been spearheading efforts to revive GUUAM, the acronym for members Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova.



Along with Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, their joint interest has been to use it as an economic and political mechanism, tying the members closer to Europe and the West while reducing Russia's traditional dominance.

More economic than political

Valeri Chalyi, director of international programmes at the Ukrainian Political and Economic Studies Centre, told Aljazeera.net that the drive to revive the association was more economic than political, for now.

"Orientation towards the European values is among the priorities of the GUUAM members".

"The attempt at resuscitating GUUAM has been connected to what is being seen as the new opportunities for economic and security interaction in the Black Sea-Caspian region. They have been frozen in recent times," he said.

Chalyi said the political priority of GUUAM's revival was the transportation of energy, attraction of new investments and the political consolidation of GUUAM members.

The expansion of GUUAM was a key plank in talks between Yushchenko and Saakashvili on Thursday.

Relations with EU

Chalyi thinks Saakashvili and Yushchenko's interest in GUUAM is linked to relations with the European Union.

"Orientation towards the European values is among the priorities of the GUUAM members," he said.

"By virtue of its geopolitical situation, economic potential and clear orientation to the European model of development, Ukraine has interest in being a leadership force for the organisation."

However, Jonathan Cohen, programme manager for the Caucasus region for Conciliation Resources, a London-based organisation specialising in conflict resolution, says that the GUUAM originally failed when it was set up in 1997 "because its framework made it impossible to resolve problems of interstate cooperation, namely, its relations with the CIS".

The Commonwealth of Independent States emerged after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

GUUAM's failure

Cohen said GUUAM withered after members failed in the late 1990s to create a regional free-trade zone, increase mutual trade turnover and realise ambitious energy projects.

"Now, Ukraine and other members of the GUUAM stand a chance for revitalising its authority, although the position of both Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan is still uncertain.

"The project could be revived in the context of attracting under its aegis other countries outside the post-Soviet space," he told Aljazeera.net.

The EU and Washington's attitude to the organisation in the late 1990s was that it had nothing to offer and the US administration had taken a strong tilt towards Russia at the time.

Political winds

After governments were toppled in Georgia and Ukraine, GUUAM's ability to muster political credibility has not been forthcoming; former alliance members still seem to be uncertain of where they stand with its revival today.

Neither Yushchenko nor Saakashvili has managed to persuade Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan to rejoin the union, potential new member Armenia was ruled out, and Moldova has stated no interest in a reunion.

Russia has military bases in all GUUAM countries and retains political influence with the countries Russian minorities (including in Trans-Dniester, a tiny self-declared Russian-led republic in Moldova)

Russia's overreaction

"The former Soviet republics pose little threat to Russia and its interests itself," says Cohen, of Conciliation Resources.

"Russia tends to overreact to developments in those republics. Since the elections in Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, Moscow has tended to imagine threats emanating from virtually everywhere."

He added: "Shadowboxing may cost Russia and its positions in the CIS dearly. It should probably pay no attention to GUUAM, and its political deadlock will once again constrain any alliance's ability to act."

Seriously Burned Ukrainian Girl Flown to the United States

KIEV, Ukraine -- A charter plane with five-year old heroine on board departed on Thursday evening heading for Boston, the USA, according to Ukrinform.

Nastya Ovchar, a five-year old resident of Kharkiv region, was seriously injured in a fire, rescuing her two-year old sister, and is in a very grave condition. On the flight to the US, she was accompanied by her mother and doctors, said Ukrainian Ombudswoman Nina Karpachova, who was instructed by President Viktor Yushchenko to take control of the case. Nastya was badly burned on more than 80% of her skin, and needs urgent medical treatment. She was flown to Boston Shriners Hospital in Boston, MA where she is supposed to undergo several skin transplantation surgeries. Nastya will stay in Boston for several months.

The little girl was transported by a plane of the company "AeroStar", which handles special flights. Earlier, Nastia was supposed to be transported to Germany, but because of difficulties, it was decided not to lose time and to transport her to the USA.

President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko have been taking care of the girl since the first day, when the accident happened.

Kateryna Yushchenko managed to hasten the process of visas and travel documents execution at the US Embassy. Ukraine Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) members and some other patrons sponsored Nastya's flight of mercy to the USA.

After Popular Uprisings, Concern in Russia

NEW YORK, NY -- In the first decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union, democracy took root in most of its republics in name only. With the exception of the Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, now deeply entwined in Europe - new political systems and new leaders emerged from the post-Soviet chaos promising freedoms but somehow managing to ensure that those freedoms led to the continuation of their power.

In the past year and a half, however, popular uprisings have claimed the sclerotic leaders of three former Soviet republics. In Georgia in November 2003, in Ukraine a year later, and now in Kyrgyzstan, simmering discontent accomplished what not long ago seemed improbable: the peaceful (so far, in Kyrgyzstan's case) overthrow of governments that ceased to represent the will of the people.


USSR Back in 1950
What is most surprising really is how quickly those governments fell in the face of protesters asserting the rights they had been promised when the Soviet yoke was lifted: the right to express themselves, to elect their representatives, to dream of the better life that their leaders kept promising but all too often failed to deliver.

For opposition leaders and even for some of those in power in other republics, the events that began in Georgia with the toppling of Eduard Shevardnadze and continued with the extraordinary challenge to a fraudulent election in Ukraine last fall have come like a contagion - one spreading in fast and unpredictable ways.

Nowhere is the fear and anticipation greater than in the largest and most powerful center, Russia. There President Vladimir Putin has steadily strengthened state control even as he presents himself as a democrat.

"People are tired everywhere," Aleksandr Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International studies, said in a telephone interview from Georgia's capital, Tblisi, referring to popular discontent in the former Soviet republics.

The uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine, he added, served as a demonstration what was possible.

"They saw how easy it looked on TV," Rondeli said.

President Askar Akayev, the leader of Kyrgyzstan throughout its 13-plus-years of post-Soviet independence, fled the country's capital, Bishkek, after throngs protesting what they called fraudulent parliamentary elections stormed government buildings and Akayev's security forces evaporated.

Like Shevardnadze and President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine before him, Akayev appeared to believe that the state's authority - its control over politics, law enforcement and the media - could dictate the terms of a nominally democratic process to favor their chosen candidates in parliamentary elections, or in Ukraine's case, the selection of Kuchma's hand-picked successor.

Whether the contagion of democratic expression spreads remains to be seen, of course. Two former Soviet republics - Belarus and Turkmenistan - have become dictatorships of different degrees, squelching political opposition and tightening the screws over most parts of society.

President Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan had his Parliament declare him president for life and tolerates no dissent. President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus last fall orchestrated a referendum that would allow him to run for re-election indefinitely - and his security forces broke up the small demonstrations that followed.

Andranink Migranyan, a professor and political scientist at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, said that challenges to power in former Soviet states depended in large degree to the willingness of the authorities to use forceful means to preserve their power.

In Georgia and Ukraine, he noted, Shevardnadze and Kuchma declined - or were unable - to use security forces to put down protests. Ironically, the leaders who have at least nominally presented themselves as democrats have proved less able to preserve themselves through democratic means.

"You must either be more adamant in using force and destroying the opposition or let others come to power," Migranyan said in a telephone interview.

"The difference between Akayev and Lukashenko is that Akayev is more democratic," he said. "And he is the loser. He is not the dictator that Lukashenko is - the same with Kuchma."

Officials in Russia reacted to the events in Georgia and Ukraine with shock and disdain. Putin, who himself is accused of tightening control over what is left of a democratic system, openly supported Kuchma's chosen successor. He has cultivated ties with the autocratic leaders of the five Central Asian states, including Akayev, seemingly indifferent to accusations that their rule amounts to authoritarianism.

Stung by criticism of Russia's role in Ukraine's elections, Putin and other officials kept a much lower profile as Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary elections unfolded over two rounds. As the unrest mounted, however, Russian officials began to revert to form, appealing for order and stability - meaning the status quo - while criticizing those who were calling for democracy.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Thursday of "the consequences than can evolve from attempts to come to power by illegal means." Russia's top military commander, General Yuri Baluyevsky, characterized those challenging Akayev as drug-addled instigators disturbing the public order.

"We hope and believe that the actions of the crowd, heated up by drugs, will not lead to complete destabilization in the republic," he said, according to Russian news agencies.

Not coincidentally, perhaps, rumors have swirled in Russia about Putin's own political future in the wake of the recent upheavals in the former Soviet neighborhood. Putin was re-elected to a second and, according to the Constitution, final term as president last year.

Despite his repeated assertions that he would not change the Constitution to allow a third term - or more - numerous analysts and commentators have speculated that the Kremlin is considering ways he might yet remain in power after 2008, either by abrogating his promises or changing the Constitution to allow him to serve as a newly empowered prime minister.

At the same time, voices of opposition have emerged.

Mikhail Kasyanov, the former prime minister under Putin, emerged publicly to say that he was prepared to support the opposition, which remains in disarray, but may yet find its cause.

Ukraine's Proliferation Skeletons

WASHINGTON, DC -- Recent stories about the alleged sale of 12 former Soviet nuclear-capable unarmed air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM) to Iran and China - six to each nation - by Ukraine advance a long unfolding slow-motion scandal, but still leave many questions unanswered.

Allegations of Ukranian arms sales to Iran and other countries have been around for years. For example, in November 2002 lawmaker Hryhoriy Omelchenko, a former reserve colonel in the Ukranian intelligence service, promised to lay out "proven facts" of Ukraine's arms sales "not only to Iraq, North Korea, China and Iran", but even other states, according to his office. Omelchenko is the same legislator who went public last month in letters to President Victor Yuschenko and the prosecutor general, Svyatoslav Piskun, with allegations of the smuggling operation.


Kolchuga Air-Defense Radar
The 2002 charge came at the same time that Ukraine was in the news for a scandal over the alleged sale of Kolchuga air-defense radars to Iraq. It was then feared that the radars could be used to track Western aircraft in Iraq's no-fly zones.

Former president Leonid D Kuchma himself was implicated several years ago in the sale of a highly advanced radar system to Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime. On secret recordings made by a former bodyguard in the president's office, likely in the summer of 2000, a voice resembling Kuchma's approved of the sale of the Kolchuga radar system through a Jordanian intermediary.

The United States, as well as outside experts, authenticated the controversial tapes, which also suggested Kuchma's complicity in the murder of an opposition journalist. Kuchma has repeatedly denied any role in those crimes.

While there is no definitive smoking gun that Iraq received the Kolchuga systems, the presumption is that it must be considered likely, according to a report by a joint US-United Kingdom team.

Interestingly, this was at the same time that US Special Operations Forces had been ordered to launch operations against arms supply lines to terrorists and the three rogue nations referred to by President George W Bush as the "axis of evil" - Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

But apparently they did not know about the missile sale to Iran or were not authorized to conduct an operation against it. The larger point, however, is that Ukraine, under Kuchma, was widely known as a willing supplier of weaponry.

Since taking office in January after the "Orange Revolution", Yushchenko has promised to investigate illicit weapons-dealings, including the allegation that election rival Kuchma approved the Kolchuga radar sale to Iraq.

Ukraine's intelligence agency, the State Security Service (Sluzhba Bespeky Ukrayiny - SBU), launched its investigation of the case involving Iran and China on February 14, 2004, during Kuchma's presidency. It announced last year that it had "exposed and curtailed the activities of an international criminal group of arms traders who intended to export from Ukraine 20 air-launched cruise missiles".

But the probe was not publicized until this February, when lawmaker Omelchenko wrote Yushchenko asking him to pursue a full investigation.

According to Omelchenko, in 2000 Russian national Oleg Orlov and a Ukrainian partner identified as E V Shilenko, also a Russian national, exported 20 Kh-55 cruise missiles through a fake contract and end-user certificate with Russia's state-run arms dealer and with a firm called Progress, which is a daughter company of Ukrspetseksport, Ukraine's weapons-exporting agency.

Orlov and Shilenko used the Ukrspetseksport state company to convey to Progress a forged contract on behalf of the Russian federal state arms company Rosvooruzheniye and an end-user certificate purporting to be from the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation for the delivery of 20 Kh-55 cruise missiles to that country.

Omelchenko's letter says the cruise missiles were concealed in the arsenals of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, although in documents signed by senior ministry officials they were listed as having been destroyed.

Ukrainian weapons dealers ferried missiles to China through a Ukraine-based cargo company run by a former secret service agent, according to Omelchenko. He also said that in 2001, weapons dealers sent ground targeting systems, maintenance equipment and missile technicians to Iran. Profits from the sales were estimated at US$2.1 million or more.

Reportedly, Sarfraz Haider, an Australian businessman of Afghan-Iranian origin, said to be part of the arms trafficking gang, was killed, according to his family and a Ukrainian police report. He lived in Canberra and Sydney before moving to London and then Cyprus in 2000.

His family originally believed his death in Cyprus last year was the result of a motorbike accident. But after an autopsy on Haider's body, the family now believes he was murdered. His neck had been broken and his aorta split, and there were signs of a struggle. The family claims Iranian agents paid Cypriot police to eliminate Haider because he knew too much.

It still is not clear exactly what kind of missiles were sold to Iran and China. Press reports say it was the Kh-55 Granat. But according to GlobalSecurity.org there are actually three versions; the Kh-55, Kh-55-OK and the Kh-55SM.

Production of the stretched-range version, the Kh-55SM, began in 1986. This was fielded in the 1990s. The modification provided for increased range, giving it an estimated reach of 3,000 kilometers. The Kh-55 has been in Russian service since 1984 as a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile and can carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. It is the Soviet counterpart to the US AGM-86 ALCM. It was originally deployed with strategic bombers Tu-95 MS and Tu-160.

Yet according to the SBU, some of the ALCMs were of the Kh-55 as well as the Kh-55SM types. Who the Kh-55 missiles went to is unclear.

Iran does not operate long-range bombers, but it is believed Tehran could adapt its Soviet-built Su-24 strike aircraft to launch the missile. The missile's range would put Israel and a number of other US allies within reach.

After the collapse of the USSR some of the missiles and their carrier aircraft remained beyond the limits of Russia, in particular, in Ukraine and in Kazakhstan.

Yet according to Bohdan Ferents, the lawyer for Volodymyr Yevdokimov - director of a cargo company, Ukraviazakaz, and one of at least six arms dealers secretly indicted in January for the missiles sale - the missiles were a far cry from being operational.

In an article in the March 5 issue of the Ukrainian newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli, he says: In the first place, they were items made in 1987. Their service life is eight years. According to the technical specifications and instructions, their service life can be extended only if the factory designers are directly brought in - in other words, if there is a technical inspection, involving either a visit to the place where the missiles are stored or an inspection at the factory itself. Since 1992, the storage of these missiles has not, unfortunately, matched the requirements. The technical and process documentation for the missiles was removed from Ukraine to Russia - which makes it impossible to sell them for their original purpose. All the warheads - let's regard them as the weapon's main component - were sent off to Russia. Not a single warhead remains on Ukrainian territory.
This raises the intriguing possibility that what actually transpired was not a sale but a con.

Ferents said: "We call them 'items'. The evidence presented in the case material and tested in court enables one to talk about a typical swindle with regard to the intentions of Iran and China, which are trying to obtain weapons. In other words, the negotiations were about cruise missiles, but what was exported was mere junk."

Georgia, Ukraine And Now Kyrgyzstan: Opposition Takes Control, President Flees

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- The president was in hiding, maybe in another country, protesters were shredding and stomping on his official portraits and suddenly opposition activist Ulan Shambetov found himself in the presidential headquarters, sitting in the vanished leader's chair.

In the nearby Kyrgyz parliament, its members both stunned and excited, lawmakers gathered and sought to restore anything resembling order in their reeling Central Asian country where the government collapsed Thursday after days of protests over allegedly fraudulent elections.



The popular uprising was breathtaking in its speed and resulted in only a few dozen injured. The government was the third in a former Soviet republic _ after Georgia and Ukraine _ to be brought down by people power over the past year and a half.

``It's not the opposition that has seized power; it's the people who have taken power,'' Shambetov said after he got up from the chair so other demonstrators could have a turn. ``They have been fighting for so long against corruption, against that family,'' he said.

He was referring to the family of President Askar Akayev, whose whereabouts were not known. U.S. officials said they could not confirm reports by the opposition and Russian news agencies that he had left the country.

Akayev, a 60-year-old former physicist, had led Kyrgyzstan since 1990, before it gained independence in the Soviet collapse.

At his headquarters, whooping and whistling protesters threw computers and air conditioners out of windows. Broken glass littered the floors and a drugstore in the building was ransacked. Several hours after the takeover, thick plumes of black smoke rose from two burning cars nearby.

``It's the victory of the people. But now we don't know how to stop these young guys,'' said Noman Akabayev, an unsuccessful legislative candidate.

Members of the upper House of parliament, who had been voted out in the disputed Februrary election, resumed their seats Thursday and chose a former opposition lawmaker, Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, to serve as interim president until new elections, perhaps as early as May or June.

Two prominent opposition leaders, Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Felix Kulov, were named to top posts in an interim government, lawmakers said. The lower House of parliament early Friday appointed Bakiyev acting prime minister, and the upper House tapped Kulov, who was released from prison Thursday, to take charge of all law enforcement agencies.

One immediate challenge for the new rulers was rampant looting in government buildings and shops in Bishkek.

The takeover of government buildings and state television in Bishkek followed similar seizures by opposition activists in the impoverished southern region, including the nation's second-largest city, Osh. Those protests began even before the first round of parliamentary elections Feb. 27 and swelled after March 13 run-offs that the opposition said were seriously flawed.

Politics in Kyrgyzstan, a nation of stunning mountainous beauty and 5 million people who mainly speak a Turkic language, depends as much on clan ties as on ideology, and the fractious opposition has unified around calls for more democracy, an end to poverty and corruption, and a desire to oust Akayev.

There was no sign the new leadership would change policy toward the West or Russia. Unlike the revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, foreign policy has not been an issue.

Both the United States and Russia have military bases near Bishkek. About 1,000 U.S. troops are stationed at Manas air base outside the capital. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday he didn't believe they would be adversely affected by the turmoil.

Kyrgyzstan's role as a conduit for drugs and a potential hotbed of Islamic extremism, particularly in the south, makes it volatile. There is no indication, however, that the opposition would be more amenable to Islamic fundamentalist influence than Akayev's government has been.

``The future of Kyrgyzstan should be decided by the people of Kyrgyzstan, consistent with the principles of peaceful change, of dialogue and respect for the rule of law,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

Neighboring regimes in Central Asia studiously ignored Thursday's uprising but their opposition parties were jubilant, hoping the seeds of democratic change had been sown in the region. After the ``Rose Revolution'' in Georgia in 2003 and the ``Orange Revolution'' in Ukraine last year, authorities have been increasingly nervous about their grip on power.

The takeover in Kyrgyzstan began with a rally Thursday morning on the outskirts of Bishkek, where about 5,000 protesters roared and clapped when Bakiyev said they soon would control the entire country.

Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev urged demonstrators to obey the law, but he said no force would be used against peaceful protesters.

About 1,000 people surged toward the building housing Akayev's offices, meeting little resistance from helmeted riot police standing next to a protective fence with truncheons and shields. About half the crowd entered through the front. Others smashed windows with stones.

Some demonstrators were injured during a clash with a group of truncheon-wielding men in civilian clothes and blue armbands _ the color of Akayev's party. One protester had a serious head injury and a broken leg, and another had broken ribs, said Iskander Shamshiyev, leader of the opposition Youth Movement of Kyrgyzstan.

Vincent Lusser, a Red Cross spokesman in Geneva, said its staff saw ``a few dozen wounded'' in Bishkek hospitals _ most with injuries from falls or fist-fights.

Hundreds of police watched from outside the fence, where thousands more protesters remained. Neither side visibly carried firearms.

Officials left through a side door, protected by Interior Ministry troops. Some camouflage-clad troops also left peacefully.

Many demonstrators wore pink or yellow headbands signifying their loyalty to the opposition. And at one point, a protester charged through the square on horseback, a yellow flag waving. Protesters chanted, ``Akayev, go!''

Dozens of youths rampaged inside the building, some smashing furniture and looting supplies, ignoring protest organizers who urged them to stop.

After nightfall, thousands milled peacefully in Ala-Too Square outside the presidential headquarters, occasionally breaking into cheers. A large store on a main street was looted, with mostly young men carting out crates of food, juice and cookies, as well as mattresses, mirrors and coat hangers.

``You have to understand, people are living in poverty,'' said Kulov, a former vice president, interior minister and Bishkek mayor who was serving 10 years for embezzlement and abuse of power _ charges he says were fabricated by the Akayev regime.

``I am very happy because for 15 years we've been seeing the same ugly face that has been shamelessly smiling at us,'' said Abdikasim Kamalov, holding a red Kyrgyz flag outside the presidential building. ``We could no longer tolerate this. We want changes.''

On Thursday night, thousands stayed on the main square outside the presidential headquarters. An elderly man and woman in a clearing in the crowd danced to imaginary music as a man pretended to beat drums.

Ukraine Offers to Mediate in Kyrgyz Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine on Thursday offered to mediate in the crisis in the fellow ex-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, where mass opposition protests have left a Soviet-era regime teetering on the brink of collapse.

"Ukraine is ready to provide its services as an intermediary to reestablish civil order in Kyrgyz society," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement.



Mass opposition demonstrations swept aside a Moscow-friendly regime in Ukraine at the end of last year, after an election that the opposition said was rigged in favor of pro-presidential forces.

Likewise Kyrgyzstan has been wracked by demonstrations following a March 13 runoff vote that saw the opposition nearly shut out of the nation's 75-seat parliament.

The demonstrations culminated on Thursday, when thousands of rock-throwing, club-wielding opposition supporters overran the government's main seat of power in the capital.

Kyrgyz leader Askar Akayev has fled the country and his prime minister, Nikolai Tanayev, was reported to have resigned following the storming.

Kyrgyzstan Protests Continue

MOSCOW, Russia -- President Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan reacted defiantly yesterday to anti-government protests that have swept the south of the Central Asian republic, charging in a speech to parliament that the "opposition is directed and funded from the outside."

He did not name the alleged foreign backers. But analysts said Akayev was voicing widespread suspicion among governments in the former Soviet republics that the recent popular revolts in Ukraine, Georgia and now Kyrgyzstan stem from Western, particularly U.S., efforts to install friendly leaders under the guise of building democracy.



"The events in Kyrgyzstan are not isolated from any of the so-called color revolutions that have been staged in other ... countries over the last 18 months," Akayev said in a reference to the 2003 "Rose Revolution" in Georgia and last year's "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine. "Such revolutions, which are nothing more than coups, go beyond the framework of the law."

U.S. and European officials have dismissed such charges, saying they have provided funding to nongovernmental organizations and in support of the elections in countries in the region but have not backed particular candidates or parties.

On Sunday and Monday, thousands of protesters, some armed with Molotov cocktails and clubs, seized government buildings in Osh, the country's second-largest city, and Jalal-Abad, as well as some smaller towns. Opposition leaders claimed they restored order yesterday in Osh and initiated joint patrols by their supporters and police.

In his speech, the president repeated declarations that he would not use violence to put down the protests.

The capital, Bishkek, which is in the north, remained quiet.

Akayev, 60, spoke yesterday to government deputies in the newly convened parliament. Opposition parties, which won only six seats in the body after two rounds of voting that ended March 13, said the protests were triggered by widespread ballot fraud. Among those elected were Akayev's son and daughter.

Opposition leaders say they think Akayev will use an overwhelming majority in parliament to extend his rule beyond the two terms allowed by the constitution. Presidential elections are scheduled for October, and Akayev has said he won't run again.

On Monday, Akayev called for the Central Elections Commission and the country's Supreme Court to examine some of the results contested by the opposition. Sulaiman Imanbayev, head of the commission, said yesterday that results in 71 of the country's 75 electoral districts were legitimate.

The protests are concentrated in the south, while Akayev holds strong support in his native north, where the capital, Bishkek, is located. If the opposition is unable to carry the protests north, the prospect of them dying by attrition is strong.

The two main opposition figures are both from the south, and they once were top officials under Akayev.

The better-known of the two outside Kyrgyzstan is Roza Otunbayeva, 54, who served two stints as foreign minister under Akayev and also has been the country's ambassador to the United States and Britain, as well as United Nations' envoy to Georgia.

Otunbayeva was not allowed to run in the parliamentary election because she did not meet the requirement of having lived in Kyrgyzstan for the previous five years — she had been serving overseas as an ambassador.

Otunbayeva wanted to run in the same district that Akayev's daughter, Bermet, eventually won, and government detractors accused Akayev of trying to establish a dynastic succession.

The other key opposition figure is 55-year-old Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a prime minister in the early years of the decade, when doubts about Akayev's commitment to democracy surfaced.

Ukrtelecom Brings New Generation Internet Services to Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Cisco Systems(R) announced today that Ukrtelecom, the largest national telecommunications operator in Ukraine, is rolling out a nationwide Cisco Internet Protocol (IP) Next Generation Network (NGN) to deliver innovative new services to consumers and businesses.

Working with Cisco Silver Certified channel partner, Priocom, Ukrtelecom has completed the upgrade of its backbone network connecting Kyiv to five regional centres and implemented Voice over IP termination and origination services. In 2004, Ukrtelecom's network capacity has increased at a rate of 57 percent and its Cisco-based IP Next Generation Network currently supports 26,000 Internet access ports. Ukrtelecom provides services to approximately 82 percent of fixed-line subscribers serving more than nine million customers countrywide.

Ukrtelecom is currently extending its metropolitan ring infrastructure using Cisco Metro Ethernet solutions to deliver Ethernet services and provide broadband aggregation to support broadband services to over 150,000 users. The company is also using Cisco Aironet wireless technology to provide wireless Internet access throughout Ukraine with the commercial launch of its Radiospot project in October 2004.

"We started working very closely with Cisco in 2000 to create a strategic network upgrade plan," said Ihor Tarasenko, Ukrtelecom Deputy Director, Advanced Technology Department. "The IP Next Generation Network proposed by Cisco optimised our investment and fulfilled our long-term business requirements. I believe Cisco's advice and understanding of our market have been invaluable in helping us to maintain our strong position and overcome the challenges of deregulation and greater competition. We now consider Cisco as more than a technology vendor, Cisco has become a valuable solution provider partner."

As part of the E-Ukraine program launched by the Ukrainian government, Ukrtelecom is aiming to deliver an additional 35,000 broadband access lines in 2005 to bring the total number of broadband access ports to 40,000.

The upgraded network will also provide the capability for Ukrtelecom to develop and deliver new high-margin, value-added services for Ukrainian businesses where there is a strong demand for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), broadband access, video-conferencing, video-on-demand, Voice over IP (VoIP) as a second line, and other next-generation services.

"Ukrtelecom has built one of the most advanced and resilient core networks in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)," said Geraint Anderson, Vice President, Service Provider Wireline for Europe, Middle East & Africa, Cisco Systems. "Through the vision of the Ukrtelecom Advanced Technology Department, the company has created a scalable IP Next Generation Network infrastructure that will help accelerate the creation of new residential triple-play over IP services and high-speed broadband business services."

Ukrtelecom's IP Next Generation Network is built on the following Cisco technologies: Cisco 12000 Series routers in the core, Cisco 7600 Series routers at the edge, Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series switches for the Metro Ethernet rings, Catalyst Intelligent Ethernet switches for subscriber access services and Cisco's PGW2200 softswitch to provide the SS7 interface to the PSTN network.

Ukrtelecom's Radiospot project uses Cisco Aironet wireless access points and Cisco Access Routers integrated with Cisco Building Broadband Service Manager billing system, delivered through Cisco Gold partner, S&T Soft Tronik.

Saakashvili Plans New Visit To Ukraine

Kiev, Ukraine, Mar. 23 (UPI) -- Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili will pay a state visit to Ukraine this week to discuss energy and transportation projects.

The three day visit will begin Thursday. Saakashvili is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmytro Svistkov told a news briefing, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

The Georgian president will be companied by a delegation including most of the members of his Cabinet. The negotiators will discuss issues including the implementation of energy and transportation sectors, Interfax-Ukraine said.

The delegation will also explore ways to expand trade and economic cooperation between the two former Soviet republics and to boost the activity of the informal GUAAM group of the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

U.S. Senators Visit Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- A delegation of United States senators led by Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada visited Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmytro Svystkov told a news briefing the U.S. senators would pay a one day visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, to meet Ukrainian leaders and discuss Ukrainian-American cooperation the Interfax-Ukraine news agency said.


Senator Harry Reid
Ukrainian leaders will urge the senators to remove the Jackson-Vanik amendments regarding Ukraine as soon as possible, Interfax-Ukraine said.

They will also urge the United States to grant Ukraine the status of a free market economy, eliminating existing trade barriers, and facilitate Ukraine's entry into the World Trade Organization.They also want the United States to support the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of recently elected President Viktor Yushchenko, Interfax-Ukraine said.

The visiting senators will also discuss increased cooperation in ensuring international security and regional stability, and the struggle against terrorism, the news agency said.

Voters 'Prefer' Ukraine to Turkey

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Ukraine's campaign to join the EU today receives a boost from an opinion poll which shows greater support in Europe for Ukrainian membership than for Turkey.

A survey of some 6,000 people in the EU's six largest countries found 55% of voters would like Ukraine to become part of the union. This compares with 45% who support Turkey's bid to join, a process which is due to be formally launched on October 3.

Pro-Ukraine campaigners will use the results to increase pressure on European leaders to give Kiev a start date for accession talks.



Laurent Dondey, spokesman for the pro-Ukraine Yes campaign, said: "This survey is very significant and a great surprise. There has been a big debate about Ukrainian membership but until now nobody was interested in the views of European citizens."

The Yes group commissioned the TNS Sofres polling group to survey opinions in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Britain and Poland.

Voters in Poland, which spearheaded the EU's diplomatic efforts to end the presidential standoff in Ukraine, are overwhelmingly in favour, with 77% for and 12% against.

Forty-nine per cent of voters in Britain support Ukrainian membership, with 27% against. French voters are broadly in favour (58% to 37%), but German voters are opposed by 53% to 41%.

The findings contrasted with the opposition to Turkish membership. French voters are strongly opposed (59% to 37%), as are the Germans (60% to 36%).

Only Poland (55%) recorded a majority in favour of Turkish membership. Half of British voters support Turkey, with 32% against.

Pro-Ukraine campaigners will be careful not to use the figures to criticise Turkey for fear of inflaming arguments about race.

Emmanuel Riviere, of TNS Sofres, said: "People who are against Turkish membership but who accept Ukraine feel it belongs to the European area. They see Turkey as outside their geographic area."

The Yes group said it would use the findings to say it is wrong to deny Ukraine's 48 million people, who live in the largest country wholly within Europe, the chance to join the EU.

"This survey will help Ukraine in its negotiations," Mr Dondey said.

Ukraine's Secret Missile Deals

KIEV, Ukraine -- With Viktor Yushchenko installed as Ukraine's president, an escalating volume of material is being made public concerning allegations of high-level corruption and abuse of office under the previous administration.

As Jane's Intelligent Digest's regional correspondent reports, Ukraine is once again at the centre of an arms row, this time over past missile sales to Iran and China.

Fresh arms trafficking allegations have been made public by opposition member of Parliament and former Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officer Hryhoriy Omelchenko. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor-General's office and the SBU have recently launched criminal investigations. The latest allegations concern the sale of six long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Iran and a further six to China in 1999-2000.

As with the $100 million received for the Kolchuga mobile missile system, which the US administration claims was sold to Saddam Hussein, the $13 million received for the sales of these missiles appears to have disappeared into offshore bank accounts, although prosecutors are now seeking to track the funds.

Soviet Era Missiles

The missiles in question were inherited by Ukraine as part of its vast Soviet arsenal. Thirty air-to-ground long-range missiles were falsely recorded as having been destroyed when they were actually set aside for export to countries Washington classifies as 'rogue' states such as Iran.

The Soviet missiles are KH-55 (AS-15 Kent in NATO's classification) and KH-55SM (AS-15B) - capable of delivering a 200-kilotonne nuclear warhead. The two types of missiles have ranges of 2,400 to 3,000 km and are designed to be launched by Russian-built Tupolev bombers. Six of these missiles were sold to Iran and China when the SBU was headed by former chairman Leonid Derkach, prior to his removal in February 2001.

Meanwhile, a former SBU officer, V.V. Yevdokimov, was charged last year with complicity in the sale of 12 missiles to Iran and China. At the time, Yevdokimov headed the state-owned air cargo company UkrAviaZakaz. A further attempt to sell an additional 14 missiles as recently as 2004 was blocked by the SBU under its new chairman Col Gen Ihor P. Smeshko.

Omelchenko is claiming that this thwarted sale was subsequently covered up because a "highly placed person" was involved. There is no doubt that the sale of the missiles to Iran and China could only have taken place with the knowledge and co-operation of senior Ukrainian officials. In fact, the $113 million raised from the sale of Kolchugas and missiles is only a fraction of the total received from a decade of illicit arms sales to conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East. These funds have either stayed abroad in offshore bank accounts or have been partially repatriated to Ukraine for use in privatisation deals and political campaigns.

A series of suspect transactions are now coming under scrutiny from prosecutors. For example, the sale of weapons to Iran and China took place via a deal involving the export of oil processing equipment to Iran. Companies based in Iran and Cyprus had ostensibly signed a deal to buy gas turbines. The trail from here continues to banks in Budapest, Riga and Odessa.

There is also mounting evidence to suggest that the sale of missiles to Iran was undertaken with the assistance of the Russian security services. A key Russian arms trader has been accused by Omelchenko of being involved in the missile exports to Iran. A UN Security Council report published in 2001 had already cited this individual and his United Arab Emirates-based company for violating sanctions on weapons sales to Angola.

Meanwhile, details of the sale of Ukrainian missiles to Iran are of concern to Israel, which has drawn up plans to launch airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities if the Islamic Republic pursues the development of a nuclear weapon. The KH-55 missiles have a highly accurate guidance system and a range of 3,000 km, meaning that they provide Tehran with a delivery system capable of striking Israel.

Relations with the West

A full investigation of all military export scandals attributed to the previous regime will be key in the process of rebuilding Ukraine's relations with the West.

Although Kuchma signed Ukraine up to the international coalition against terrorism when he authorised the dispatch of 1,800 troops to Iraq in 2003, this manoeuvre had less to do with the inherent pro-Americanism which motivated other post-Communist states to contribute troops to the US-led coalition force.

The real reason was a doomed bid to improve the president's own deeply tarnished image after he had been publicly accused by Washington of authorising the sale of Kolchuga radars to Iraq the previous year.

Of course, Ukraine was not alone in the sale of arms to Saddam's Iraq. Both Russia and Belarus had also been involved in similar weapons deals. One US Department of State official has noted that preventing proliferation of long range missiles was an integral aspect of the international campaign against terrorism. However, it now seems clear that the former regime in Kiev had played a high-stakes game of deception whereby it signed up to Washington's international anti-terrorism coalition while continuing to export weapons and other military equipment to 'rogue states' such as Iraq and Iran.

Meanwhile in Kiev, President Yushchenko and his new government led by Yulia Tymoshenko have expressed their readiness to end Ukraine's involvement in illegal arms trading and to battle high-level corruption. Uncovering Ukraine's decade-long involvement in illicit arms deals will be an important consideration when assessing the incoming administration's commitment to apply these new pro-Western policies.

According to JID sources in Kiev, the current investigations into arms trading are likely to lead to criminal charges being laid against senior officials from the former regime. It remains to be seen just how far up the ladder the indictments go.

Kyrgyz President Defiant in Face of 'Tulip Revolution'

MOSCOW, Russia -- Askar Akayev, the embattled Soviet-era President of Kyrgyzstan, claims he is facing an attempted coup d'etat and has vowed not to let his strategically important central Asian state become engulfed in a Ukraine-style revolution.

As the 60-year-old potentate spoke, Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished former Soviet republic of five million people, looked dangerously close to violent clashes, if not civil war.

The opposition, which says it is seeking to launch a revolution in the style of Ukraine or Georgia, has seized control of two large southern cities after rioting and sometimes violent stand-offs with the police.



Yesterday the opposition said it was marching on the capital Bishkek, in the north, where riot troops moved to protect government buildings. Unlike Ukraine and Georgia where crowds rallied round and listened to influential opposition politicians, Kyrgyzstan's demonstrators have no single leader, a fact that may make their behaviour more unpredictable. The opposition wants Mr Akayev's resignation on the grounds that he has stifled his political and media opponents after initially taking a democracy-friendly line. More specifically it says that parliamentary elections held last month were deeply flawed, with major opposition candidates barred from running.

As a result Mr Akayev's supporters, including two of his children, won all but six seats in the 75-seat parliament. The opposition wants the poll run again.

Mr Akayev, who has ruled the country since 1990, is due to step down in October but is widely suspected of engineering another term in power, a move that is against Kyrgyzstan's constitution. He insists he has no intention of seeking another term.

Mr Akayev appeared willing to compromise on Monday, ordering an investigation into the elections and promising negotiations. Yesterday he adopted a much tougher line, setting the stage for a showdown, though he vowed not to use force.

"Power structures can't show weakness when faced with 'colour' revolutions that are in effect coups d'etat," Mr Akayev told reporters.

The opposition in Kyrgyzstan has chosen yellow as its rallying colour of change, prompting observers to talk of a "lemon" or "tulip" revolution. Mr Akayev claims last month's elections were legitimate and said he would not be "provoked" into calling a state of emergency.

Kyrgyzstan is being closely watched by America and Russia. Both countries have military bases there, but their positions appear far less clear than in the case of Ukraine. Moscow is thought to favour Mr Akayev, while Washington is deemed to be more sympathetic to the opposition.

John MacLeod, a senior editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), said the situation in Kyrgyzstan was dangerously volatile.

"It looks very likely that there is going to be some kind of confrontation with the authorities. What distinguishes this from Ukraine or Georgia is the dynamic. In both those situations the parties were prepared to sit back and glower at each other for a bit, but here there are a lot of changes every day with things being captured and re-captured. The big question is what the security forces will do. Using military force would potentially be catastrophic."

Roza Otounbaieva, one of the few identifiable opposition figures and a former ambassador to the UK, told the Russian media yesterday that many security officials had already switched sides. She spoke as large crowds assembled in Osh, a city controlled by the opposition, to demand Mr Akayev's removal and to rail against levels of poverty and unemployment.

On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters armed with petrol bombs and sticks all but drove police out of Osh, having earlier gained control of nearby Jalal-Abad. "The situation is explosive and may go out of control at any moment," Kurmanbek Bakiyev, an opposition figure, said.

Mr MacLeod said Mr Akayev could only defuse the situation by offering a major concession such as re-running the election. Kyrgyzstan is regarded as crucial to central Asia's stability where energy interests intermingle with a huge illegal drugs trade and the US's fight against terror.

Ukraine Invites Turkmenistan to Manage Gas Pipelines, No Deal Yet

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan -- On Wednesday, March 23, it was announced that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko invited the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan to manage Kiev’s gas transit pipelines to Europe.

During his first official visit to Ashgabat, which supplies the bulk of Ukraine’s gas needs via Russia, Yushchenko said that Turkmenistan may join Russia and Germany in managing Ukraine’s ageing pipelines and building new ones to boost transit. But the Ukrainian leader did not say how he planned to persuade Russia to open up its pipelines for Turkmenistan to begin supplying gas outside the former Soviet Union.


Viktor Yushchenko (l) and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov
“Europe will have its energy balance in any case — with or without use,” Yushchenko, quoted by Reuters, told a news conference. “I would like to see it happening with us. I am also talking here about Turkmen interests… I hope we are going to step in together [with Ashgabat] on a completely new level. We are not discussing it in public yet.”

Land-locked Turkmenistan has struggled since gaining its independence in 1991 to gain access to markets outside Russia and Ukraine, especially in Europe. But it has been facing opposition from the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, plus its projects are made virtually impossible due to very high costs of production and a difficult investment climate.

Despite assurances of cooperation which came from the Ukrainian leader, Ukraine and Turkmenistan are yet to solve a price dispute that has been going on since December 2004. At the beginning of 2005 Ashgabat halted gas supplies to both Russia and Ukraine, demanding that prices be raised to $58 per 1,000 cubic meters from last year’s price of $44. It later resumed shipments amid a continuing price dispute.

Russia’s Gazprom has said that it considers the old price valid, while energy-hungry Ukraine says it is already paying $58, but would prefer a broader long-term deal. The deal may involve Turkmen participation in the Ukrainian consortium which could also involve Gazprom and Germany’s Ruhrgaz which plans to invest billions in upgrading Ukraine’s existing pipelines to Europe and building new links.

Gazprom has opposed surrendering its export monopoly to Europe, which buys one quarter of its gas from the Russian firm, but since it also needs cheap Turkmen gas as a backup until its Arctic gas fields begin production, the gas monopoly is likely to concede to Turkmenistan’s participation.

Ukraine Wooed West on Iraq: Tarasyuk

KIEV, Ukraine -- By sending troops to Iraq, Ukraine's former leaders tried to woo Western Europe and the United States, Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk says.

Tarasyuk told reporters the motives of former President Leonid Kuchma and his advisers were seemingly noble -- to help the Iraqi people ensure the democratic development of the country and preserve stability.

"But in fact -- which nobody said officially -- the motive was to actually buy the West's, primarily the United States', favor at the expense of Ukrainian peacekeepers.

This is what was expected. The same, by the way, concerns the rhetoric about joining NATO," he said, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Kyrgyzstan No Ukraine Yet Says EBRD Chief

LONDON, England -- European Bank of Reconstruction and Development President Jean Lemierre said on Tuesday it was too early to say whether Kyrgyzstan would emulate Ukraine in overturning the result of disputed elections.

President Askar Akayev, facing violent protests in the south of the central Asian state over parliamentary elections the opposition says was rigged, has defiantly backed the poll as legitimate, but ruled out using force to end the unrest.


President Askar Akayev
Lemierre said in a Reuters interview: "This is the last element in a long story line in which you have Georgia, and you have Ukraine, and then you have Moldova. You see big political changes in the region and leaders of the region are highly concerned by this."

But he added there were unique characteristics in the Kyrgyz stand-off: "At the same time, we shouldn't assimilate countries together too quickly. Kyrgyzstan is a different country. The opposition is not structured the same way and may not have the same targets."

The EBRD is one of the biggest private investors in the former Soviet republics.

Lemierre said the unrest was symptomatic of a country moving in a democratic direction.

"What is interesting in Kyrgyzstan is that this is a country in which there is the beginning of a civil society. President Akayev 10 years ago has tried genuinely to develop democracy. And you see a change and you see people saying we are not happy about the result.

"I hope the conclusion of what we see today will be a positive one which will help Kyrgyzstan to grow even more."

CIVIL WAR RISK

Protesters ruling the country's second city of Osh said the president had to resign, pledging to govern independently from the capital Bishkek until he did so.

Analysts fear violent opposition protests in the country could plunge the former Soviet Republic into civil war rather than bring about political change of power such as in Ukraine or Georgia.

Opposition protests were prompted by their leaders being routed in parliamentary polls that foreign observers said were flawed. Protesters think Akayev will use his new majority to stay in power beyond the legal end of his last term in October.

Akayev has ruled out agreeing to the protesters' key demand and ending his 14-year rule of his homeland, which borders China and lies in an energy-rich region where Washington and Moscow vie for influence. Both powers have air bases near Bishkek.

Unlike the upheavals in Ukraine and Georgia, the unrest in Kyrgyzstan appears to lack a central opposition rallying figure.

Ukraine Probes Fate of Nuclear Arsenal

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is investigating what became of its cold war nuclear arsenal in response to revelations that at least 18 unloaded cruise missiles were smuggled to Iran and China in 2001.

Petro Poroshenko, secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council, said he had ordered the Defence Ministry and SBU secret police to make a full account of the arsenal, which was supposed to have been destroyed or transferred to Russia after the break-up of the Soviet Union.



Mr Poroshenko also promised an "objective, unprejudiced and transparent" investigation of the smuggling case and a review and strengthening of arms-export controls "in order to rule out any recurrence".

However, he said it was up to the judge to decide whether to lift a secrecy order on the trial of one of the smuggling suspects.

Two men were arrested and accused of smuggling the missiles last year, but the case was kept secret until after the pro-western government of Viktor Yushchenko took power in January. One of the men, Russian businessman Oleg Orlov, was arrested last July in the Czech Republic, where he is being held in prison pending a hearing on Ukraine's extradition request.

Mr Poroshenko stressed that the missile sales were not official policy. "We're not talking about a crime carried out by the state of Ukraine. There's no evidence that this sale was sanctioned," he said.

Kishichiro Amae, Japan's ambassador to Ukraine, said the case was "stunning" because he thought Ukraine had completely disposed of its former nuclear arsenal. The only known exceptions were a well monitored programme in which inter-continental ballistic missiles were converted into commercial satellite launch vehicles and a small number of missiles turned into museum pieces.

The X-55s missiles allegedly exported to Iran and China are considered particularly dangerous because they can fly up to 3,000km and avoid detection by most radar. They were designed to carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. These were stripped out and handed over to Russia years before the smuggling incident, according to Ukraine's prosecutor general.

The X-55 has been converted to carry conventional warheads by Russia but most nuclear bombs, especially primitive ones, would be too big for its payload.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said 483 X-55s had been destroyed under a US-funded disarmament programme but declined to say how many were in the arsenal Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union or how many were left.

According to a member of the Ukrainian parliament who first publicised the case last month, the Defence Ministry reported that it had destroyed the missiles but had actually turned them over to the state arms export company, which sold them to the smugglers.

Ukrainian specialists were sent to Iran to help install the missiles, according to the MP.

Kyrgyzstan Loses Claim to Next "Velvet" Revolution

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Kyrgyzstan may have lost its claim to the next "velvet" revolution after violence erupted in the southern cities of Jalal-Abad and Osh.

In Jalal-Abad, on 20 March, protesters demanding the resignation of President Askar Akaev threw Molotov cocktails into a crowd. They set fire to a local administration building.



In Osh, the following day, a crowd chanting "Akaev must go" set fire to a billboard with Akaev's picture on it.

The violence ended relatively quickly, but several people were injured.

This is just one of the differences between what is happening in Kyrgyzstan and the peaceful revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.

The Kyrgyz opposition says they are now in control of the situation in areas where they have power. One of the opposition leaders, Emil Aliev of the Ar-Namys (Dignity) party, told RFE/RL by telephone today that their priority is to maintain order.

"We are in control of this process," he said. "And as soon as we began receiving reports, not even facts, of the possibility of [looting and violence], we sent orders to every region. We talked to our activists and called on the people to refrain from looting and violence.""We are in control of this process. And as soon as we began receiving reports, not even facts, of the possibility of [looting and violence], we sent orders to every region. We talked to our activists and called on the people to refrain from looting and violence." -- Emil Aliev, Ar-Namys (Dignity) party

This is disputed by the presidential administration. A spokesman, Abdil Segizbaev, today said the opposition is not in control of the protests. He said they amount to "a putsch and a coup."

One problem is that the Kyrgyz opposition so far lacks a charismatic national leader like Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko or Georgia's Mikheil Saakashvili to give the movement unity and coherence.

A journalist, Alisher Saipov, who witnessed the events in Osh, says there was little coordination among opposition groups as they took over an administrative building there.

"Yes, this is absolutely clear [that there is no unity among the opposition]," Saipov says. "Let's take my personal observations as an example. Omurbek Tekebaev, one of the opposition leaders, told me yesterday that he would like the president to stay in power until his term ends and, thus, he demonstrated he had some personal problems with ex-Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev [who is the most likely candidate for the presidency]. I had an impression that the opposition members throw stones at each other. Many people say that Roza Otunbaeva, who became a driving force of the Kyrgyz opposition according to President Akaev, plays just a consultant's role."

Aliev concedes there have been some organizational problems, but he says coordination among the groups is getting better.

"In the beginning, there were successful attempts [by the opposition] to coordinate these events. Then other people started joining in spontaneously, people who also had various demands, including political ones," he says. "Now, we are trying to coordinate all those actions."

One important unknown factor is how Russia will react.

The Kremlin played an important role in averting violence in Georgia by convincing President Eduard Shevardnadze to resign in the face of the Rose Revolution.

In Ukraine, Russia actively sided with government candidate Viktor Yanukovych. But when Yanukovych was defeated, the Kremlin was humiliated.

Perhaps reacting to Ukraine, the Kremlin is appearing more cautious in Kyrgyzstan. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered what was viewed as a mild endorsement of Akaev in January, promising to visit Kyrgyzstan this summer. Kremlin officials, however, also held meetings with prominent Kyrgyz opposition figures, including Otunbaeva.

Akaev was rumored to have traveled to Moscow on 20 March, but there has been no confirmation.

This week, there were calls from some within Russia to become more involved. Dmitriy Rogozin, the head of the Rodina faction in the Russian State Duma, said Russia may have to intervene with physical force to avoid bloodshed.

Ishengul Boljurova of the People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan, speaking to RFE/RL from Bishkek, says she is concerned by these kinds of statements.

"We call on Russia to have a less biased and more careful approach toward Kyrgyzstan," she says.

Kurmanbek Bakiev today issued an appeal to Putin to help stabilize the situation in Kyrgyzstan, saying it is becoming a threat to regional stability.

The Ukraine protests lasted weeks and weeks. The Kyrgyz movement, by comparison, is still relatively young.

Ukraine to Withdraw Troops From Iraq

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko has signed the order to withdraw Ukraine's troops from Iraq, cementing a pledge by the new leadership to bring back its 1,650-strong force, the head of the country's security council said Tuesday.

The end date for the pullout will be "fixed after consultations with the other coalition members," and the entire Ukrainian contingent is likely to leave Iraq in November or December, Petro Poroshenko said.



Earlier this month Yushchenko and top defense officials ordered Ukraine's soldiers to leave by year's end, and the pullout began last week. The ex-Soviet republic provided the sixth-largest contingent in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Eighteen Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in Iraq and more than two dozen have been wounded, fueling public dismay about the unpopular deployment.

More than 130 soldiers returned home last week, and Ukraine plans to withdraw an additional 550 soldiers from Iraq by May 15, the Defense Ministry has said.

The troop pullout was one of the new president's campaign promises.

Ukraine strongly opposed the U.S.-led war but later agreed to send a large contingent to serve under Polish command in central and southern Iraq.

The deployment was widely seen as an effort by former President Leonid Kuchma to repair relations with Washington, frayed by allegations that he approved the sale of radar systems to Saddam Hussein's regime in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Ukraine's participation in the U.S.-led coalition is deeply unpopular at home, but Yushchenko has said Ukraine should keep a presence in Iraq and take part in development and reconstruction efforts there.

Last year, Ukrainian companies were awarded contracts to supply the Iraqi military and development companies with weapons, equipment and vehicles.

Poroshenko said that a Ukrainian delegation of diplomats and defense officials will visit Iraq next week.

Ukraine's President Due In Turkmenistan

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is due in Ashgabat today for talks with Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov.

A spokeswoman, Iryna Heraschenko, for Yushchenko says talks during the two-day visit will focus on energy issues.



Turkmenistan is one of the largest suppliers of natural gas to Ukraine. Earlier this year, the Turkmen government forced Ukraine to pay higher prices after temporarily shutting off gas supplies.

Turkmenistan resumed gas supplies after Ukraine agreed to a 32-percent price increase.

Ukraine's new government has said one of its top priorities is to diversify its sources of gas and oil supplies, a move that would give the ex-Soviet republic greater independence from Russia, its other major supplier.

Kiev Recalls Ambassador From Kyrgyzstan For Exceeding His Responsibilities

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine recalled its ambassador from Kyrgyzstan on March 21, accusing him of exceeding his responsibilities, the Foreign Ministry said, as protests likened to Ukraine's own Orange Revolution continued in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic.



Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmytro Svystkov said that Oleksandr Baldynyuk, Ukraine's temporary representative in Kyrgyzstan, was summoned home because of a letter he wrote in support of the regional governor of Jalal-Abad, where the biggest oppositions rallies have been held.

"I hope that common sense will prevail in the minds of people, which have been clouded by unjust and empty views," Baldynyuk allegedly wrote, according to Ukraine's Unian news agency. "I am also sure that your personal authority and the talent of the state workers will serve as a guarantee to quickly resolve the situation."

Svystkov said Baldynyuk's "position contradicted the position of official Ukraine."

On March 21, thousands rallied in two key cities in Kyrgyzstan's south over the allegedly fraudulent parliamentary vote. Protesters also demanded the resignation of President Askar Akayev.

The protests have been compared to the so-called Orange Revolution - last year's mass-protests that followed a fraudulent runoff for the presidency.

Earlier March 21, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on all sides to engage in dialogue and "peacefully resolve the situation."

The Foreign Ministry also said it was waiting to hear the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's account on the Kyrgyz balloting. The OSCE's strong criticism of the Ukrainian presidential race helped to fuel last year's protests.

Putin Orders Lifting Trade Limits With Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia -- Vladimir Putin instructed the Economic Development Ministry to resume analysis of the possibility to reduce limits on trade with Ukraine.

"The president of Ukraine suggested that we make another try - we tried more than once - in order to minimize limitations on trade," the president said during a conference with cabinet members. "I ask the economics ministry to resume analysis of this question. This problem can and should be solved, but as a package. It should be a common decision, calculated and substantiated."

Putin pointed out that limits should be lifted from Russian cement and car exports and from Ukrainian sugar and alcohol deliveries. According to the president, Ukrainian limitations were mentioned to the partner during the visit to Kiev.

"If we solve these problems, everyone will stand to gain," Putin said. "Russia has made a number of significant steps towards [Ukraine]. I think we did right; our colleagues are aware of this and are ready to reciprocate."

The Russian president also instructed Viktor Khristenko, Minister of Industry and Energy, to talk with the Ukrainian economics minister about joint work in the high-level group for forming the Common Economic Space (CES).

"We should prepare for a four-party meeting at the level of experts, so as to advance towards coordinating the documents [on the CES]," Vladimir Putin said at the conference with cabinet members. In his words, the package submitted for coordination includes 29 documents.

Ukraine's Chief Rabbi: No Need to Fear Yushchenko

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Jews should not fear Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, despite his support for a newspaper that was censured last year for inciting anti-Semitism, the country's chief rabbi told The Jerusalem Post.

While Yushchenko was presenting the staff of the daily Silski Visti with medals "for significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian journalism" recently, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich said, "it would have been prudent of him to mention also that they had printed anti-Semitic articles in the past, and said something to the effect that he was glad that they stopped it."

The Jewish community, Bleich added, is much more concerned about other widely distributed magazines published by the unabashedly anti-Semitic MAUP organization.

However, Yushchenko's support of Silski Visti only contributed to a larger concern about his relationship with the Jewish community because his right-wing power base includes nationalists and anti-Semites.

"It has undermined our efforts in the fight against anti-Semitism," Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, told the Post.

Both Bleich and Dolinsky believe that Yushchenko himself is not a threat to the Jewish community, noting that he joins a Kiev synagogue each year to light Hanukka candles and saying that the president seems sincere in his attempts to foster good relations.

"He very publicly walked over to me and embraced me as a friend" at recent political function, said Bleich.

"He went to Auschwitz" last month for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of its liberation, Dolinsky pointed out, "and said that there would never be a Jewish problem in Ukraine, because he would make every effort to fight anti-Semitism."

Yet for both men, doubts remain.

"[Yushchenko] is definitely not anti-Semitic," said Bleich, "but he is maybe too tolerant of people who are, and that definitely has to be addressed. He has to go to greater lengths to prove his democratic values."

As a way of doing that, Bleich suggested, Yushchenko should make a public appearance at the upcoming celebration marking 15 years of Jewish renewal in Ukraine and use that opportunity to speak out against anti-Semitic forces within in the general Ukrainian community.

"I think [Yushchenko] is very sincere," said Dolinsky, "but to this point we have seen no change. So we have asked him to receive a delegation of the Jewish community in order to discuss these problems."

"And if he won't see us and still won't deal with this," Dolinsky added, "then we are going to demonstrate, organize mass rallies, etc. This event has shaken the feelings of the Jewish community."

Kyrgyzstan: Is it Another Ukraine or Georgia?

MOSCOW, Russia -- Mass protests are under way in the south of Kyrgyzstan -- the third such upheaval in a former Soviet republic following Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" and the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia.

The following are points of similarity and difference between the Kyrgyz unrest and what took place in Ukraine and Georgia.



Points of similarity

* The protests followed elections that international observers said were flawed.

* Opposition protesters want a change of guard in the establishment running the country virtually since independence -- in Kyrgyzstan's case the resignation of long-serving President Askar Akayev.

Points of difference

* Police have clashed violently with protesters who have attacked government buildings, and several deaths have been reported. The Ukraine and Georgia protests were peaceful.

* The protests are taking place in two different towns in the south of the country, not in the capital as was the case in Ukraine and Georgia.

* No single leader for the Kyrgyz opposition has yet emerged.

* No real color has yet been attached to the Kyrgyz protests, though names such as the "tulip" or the "yellow" revolution have been floated. The campaign color for Ukraine's protests was orange, while the trademark symbol in Georgia was the red rose.

* There is no strong pro-Western slant to the protests in Kyrgyzstan which is bordered by three other Central Asian countries and China.

* Kyrgyzstan, a largely Muslim country, has suffered in the past from underlying tensions between the majority Kyrgyz population and an Uzbek minority concentrated largely in the south. This led to bloodshed in 1990.

Fischer: Keep Ukraine on Path to Europe

KIEV, Ukraine -- Speaking in Kiev on Monday, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the door to Europe must remain open for Ukraine, and urged leaders not to be influenced by the ongoing visa scandal in which he's been implicated.

Referring to the tourist visa scandal which allegedly allowed thousands of illegal eastern European immigrants -- including many Ukrainians -- enter Germany between 2000 and 2003, Fischer called for a cool head when discussing the former Soviet country's EU ambitions.


Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld (l) and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (r) Listen to Yushchenko
"You have to be able to separate one from the other," he told journalists while visiting Kiev on Monday.

The investigation into whether or not relaxed visa criteria allowed organized crime, black market businesses and prostitution to flow into Germany unchecked was an internal matter, Fischer said, and one that he was prepared to deal with.

"The other is the development of a democratic Ukraine," Fischer said. "And that has great significance for Europe."

The way to the West, he said, should not only be a valid prospect on an institutional level, but also for the average citizen.

In Germany, meanwhile, another voice has joined the chorus of criticism aimed at Fischer for his involvement in the visa affair. A former high-ranking German ambassador said on Saturday that German authorities were not checking visa applications thoroughly enough.

"It was clear that we were not examining the files enough and that many people were passing through the loopholes for unknown reasons," Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz, former ambassador to Russia from 1995 to 2002, told the German news agency DPA.

"Green ideology"

Fischer, whose standing as the most popular politician in Germany has taken a hammering over the visa affair, did not pay enough attention to the visa policy, von Studnitz charged.

The former ambassador said Fischer's policy was "the attempt to put into practice the green ideology."

Von Studnitz said the ministry took too long to react to the abuse of the liberalized visa regulations introduced under Fischer.

"Apparently, we just shut our eyes. This happens often when ideological elements are slipped into political practice," von Studnitz told Der Spiegel weekly in an interviewed published on Monday.

Der Spiegel also reported that the ministry acknowledged that the visa policy had led to illegal immigration in an internal memo dated July 2004.

Fischer has acknowledged making mistakes but has refused to resign. He has also received the backing of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Yushchenko May Not Visit Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON, DC -- President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko still did not receive an invitation to address a joint session of both chambers of the US Congress, according to Ukrayinska Pravda. It is possible that such an invitation will not come at all, Radio Liberty was told in the office of Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

According to an official, the organizing of such an address is a difficult procedure, which requires a co-ordination of many officials and institutions. At the same time, both chambers of the Congress have already left for their Easter vacations until April 5. [terrible excuse, Speaker Hastert has known about the Yushchenko visit for weeks]

The initiative to arrange Viktor Yushchenko's Congress address during his visit to the US in April belongs to the Ukrainian diaspora in America. This initiative has been supported by the minister of foreign affairs Borys Tarasyuk, but the attempts are unsuccessful as of yet.

The tradition of foreign leaders addressing American congressmen dates back almost two centuries. Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela and Boris Yeltsin have made such a speech in the past, along with leaders of western European states. Representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in the US are certain that Viktor Yushchenko also deserves an invitation to make a Congress speech.

"President Yushchenko today is one of the most popular state leaders in the world. The whole world knows of him - his poisoning, recovery from it and the courage that it took to lead the Orange Revolution and to achieve the necessary changes in Ukraine," - says Ihor Havdiak [Gawdiak], head of Ukrainian-American Coordination Council.

However, apparently the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine will not be reason enough to invite Yushchenko for a Congress address.

At the same time, the beginning of Ukrainian army's pullout from Iraq and a unilateral wish of Kyiv to have the bill for that sent to the US somewhat lower the euphoria in Ukrainian-American relations which began right after Yushchenko's victory.

An example of the White House's more reserved stance towards the new Ukrainian government is an emphasis on calling the first visit of Yushchenko to the US a "working" visit, instead of a more prestigious "state" visit.

Though the Americans explain this by lack of time, Washington was able to organize a state visit of the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in only several weeks. Saakashvili came to the US a month after his inauguration.

Despite the numerous demands of the Ukrainian diaspora, supporting statements from influential Senators Hillary Clinton, Richard Lugar and John McCain, and the transparent hints of Ukrainian diplomats, the leadership of Congress is being slow to invite Viktor Yushchenko to speak at the Capitol Hill. And, according to observers, if such this address will not happen altogether, the reason will be the position of president Bush, Radio Liberty notes.

German, Polish Foreign Ministers Head to Ukraine for One-Day Visit

KIEV, Ukraine -- Germany and Poland's foreign ministers were expected in Ukraine on March 21 for talks with Ukraine's new pro-Western leadership about expanding cooperation with this ex-Soviet republic.

Germany Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Poland's Adam Rotfeld planned to meet with President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Both men are also due to hold talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk.

The one-day visit is expected to focus on Ukraine's ambitions to join the European Union and what help Kyiv can expect from Germany and Poland to reach that goal, the Foreign Ministry said.

Yushchenko, who won last year's bitter presidential race, has sought EU support for what he calls Ukraine's European choice, looking toward the EU capitals where his win and the mass protests against voter fraud that led to it were hailed as a victory for democracy.

The European Union has so far promised closer ties but said it is too early to talk about membership for this poor nation of 48 million. But Fischer and Rotfeld's joint trip is seen as an effort to reassure Ukraine that the EU is committed to supporting its efforts to reform its corruption-fueled administration and create a fully functioning market economy.

During a visit to Germany earlier this month, Yushchenko made a direct appeal to the European Union to liberalize visa restrictions for Ukrainian students, businessmen and journalists - saying it was essential that they be able to see how western democracies function. Yushchenko has pledged to lift visa requirements for EU nationals - at least temporarily.

An EU decision to ease some visa requirements, however, could pose a political problem for Germany. Fischer's visit comes amid an ongoing political storm at home over visa-issuing practices at German embassies in eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine. Opposition leaders claim the eased rules opened Germany's door to criminals and women being trafficked as prostitutes.

Poland, meanwhile, has been one of Ukraine's strongest advocates as it seeks EU membership in the hope that stability and prosperity would then flourish in its eastern neighbor. Poland joined the European Union last year.

The neighbors are also partners in Iraq, where Ukrainians serve in a Polish-led international force in a zone south of Baghdad. Ukraine, however, has begun to withdraw its troops and aims to end their deployment by year end.

Late last year, Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski played a role in mediating Ukraine's disputed presidential election.

Ukraine Press Sees Obstacles in Moscow Ties

KIEV, Ukraine -- Assurances that relations between Kiev and Moscow are on an even keel during the current visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin have fallen on deaf ears in the Ukrainian press.

Newspapers across the political spectrum see bilateral ties as being strained despite the official rhetoric, with the issue of neighbouring Moldova remaining a particular bone of contention.

A commentator in the Ukrainian pro-government weekly Zerkalo Nedeli accuses Moscow of meddling in the recent elections in Moldova, won by the pro-Western Communist Party.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko "was on the opposite side of the political barricades to his Russian counterpart".

"Russia's active participation in the Moldovan elections has shown that Moscow continues its attempts to actively influence developments in the post-Soviet area," the commentator argues.

Mr Yushchenko's proposal on the eve of the Moldovan elections to revive the GUUAM group comprising five former Soviet states, "which has always been viewed in Moscow as an anti-Russian axis", was no coincidence, the writer believes.

A Moscow correspondent for the Ukrainian parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrayiny also raises the Moldova issue, quoting a former ambassador to Russia as saying the question of Moldova's troubled Dniester region, where separatist violence led to hundreds of deaths in the 1990s, is unlikely to be easily resolved.

'Verge of collapse'

The correspondent quotes a former Russian premier as saying that if Kiev were to block its border with Dniester, "Russia may raise the question of which country Crimea and Sevastopol should belong to", referring to the sensitive bilateral issue of the Black Sea region's status.

The pro-government Ukrayina Moloda believes the background to the Putin visit is "a serious weakening of the Russian position in the post-Soviet era".

It describes the organisation of former Soviet states set up by Moscow, the Commonwealth of Independent States, as "on the verge of collapse".

For the independent daily Den, the visit is "symbolic". "Hardly anybody expects major results from Putin's visit."

"Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Moscow immediately after his inauguration was hardly successful."

"Two months have passed, but the tension in relations has not subsided," Den adds.

Putin Reaches Out On Visit To Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Russian President Vladimir Putin made a one-day fence-mending trip to Ukraine on Saturday to seek assurances that the country's new pro-Western government would not drive the two former Soviet republics apart.

Putin flew to the Ukrainian capital from Paris and met Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who won election in December after street protests forced the reversal of an initial vote count that gave victory to his pro-Kremlin opponent. It was Putin's first visit to Ukraine since the "Orange Revolution."


Yushchenko (r) and his wife Kateryna show Putin Their Collection of Antiques
Yushchenko said his goal was for "Vladimir Putin and Russia to understand that the new Ukrainian government is a responsible government, which will always demonstrate honesty."

Saturday's brief visit was the second meeting between the leaders. Yushchenko traveled to the Kremlin a day after his inauguration, fulfilling a campaign promise to preserve a good relationship with Russia even as Ukraine seeks membership in the European Union and NATO.

"Russia is our eternal neighbor, which Ukraine wants to see as a friend and strategic partner," Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko invited Putin to visit his apartment for an informal meeting to discuss humanitarian issues, and the two first families had dinner.

Putin's last two trips to Ukraine came in the midst of the bitter presidential campaign, sparking accusations he was campaigning on behalf of Yushchenko's rival, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Yushchenko's supporters and the West criticized the Kremlin for interfering in its neighbor's political affairs. Yushchenko's victory in the repeat vote and the rush in European capitals to fete him left Putin looking like an outsider.

On Saturday, the two discussed four issues:

Putin supported Ukraine's bid to invite Western European nations to create an international consortium to develop a pipeline to transport natural gas from Russia to Europe. Russia previously had insisted the pipeline be developed only with Ukraine.

Putin said a joint venture involving western European partners "would be more transparent and more civilized." He mentioned Germany as a potential partner.

Yushchenko gave no final answer on whether Kiev would pull out of the Kremlin-promoted United Economic Space for closer economic and trade links between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. He said the first step should focus on creating a free-trade zone.

The two presidents also discussed Russia's Black Sea fleet based in Ukraine's port of Sevastopol.

"There's no question of the Black Sea fleet base being liquidated," Yushchenko said, amid concerns in Moscow that if Ukraine joins NATO, it could revoke Russia's lease on the naval base. The lease runs until 2017.

Yushchenko also said he and Putin agreed to fully demarcate borders between the two countries.

Also ...

A Moscow court on Saturday extended by 10 days the detention of the main suspect in the attempted assassination of Russia's powerful former privatization czar Anatoly Chubais, the Interfax news agency reported.

Chubais, who escaped unhurt in Thursday's roadside ambush, now heads the state-controlled electricity monopoly. He has said he had been expecting an attack and knew who may have been responsible, but refused to divulge any names.

Police detained 57-year-old Vladimir Kvachkov, a retired colonel who also had worked for the defense ministry as a civilian employee.

A Moscow court on Saturday authorized the suspect to be held in custody for 10 days at the request of prosecutors, Interfax reported. No charges have been filed.

How Do We change The Face Of Ukraine In America?

WASHINGTON, DC -- By all accounts, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Tarasiuk had a successful visit to Washington. The level of meetings was high and the amount of time spent with American administration was more than originally anticipated.

In less than two full days, Tarasiuk met Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the great disarmament advocate senator Richard Lugar, Senate majority leader Bill Frist, and Chairman of the House Committee on International Relations Henry Hyde.

Tarasiuk spoke with Cheney for about half an hour, which was twice the planned time, so hopefully they talked about more than just the weather.

Meetings continued during the official dinner at the Embassy of Ukraine. A line to greet Tarasiuk consisted of present and former Ambassadors Steven Pyfer, Carlos Pascual, John Herbst, representatives of various Diaspora organization, as well as the four musketeers, Ukrainian political refugees Myroslava Gongadze, Serhiy Sholoh, Mykola Melnychenko and Olexandr Yeliashkevych.

Those that had enough patience to stay till the end reported that Tarasiuk’s meetings behind closed doors continued long after midnight. Despite waiting, not everybody got a chance to have a drink of cognac with the Foreign Minister.

US government and public organizations are showing exceptional interest in Ukraine. First, Tarasiuk met Rumsfeld two times: during the reception at the Embassy and then during their formal meeting the following day. And this when, as a rule, the Secretary of Defense does not even meet with Foreign Ministers. Normally, it is the prerogative of his Deputy.

Secondly, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rice stated that they “fully understand” the decision of the Ukrainian Government to withdraw their troops from Iraq and this will not have a detrimental effect on the future relations between the two countries. Could this be evidence of the fact that Ukraine now presents much more interest to the US than just fifteen hundred troops in Iraq?

Thirdly, Tarasiuk’s speech at George Washington University attracted several hundred students, graduate students, professors, scientists and researchers, political analysts and others interested in Ukraine. Neither Kuchma, nor “proFFesor” Yanukovich (the famous word misspelled by Yanukovich) could have even dreamed of anything like this.

The Embassy has its own revolution

However, the most unusual changes during Tarasiuk’s visit occurred in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington itself. Imagine that the visit was organized not by a local, ridiculously overpaid PR agency, as it was during Kuchma/Yanukovych times, but by official state representatives of Ukraine.

Formerly, Embassy workers were tightlipped like spies under interrogation regarding any Ukrainian statesmen’s visits to Washington. Now they are openly communicating, making phone calls and even write e-mails about it.

However, rumor has it in D.C. that Ukrainian Ambassador Mikhailo Resnik is hard to catch in public and can only be seen once a year laying flowers at the monument of Taras Shevchenko.

Mr. Resnik was not at all seen in public during the days of the Orange Revolution, a time when the role of the Ukrainian Ambassador in describing the events in Ukraine to the American mass media would have been of extreme importance. The explanation is very simple because, you see, he is very modest. Besides, he is a consistent Yanukovich supporter.

This is how the face of Ukraine looks today in America.

Once again on importance of public speeches

Boris Tarasiuk’s speech at George Washington University where he arrived half an hour late, was obviously not the most important item on his agenda; no big deal, something one has to do, “meeting the people” routine. But in fact, speeches like that are extremely significant.

First of all, because dictators do not normally address such audiences. In a way, it shows recognition of Ukraine as a democratic society.

Second, George Washington University as well as Georgetown and Harvard, where Yushchenko is planning to speak during his visit to the US, are among the best Universities in America and are alma mater to past, present and future US presidents.

Getting future American leaders to know Ukraine better and establishing positive public opinion about Ukraine is a long term but extremely important task. Without this it would be impossible to change the face of Ukraine in America. And the best way to do it is with the help of Ukrainians and not some unknown PR agency that has little or no knowledge of Ukraine.

Ukraine as an “exemplary republic”

One time, Stalin wanted to turn Ukraine into an “exemplary Soviet republic”. Now Ukraine has the chance to become an “exemplary democratic republic” in the on going process of global democratization, which is a very popular idea with the current Bush administration.

However, Ukraine has a long way to go to get there. According to a Radio Freedom correspondent, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister was, among other issues, discussing the possibility of reimbursement of expenses related to the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Iraq.

US usually offer the same kind of assistance to the poorest countries of the world, like Honduras. According to the State Department sources, the American administration refuses to give any guarantees as to the financing of the Ukrainian troop withdrawal from Iraq.

“The decision to end the Ukrainian military presence in Iraq by the end of this year was received in Washington without enthusiasm but with understanding. On several occasions, American officials stated that they realize that Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has to fulfil his election promises” the radio reports.

They added that Tarasiuk did not reach a final agreement on the issue of financing the troop withdrawal. The Ukrainian Embassy, however, rejects the fact that the issue was even discussed.

It is not hard to understand why they do no want to talk about it. At one time during the visit, Boris Tarasiuk asked Americans not to consider Ukraine among the poorest countries of the world. As one of the journalists pointed out “after his speech Tarasiuk had to explain to American officials why US should treat Ukraine like it treats Honduras”.

Even under these circumstances and despite the geographical distance, it is easier for Ukraine to reach agreement with the US than with Europe. It would be hard to try and transfer political gains into economic dividends with old, tough and cold Europe. No matter how hot Europe feels about the Orange Revolution, it would not change its existing bureaucratic procedures for Ukraine. On the other hand, is it really Europe’s fault that in the last 14 years of independence, Ukraine did not convert its technical standards into the international ones?

On the surface it might look much the same with America: the US Minister of Trade Carlos Gutieras at the meeting with Tarasiuk, brought up the unresolved issue of protection of intellectual property. However, because the neo conservative American administration is very emotional and supportive of any new democracies in the world, it is ready to make serious steps towards Ukraine and recognize it as a country with market economy, assist with joining the World Trade Organization and make other steps.

After all, unresolved issues could be classified as transitional and Ukraine will promise to settle them over some period of time.

But the main difference in how Europe and America view Ukraine lies in the following: Europe does not want Ukraine under any circumstances, even if it meets all the requirements. Maybe it is not really “does not want” but more of “can not”; while America wants Ukraine right away and “as is”.

There is no doubt that after the Orange Revolution, bilateral relations between Ukraine and the US will become warmer. But whether or not Ukraine is able to really change its face in America to a large extent depends on the results of Yushchenko’s visit to Washington, which is planned for early April.

Yushchenko will be able to achieve maximum results and change the face of Ukraine in America if he manages to establish personal relations with America’s President and key figures of his administration. He will also have to gain the respect of American public, starting from the intellectuals at the Universities and think tanks to the average American who will see him for the first time on TV after the events on the Maidan.

Ukraine Pledges to Investigate Missile Sales to Iran

MINSK, Belarus -- Ukraine is investigating alleged illegal missiles to Iran and China under its former government, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported this weekend.

Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk told reporters during a visit to Minsk, the capital of the neighboring former Soviet republic of Belarus, Friday the government of newly-elected, pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko was investigating the alleged 2001 exports, Interfax-Ukraine said.

However, Yushchenko's government was "not responsible for what our predecessors were doing," Tarasyuk said Friday. "All we can do about the instances of unsanctioned handovers of types of armaments that took place in Ukraine is discuss them," he said according to the Interfax-Ukraine report.

"The results of the investigation have revealed a criminal group that engaged in the illegal sales of armaments. It's an international group, and it comprises citizens from a wide range of countries," Tarasyuk said according to the report.

Earlier, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Pyskun had admitted Ukrainian cruise missiles had been exported to Iran and China in 2001, Interfax-Ukraine said.

Putin, Yushchenko Pledge Partnership, End To Disputes

KIEV, Ukraine -- Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who made his first visit to Ukraine since last year's Orange Revolution and the rise of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency -- described talks with Yushchenko as being "highly constructive."

Some observers had wondered whether the day's meeting would be fractious. But the talks appeared largely harmonious, with the two leaders agreeing to create a special commission to enhance mutual cooperation between their two countries.



Speaking at a press conference following the talks, Putin said he and his Ukrainian counterpart want to build a strong and trusting relationship. Putin said the talks were conducted in an atmosphere of "very good will."

Yushchenko likewise praised the meeting, and emphasized the two countries' common goals despite what he said was Ukraine's "European choice."

"Our meeting today demonstrates our common desire to see our bilateral relations be constructive," Yushchenko said. "I highly appreciate the readiness of the head of the Russian state to work jointly in reaching these common goals. I am convinced that such an approach is consistent with the strategic interests of both Russia and Ukraine."

Both Yushchenko and Putin said there were no issues where the two could not find mutual understanding. The Russian president said the two agreed to renew programs aimed at economic and cross-border cooperation.

He mentioned, in particular, the troubled Single Economic Space proposal, which was originally planned to include Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. and Kazakhstan. Putin voiced his support for the idea: "Widening our bilateral cooperation will depend in large part on how successful we are in forming a Single Economic Space. I am convinced that if we can effectively implement this idea, it will give our countries more opportunities for developing trade and mutual investments in order to strengthen the competitiveness of our economies."

Speaking on the future gas consortium to be created by Russian and Ukraine, the Russian president said he welcomed what he called the "political processes" in Ukraine, saying: "Now there is a process of stabilization which we are glad to see."

Putin also said Russia and Ukraine agreed to invite their European partners to participate in a gas transportation project: "The most natural partner for us is Germany since it is the biggest consumer of Russian natural gas. Germany receives the main volumes of gas via the transportation system of Ukraine. Exactly because of that there appeared an idea to invite our German partners in a first stage. But we do not exclude -- on the contrary, we will welcome -- the participation of our other European partners."

Both presidents said they agreed to adopt in the near future a Russia-Ukraine action plan for 2005, a plan which Putin said would focus on humanitarian cooperation -- including the possible creation of a Russian cultural center in Kyiv and a Ukrainian library in Moscow.

The Russian and Ukrainian leaders avoided public discussion of more pressing bilateral problems. But Yushchenko said they had discussed several divisive issues: "Today, we have discussed the issues linked to the location of [Russia's] Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory, common energy projects, border issues, military and technical cooperation, the Transdniester conflict, and humanitarian and cultural issues. There's no doubt that the main topic of our talks was trade and economic relations."

Yushchenko emphasized what he called a "deep deficit" in bilateral trade. He said Ukraine's deficit in trade with Russia totaled $2 billion in 2000, compared with $6 billion in 2004.

He added that the deficit is increasing by 36 to 40 percent every year, and said the only way to solve the problem is by creating a free-trade area between the two countries.

Putin said the problem was mainly due to uneven pricing on Russian fuel and energy products. But the Russian president had praise for the 40 percent increase in bilateral trade turnover, which he said totaled $17 billion last year.

Putin and Yushchenko agreed to dissolve a current intergovernmental commission on bilateral cooperation and replace it with a new presidential commission focusing on cooperation on defense, international and economic policy, and humanitarian issues.

Yushchenko called on Putin to devote 2005 to solving outstanding border issues -- in particular, in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, as well as in the Kerch Strait.

"The borders along the Kerch Strait are as they've always been between the [Soviet] republics, and this can be seen on all the maps after World War II. So our suggestion is that they stay the way they are," Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko said he had proposed a resolution to the Sea of Azov issue, but did not elaborate.

Putin meets Yushchenko in Kiev

KIEV, Ukraine -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Viktor Yushchenko met in Kiev today and emphasised the importance of good bilateral ties.

The Russian leader was in the Ukrainian capital at the start of his first visit to Ukraine since a pro-Western government swept to power.



Yushchenko greeted Putin in Kiev's famous Home of Chimeras.

During their meeting Yushchenko pointed out the historical relationship between the two countries.

No major deals were on the table for today's meeting, but Yushchenko said he hoped the leaders could reach agreement to simplify border crossings and push forward talks on delimiting borders, and efforts to create a free-trade zone.

Putin also met with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytyvn.

Putin Heads to 'Orange' Ukraine for First Time

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to Ukraine on Saturday for the first time since last year's Orange Revolution protests ushered in a new, pro-Western government eager to loosen the Kremlin's influence over the ex-Soviet republic.

Putin is scheduled to hold talks with President Viktor Yushchenko and dine with Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, who until last month was being threatened with arrest on bribery charges if she tried to enter Russia.

Yushchenko's office was billing the trip, scheduled to last only several hours, as a chance for "eye to eye" talks.

It will be the two leaders' second face-to-face meeting. Yushchenko traveled to the Kremlin a day after his inauguration, fulfilling a campaign promise to preserve a good relationship with Russia even as Ukraine reorients itself to the West.

No major deals are on the table for Saturday's meeting, but Yushchenko said he hopes they can reach agreement to simplify border crossings and push forward talks on delimiting borders, particularly around the Azov Sea, and efforts to create a free-trade zone.

"This visit will ... make clear where the forbidden, no-go zones are and where are the areas where we can expect cooperation," said Vira Nanivska, director of the International Center for Policy Studies. "No one expects that this is going to be a love affair."

The youth movement Pora, which played a key role in the protests that helped usher the Ukrainian opposition into power, called on Putin to use the trip to apologize to the Ukrainian nation for "more than once behaving incorrectly" during the election campaign.

"Putin is not walking into a friendly situation," said political analyst Mykhailo Pohrebinskiy, who had close ties to former President Leonid Kuchma.

Yushchenko also has suggested that Ukraine might pull out of the Kremlin-promoted common economic space, which would unite the economies of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Russian media have suggested that Putin will push Yushchenko for a firm answer during this trip.

“I Haven’t Promised Anything To Anyone”

KIEV, Ukraine -- Special Kommersant correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov has met Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko following a 40-minute meeting with the Russian press. This private conversation was necessary since it seemed that the president evaded some key questions asked by the journalists. Many things needed to be specified. As a result it turned out that the current Ukrainian PM Yulia Timoshenko lost her part in the presidential campaign in Ukraine, that new auction for Krivorozhstal is inevitably approaching, and the country’s economy is like a colonial one of the feudal type.



Many people nowadays describe your steps in politics as weird. Probably, it is because of the lack of information. Let’s take the appointment of Yulia Timoshenko as the Prime Minister. They said that you had written her a note or something to promise her the seat of PM if you won the elections. Later they were rumours that you were on the point of giving the post to another person but then suddenly changed you mind, and we learnt later that Timoshenko would be the new premier. Then you were said to have bartered this decision for her promise to help postpone the constitutional reform stripping you of your powers which you already seem to have got used to. So what happened in fact?

First. I’ll start by saying that actually I haven’t promised anything to anyone.

Have you?

But I was aware of the fact that the first issue that would emerge would be the one of what I was to do if I had promised something to somebody under certain circumstances. Sometimes these circumstances are such that you cannot keep you promise… Well, here is the seat of the Prime Minister… Yes, Yulia Vladimirovna did want it, wanted for a long time.

Many people did, that’s the point…

Alexander Moroz [a presidential candidate, the Socialist party’s leader who supported Victor Yushchenko in the run-off – Kommersant]. He wanted the post too. Petro Poroshenko [the former head of the Parliament’s budget committee, the present secretary of The Security Council – Kommersant] wanted to be the prime minister. Anatoly Kinaskh wanted to be the prime minister too [a presidential candidate, the leader of the Ukrainian Union of Industrials and Entrepreneurs, now – a vice-PM – Kommersant].

But they wanted it not that much as Timoshenko did?

Surely, not that much. I could have listed a few more persons whose names you would be surprised to hear. But you would really like to.

For example?

There was… No, I don’t want to spoil my relationship with him… altogether. There were different circumstances. After the revolution won Moroz must have mustered some 200 signatures in his support. Perhaps there were not enough signatures but there was the bulk of them. Afterwards he asked for my personal backing. I told everyone that I could not possible support anyone since I was not the president at that moment. You can work in Parliament, you can talk about the transitional period, this is really so. But after the inauguration I wanted to start considering the topic of the Government from scratch. I told about this. That’s why all the things that were said and done during the transitional period before the swear-in were of little interest to me. And then I said: I would first back up the premier candidate in the view of partnership, not personal or official relationship. And it’s not applied to Alexander Moroz only. I said it during the transitional period because I didn’t care who was the acting prime minister after Yanukovich in the transitional period [Victor Yanukovich, the former Ukrainian PM, the main rival of Yushchenko in the presidential elections – Kommersant], I didn’t care. When it came to the debates on the candidacy of Yulia Vladimirovna, I told her frankly that I did not asses highly her achievements in the regions (from Lugansk to Donetsk) that she had took on during the election campaign.

But the situation in Donetsk was tough, to put it mildly…

But she was responsible for Sumy and Dnepropetrosk as well. I should say that the results in these regions were much lower than those we expected to have. No, we campaigned both in Donetsk and Lugansk being fully aware of the current situation!

Yulia Vladimirovna made a mess of her part of the campaign, did she? I can’t believe you’re saying this…

Unfortunately, the task was not carried out. Therefore this was the first point in my reflection. Then came the second point when one should remember what one owed to whom. And that’s why I said confidently: hide this agreement, hide it! I don’t want to remember about it at all.

Does it mean that this agreement included the point which stipulated that she had to secure good results of the campaign? And in this case you promised to appoint her prime minister. Is it?

I asked from the very beginning: let’s not exploit it. If we want analyse our mistakes, I’m willing to do it. But we'd better not. After all, we achieved the goals that we had set for ourselves, let’s say, in Sumy, with the help of other partners of mine. I visited other regions, I went through the things I was to go through there. But we didn’t achieve what we had planned to in Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Lugansk and Donetsk. I don’t think anyone complained about the setting of the campaign or its bankrolling, but they didn’t fulfill the task. Consequently, the discussion on the premiership was perfectly clear for me from the start. I considered myself freed from the obligation I had had before.

You must have had some kind of personal resentment for her as a result?

Perhaps. This is a difficult conversation. At that time when I was making the decision on the premiership I had quarreled with everyone I could…

So, how was the issue of the prime minister settled?

When the system of balance started forming I suggested that several reliable candidates should present three conceptions of the shaping of the Government and other agencies with the three heading top-officials. I started working over these conceptions on my own as well. It took me some two weeks to do it. Then the final part came. I made a stipulation for certain people, the candidates: you have one day and two sheets of white paper. Please, write down, what position you think you should occupy, if you are not appointed prime minister.

Why does it have to be so cruel?

I’ve been talking about the harmonization of the system. I’ve meant the leadership of the Government, then that of the Parliament and that of the Defense Council. So, when after two days no one of these people handed in this kind of plan, I said: in this case I will make my own decision. All the rest will be finished off on the way. Before we set off to Moscow I said that I didn’t want the Ukrainian nation think that I was going to Moscow to submit the candidacy of the Prime Minister to Russia’s approval. That’s why I made up my mind on Timoshenko’s candidacy at the airport. It was meant to show the transparency and the speed of decision-making.

It was very cunning of you. Russian officials could not possibly cancel your visit, could not send you back, because you were already flying to Moscow, when Russian leadership learnt that President Yushchenko had appointed Timoshenko Prime Minister, who is on the Russia's wanted list.

Oh yes!
[He nods smiling. – A. K.]

But why it was Timoshenko that you chose? I still can’t get the point. After all, no one of the three withstood you test.

The system of harmony which appeared in the version of the Government's shaping with her being the prime minister looked more complete than other variants. When we had discussed the model of the Government’s shaping, details on the personnel, this version just proved to be safer. Besides, one of the factors was that 30 % of those gathered in the main square of Kiev were for Timoshenko.

Well, it is probably not that kind of decision that is made taking into account the opinion of the crowd…

Yes, I agree with you, but you must also tell the people why you do this and that. Moreover, Yulia Vladimirovna was with me for the largest part of the campaign.

It wasn’t only her.

… she was with me, and so it seems to me that the society was somehow prepared to see the duet of Yushchenko as the president and Timoshenko as the prime minister.

If you don’t want to talk about others, that’s your right. Today you have been telling the press about your meeting with Russian businessmen. You said that after the probe of the Prosecutor General’s Office many of the privatization acts would be reviewed and any enterprise would be first of all offered to be bought for the new price to its “first proprietor”. Did I get you right that you meant that Russian or any other businessmen simply have to pay the remainder for the enterprise to the new regime?

Yes, you've got me right. It is so, if the buyers had been involved in a controversial privatization. The scheme is the following: if we conclude according to the facts discovered by the Prosecutor’s Office that the tender was not open, unfair, that some companies which offered more from the beginning, were not let to take part in the tender, then we can announce the conducting of the auction with all the parties which wish to participate. After the auction is held we tell the first buyer of the enterprise who bought it, let's say, a couple of years ago: this is the market price, you can pay the remainder and the plant will be yours. Or, if the buyer doesn’t want to pay, we will appoint the new following the competition, which will be carried later on. No matter who will be there, which companies will be present, the point is that the business must hear our call. We should give the business a sign that we will protect it if the tender is conducted legally.

Are the same rules going to be applied in the case of Krivorozhstal?

As for Krivorozhstal, there is only one way-out, i.e. to set a new auction. An Indian and a number of European companies were not let to participate in the previous one. We have only one solution – to set a new auction.

Have you told the businessmen at the meeting about it too?

I have told them about everything.

Don’t you think that you are outbidding Russian businessmen?

Yes, we are. I told them frankly that I would do everything for them to be better off in Ukraine than in Russia.

Have you by any chance come to an agreement about it with Putin?

Of course, not. We would hardly manage to coordinate it.

And what about businessmen?

I think they are serious people, they understand what important role they play in Ukraine. In return, Ukraine must understand what approach it should provide for the business of such high level as those people. I don't think that we should help the business nowadays to go through, to survive. It is already all-sufficient. The state should declare only one thing: you live in the country where Law is at work.

The thing is that Russian businessmen don’t live in you country yet.

But they work here. It’s just the same. We are for the supremacy of law, including law for the business. If a businessman gains this kind of trust in us, I guess, this is the biggest gift made to the market, for the investors and for the country itself. Do you know what Ukraine lacked? It was this position of the supremacy of law. So we said: you prepare you suggestions for us, you can go far, you can even include the amnesty for the capital, teh fiscal amnesty. But we have only one condition, it is the one that we will see the beginning of your collaboration with the authorities.

It’s a deal! Though at any rate we talk about the business. One more question. One of those which is extensively discussed, especially in Ukraine. Don’t you think that you spend too much time abroad since you have become president? Some people now say: “Our president is always abroad. He doesn’t care about the country’s internal problems. In fact there are no great achievements either in the internal policy, or in teh economy.” The time passes by. You don’t have much of it. You have made it so little by yourself – during the elections campaign you promised that in a year or two the Ukrainian people would live no worse than the Latvian and the Lithuanian people.

Do you know why it seems that I travel so much? It is because over the last years the Ukrainian president could not visit the places which I visit now. So it only looks like I travel much.

Maybe another president didn’t want to? It’s not worth talking about it now. He may have wanted to focus on the internal issues, that’s it. He concentrated on the economy.

I know where he wanted to go! But he could not.

So where did he want to go?

(He waved his hand. – A. K.)

Well, as far as my visits are concerned, I would put it this way… You see I’m telling you frankly: I control all the processes which are underway in the country. I know how the gas project and the budget project are coming along, what’s going on with the privatization, how its earlier conditions are being reviewed. I know how the project on the creation of political parties are going…

Parties? Is the project underway? Does it mean that you are considering your successor?

Everything is under control. And I know how to find out the truth about Gongadze’s death.

How?

(He waves his hand again. – A. K.)

You speak on the Gongadze case with great certainty. You say that it is solved, that a load has been taken off your mind. But still you must admit that there is an assumption of innocence. Can one say before the trial that a load has been taken off one’s mind?

You’re right, but…

(After these words Yushchenko turned off my dictaphone and spoke for a few minutes about the Gongadze case. His point of view that every step taken in this case must be public sounds convincing. He thinks that if one doesn’t talk about it, the case won’t progress, as it was before. All the traces that emerge will disappear like the ones washed away by the tide on the sand. It implies that Ukrainian president admits that for the time being he doesn’t have the means of influencing at least the Prosecutor General’s Office. – A. K.)

… so about my visits. The Ukrainian interests are being formed both inside and outside the country. You know, you can bring two billion of a back-up line for the country after one visit …

Is it the line of the International Monetary Fund? Russia still can’t count on the line like this.

I bring two billion of investments which approximately amounts to the total sum of the investments for the last five year. I think that it’s worth going abroad in this respect. My country is probably the only one in the CIS that doesn’t have the status of the market economy. And every flight of the Ukrainian jet Mriya to some place abroad entails risk of it being arrested, likewise any Ukrainian ship may be arrested in some harbours because it is not protected by anything… It’s hard. International law is not applied for them. It’s just some kind of colonial economy of the feudal type.

It was you who told this.

If we want to achieve visa-free procedures or milder procedures in relation to Ukraine, if we want to collaborate with the European Union in the free trade zone, then I’ll tell you: we can’t solve these issues down here in Kiev!

So, you won’t be travelling less, will you?

No, I won’t. It goes without saying.

Then will you be travelling more?

I’d put it this way: now the time, and the Western time especially, is on Ukraine’s side. The country is attractive now. We must take advantage of this period.

Ukraine Not Ready for Europe Yet

KIEV, Mar 17 (IPS) - Viktor Yuschenko, winner of December's heavily disputed Ukrainian presidential elections, is stepping up efforts to justify his reputation as a candidate of the West by seeking integration in the Euro-Atlantic community.

The elections, which took weeks to unriddle due to fraud allegations from Yuschenko's side, put the post-Soviet state in the spotlight of international politics, and caused discomfort between the West and Russia, which was hostile to Yuschenko.

Prompted by his victory and by the enthusiasm both in western media and political circles, Yushchenko seized the opportunity to conduct high-level talks in late February with representatives of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

The issue of Ukraine joining NATO has, however been postponed by both sides, with Western officials expressing concern that Kiev's intentions might cause permanent damage in Russian-NATO as well as Russian-Ukrainian relations, already strained over the latter's desire to join the EU.

Under the previous government Ukraine was set to join the Russian-led initiative of a Single Economic Space (SES). While the new cabinet has promised to consider membershipofn the EU along with the SES, its presence in both organisations is impracticable, most commentators believe.

The SES would include, besides Ukraine and Russia, other post-Soviet states such as Kazakhstan and Belarus. However, Kiev is already attempting a smooth pullout.

In spite of this, the EU's reaction to Ukraine's request for a clear membership prospect has been portrayed as 'cold' by the local media.

Yuschenko's meeting with the EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner resulted in the signature of an Action Plan, prepared to a large extent before the elections, which was only slightly altered to include certain political statements.

Ferrero-Waldner declared after the meeting that relations between the EU and Ukraine will become deeper and stronger -- conditional on Ukraine's implementation of internal reform.

These and other statements represent important milestones in Ukrainian politics, considering that Romano Prodi's tenure as president of the European Commission last year ended with the assertion that Ukraine will never be a member of the EU.

Helmut Kurth, political analyst and head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation regional office in Kiev, believes the EU's cautious attitude towards Kiev, albeit improved, is affected by challenges arising from the approval of the European Constitution and its desire to successfully integrate the new members.

At this moment, the EU will not say anything that could give Ukraine the impression it can join, he told IPS.

Yet, he believes the door to Europe is not completely closed: The EU's message is: make your homework, as fast as you can, so that you can show a result to the other side.

Much of the new cabinet's efforts will have to be directed towards complying with the Copenhagen Criteria, a set of EU political, and socio-economic pre-requisites for a country that wishes to engage in membership talks.

The future will show us how serious this government is, said Kurth. Maybe in a few years, if Ukraine fulfills the (Copenhagen) criteria, the EU will not be able to say 'no'.

However, Kurth also stressed that Europe is very far.

What kind of cultural, scientific or youth relationships are there? Very few. All these relations must grow, he noted.

Ukraine is said to have very few real friends within the EU. Indeed, so far only some of the new members, linked by historical ties, have openly supported the country's accession.

Brussels is expected to follow a wait-and-see strategy, both in reference to its own internal struggles and to the Ukrainian government's ability to put words into action. Accordingly, there will be no special treatment solely on the basis of the orange revolution, as many Ukrainians had anticipated.

The first specific demands put out in the Action Plan relate to the reduction of trade barriers. This would allow Ukraine to be recognised as a market economy and to receive endorsement for its entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the first stepping stone in Ukrainian western integration. Later, discussions on establishing a Ukraine-EU free trade zone could commence.

In the long-term, the EU hopes the new cabinet will eradicate corruption and impose the rule of law.

Finally, negotiations on visa policy, border control, and re-organisation of energy markets are under way. Ukraine plays a vital role in the game of energy resources transport to Europe. Currently Ukrainian oil conduits are in the hands of Russia's state-run pipeline monopoly Transneft.

This is closely related to a third 'wait-and-see' game the EU will need to play. Brussels might welcome Ukraine in the future, and would certainly profit from its economic integration, but it will not do so at the price of angering and isolating Moscow. Each step taken by Ukraine will not only be judged for its internal results, but also for the ability Ukrainian diplomats will show in appeasing Russia's sensibilities.

Ukraine Cuts Army, Reduces Conscription Length

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament decided Thursday to cut the size of its 285,000-strong armed forces by 40,000 and reduce the term of service for draftees from 18 months to one year.

According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, military servicewill be 18 months for those serving in the navy and nine months for draft-age Ukrainians with university education or equivalent.



The armed forces have 210,000 military personnel and 75,000 civilians. Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko said their sizes would be respectively reduced to 180,000 and 65,000 by the end of the year.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko made military reforms the key planks in his election platform during the country's tumultuous election campaign last year.

Ukraine Admits Selling Missiles to Iran

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Facing growing international pressure, Ukraine admitted on Friday that it had sold 12 long-range cruise missiles capable of reaching Israel to Iran, the Financial Times has reported.

According to the report, Kiev also sold China six of the X-55 missiles, which have a range of 3,000 kilometers.

The report quoted Ukraine's Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun as saying that the missiles were exported to Iran and China in 2001, although they were not equipped with a nuclear warhead.

Ukraine had about 1,000 of the missiles in its arsenal after the break-up of the Soviet Union, about half of which were meant to have been turned over to Russia in the 1990s and the other half of which were supposed to have been destroyed under a US-funded disarmament program.

Piskun stressed that the former Ukrainian government arrested and prosecuted a local businessman and initiated a secret trial last year, which was still under way.

Two Russian businessmen were suspected of masterminding the sale, Piskun said, one of whom, Oleg Orlov, was arrested last July in Prague in response to a Ukrainian warrant. The Czech justice ministry said it was holding Orlov pending a hearing on Ukraine's extradition request.

The US embassy in Kiev said it was "closely monitoring" the investigation and wanted the findings of a secret trial made public. The US is critical of European diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian President, Wife May Visit Chicago in April

CHICAGO, United States -- When Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko visits the United States in April, he plans to lunch with President Bush and meet with top congressional leaders. Along the way, he hopes to visit the city where his wife was born and Ukrainians overwhelmingly supported his December election: Chicago.

Ukrainian officials say the architect of the "Orange Revolution" is planning to visit Chicago after an April 4 meeting with Bush--an acknowledgment of the city's help in his campaign and First Lady Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko's ties here.


President Yushchenko and the First Lady
A final confirmation, however, may depend on whether Yushchenko speaks to a joint session of Congress, as is being discussed.

"Of course, [Yushchenko's] wife wants very much to come," said Borys Bazylevskyi, Ukrainian consul general in Chicago. "And he wants to very much, because this is a piece of the life of the first lady."

Chicago-area Ukrainians raised more than $363,000 for pro-Yushchenko demonstrators who thronged the streets of Kiev after he lost to Viktor Yanukovich in a rigged election Nov. 21. The donations helped keep the crowds fed and sheltered in a tent city in the weeks before the nation's Supreme Court ordered a repeat poll, which Yushchenko won Dec. 26.

Thus enthusiasm is high over the visit by the leader of the former Soviet republic of 48 million people.

"Probably for us, it will be like when the pope comes to Chicago," said Dr. Yuri Melnik, a Ukrainian community leader who campaigned for Yushchenko. "It was huge for the Polish community. And Yushchenko's visit to Chicago, that will be the biggest event for Ukrainians in years."

Selfreliance Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union spearheaded fundraising for Yushchenko supporters by collecting and transferring the money to Ukraine. Bohdan Watral, president and CEO, said Yushchenko "is well aware of the fact that people in the Chicagoland area not only mobilized and voted in the elections, but they also provided humanitarian aid for all those people standing in the streets of Kiev."

The personal connection is equally strong. The first lady, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, attended Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect and received a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago before moving to Kiev as Ukraine split from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Chumachenko Yushchenko's parents were friends of Watral's family, and she attended his wedding in 1976, he said.

In anticipation of Yushchenko's visit, local Ukrainians plan to decorate entire blocks of Ukrainian Village in orange, the color of Yushchenko's campaign, said Melnik, who helped organize demonstrations and a trip to Washington in support of Yushchenko last year.

Yushchenko ran a pro-Western campaign, while Yanukovich was backed by Moscow, but the differences ran deeper than that for Chicago's Ukrainians. Yanukovich was prime minister in a government accused of human rights abuses and corruption. Among the votes cast in Chicago, Yushchenko won 4,417 to 14, said Bazylevskyi.

The White House invited Yushchenko because Ukraine has been a valuable ally in the war on terror, said an administration official who asked not to be named. Ukraine provided a contingent of 1,650 troops to the American-led coalition in Iraq, but the deployment was unpopular at home, and the nation has begun a phased withdrawal under Yushchenko.

The two presidents plan to discuss how Ukraine and the United States can work together supporting the growth of democracy in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and cooperating on nuclear non-proliferation, the White House reported. The Bush administration intends to highlight Ukraine as an example for other countries to follow.

"We've all witnessed the struggle for democracy that that country has had to make, and that some have found inspiring in other countries," the White House official said.

Ukrainian officials are meeting with House Speaker Dennis Hastert's staff to discuss the possibility of a Yushchenko address to Congress, said spokesman Ron Bonjean.

In Chicago, Yushchenko will probably attend a banquet and make several speaking appearances, Bazylevskyi said.

Yushchenko would not be the first Ukrainian president to visit Chicago. President Leonid Kravchuk, a Communist Party ideologue turned nationalist, came to town in 1991, but he drew protests as well as celebrations. Demonstrators noted that Kravchuk did not condemn the attempted coup by communist hard-liners against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Kravchuk was like if [former Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev would come," Melnik said. "This is our Kennedy."

Putin to Meet Yushchenko

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ahead of the visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kiev Ukrainian leader Viktor Yushchenko told the Vremya Novostei daily what matters they would discuss during their meeting.

They intend to consider the terms of Ukraine's membership in the Common Economic Area (CEA). According to Yushchenko, Ukraine shares the logic of developing relations on a contractual basis and welcomes the singing of such agreements by other countries in the region. At the same time CEA agreements should meet Ukraine's interests. In particular, they cannot block the way to full EU membership for it. "I will not sign a single document contradicting these principles," President Yushchenko declared. However, Ukraine will support the establishment of a free trade zone in the CEA framework, he added.


Yuschenko (l) and Putin (r)
At the meeting on March 19 Yushchenko hopes to discuss with Putin the terms of establishing an international gas transportation consortium. "The question of a return of Russia and Ukraine to the idea of a trilateral consortium was discussed during my visit to Germany," Viktor Yushchenko said. He is convinced that such a scheme meets the interests of the consumers, the suppliers and those who are paid for transit.

Ukraine would also like Russia to be its partner in the projects of reconstructing and building Ukraine's gas transportation system, for which the European countries have granted over 2 billion euros.

The two presidents will discuss the delimitation and demarcation of borders, including those in the Azov and Kerch straits. Besides, they will touch upon the terms of crossing the borders between the two states. "We expect the signing of a readmission agreement. The introduction of a milder visa regime with the EU depends on whether Ukraine can solve this problem," Yushchenko said.

Speaking about re-privatization, Yushchenko assured that it did not concern the facilities privatized by Russian companies. "But if glaring violations are revealed, I will make no exceptions," he added.

Analysis: Ukrainian Government Sends Mixed Signals Over Media

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yushchenko told a Council of Europe conference on media policies held in Kyiv last week that his government wants to make the media sector in Ukraine "open, transparent, and competitive."

He did not explain specifically how the government intends to achieve this goal. However, he made an intriguing and cryptic comparison between the media sector under the current government and that under his predecessor, President Leonid Kuchma. The comment itself may serve as a clue to these intentions once the government makes some specific steps toward the media.



According to Yushchenko, in the Kuchma era Ukraine's "information day" was started by a "group" led by former presidential-administration head Viktor Medvedchuk, which "gave instructions what should be said and how." Yushchenko apparently referred to the infamous practice of "temnyky" -- unsigned prompts sent on a daily basis by the presidential administration to media outlets, primarily state-run and private television and radio stations, to tell journalists what events to cover and what points of view on reported events to publicize.Yushchenko appears to have very quickly forgotten his solemn declaration during the Orange Revolution that he and the media are "on the same side in the battle for freedom."

As regards the present day, Yushchenko said the country's media sector is essentially "divided between three families." "We see and understand this problem, and we are ready to find ways to resolve it," he noted. "Time will pass and you'll see that Ukraine's information space will become open and transparent." He did not elaborate.

A similar message about the media sector in Ukraine was sent by Yushchenko somewhat earlier, during a congress in Kyiv on 5 March to set up the Our Ukraine People's Union, a pro-government political party. "[In Ukraine], 288 broadcasting licenses belong to one man, and we know the first and last letters of his name," Yushchenko said. He did not solve this rebus but Ukrainian commentators figured out that he meant Kuchma's son-in-law, Viktor Pinchuk.

"The entire meter [wavelength] band was given to another clan!" Yushchenko said, proposing another riddle, to which Ukrainian journalists gave the answer "Medvedchuk." "In the east, 188 media licenses were given to one company!" Yushchenko continued, and journalists identified this company as Rynat Akhmetov, Eduard Prutnyk, and Hennadiy Vasylyev -- the so-called "Donetsk clan" of Ukrainian oligarchs. "I do not want my kids to be taught by the media formed in this way," Yushchenko added, and this time everybody was at a loss as to what to think or conjecture.

"We had the National Council [for Television and Radio, NRPTR], which distributed licenses, we had the Prosecutor-General's Office. This means we had more than only one structure to watch that the information sphere was competitive and diverse," Yushchenko concluded his references to the media at the congress. Is he not suggesting that he wants a wide-scale redistribution of media licenses by the NRPTR and/or prosecutors? Media licenses in Ukraine are usually granted by the NRPTR for five-year periods. Of course, if prosecutors find out that some of them were granted unlawfully, they may expire somewhat sooner. What exactly is Yushchenko up to?

That the Yushchenko government is not happy with the current Ukrainian media has been confirmed by a different source. By the end of February, Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, Deputy Prime Ministers Roman Bezsmertnyy and Mykola Tomenko, Justice Minister Roman Zvarych, and Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz signed an open letter to compatriots, politicians, and journalists, asking them to stop waging "information wars" and "discrediting" the current authorities. The letter was reportedly originated by Moroz, Yushchenko's ally in the ruling coalition.

"The Ukrainian reality is now characterized by not only anticipated transformations but also information wars," the letter reads. "Some politicians, perhaps considering themselves to be the main authors of [Yushchenko's] victory in the presidential race, are again trying to introduce intrigues, '[media] raids,' and media killers in political life."

Some Ukrainian commentators have deemed the letter unnecessary and silly, but some have made more upsetting conclusions, arguing that Yushchenko's government, like that of Kuchma, does not like media criticism and wants to get rid of it, for now by way of public persuasion and appeal. If this is actually so, then Yushchenko appears to have very quickly forgotten his solemn declaration during the Orange Revolution that he and the media are "on the same side in the battle for freedom."

Deputy Prime Minister Tomenko on 13 March seemed to make an attempt at diluting the unfavorable reaction of Ukrainian journalists to the letter when he called for "professional criticism" of the government in the media.

"When you present commentaries by experts, we want professional criticism," Tomenko said. "Because [you now present] people from the Ukraine's Regions, Communist Party, Social Democratic Party-united parliamentary groups, who voted for a [bad] 2005 budget, but now they tell stories how they have fought for [higher] social standards and how we [allegedly] are not fighting [for those standards]. This is not fair," he said.

"I watch commentaries on national channels by a politician who enjoys just 0.7 percent public trust and who teaches [us] how to live," Tomenko complained in what seemed to be a reference to Medvedchuk. "So I have a question: Perhaps you should also show a different point of view, shouldn't you?"

Taken at face value, Tomenko's admonition is hardly anything more than an appeal for objective journalism. But combined with the above-mentioned, more or less irate official pronouncements regarding the media sector in Ukraine, it can also serve as an indication that the government and the media may now be not exactly on the same side, and perhaps not even in the same battle.

Ukraine's Face

ISTAMBUL, Turkey -- During the election campaigns, Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko had addressed large crowds at rallies in major squares, saying: "Look at my face. Today, Ukraine looks very much like my face, we must change this face, and for this reason support me..."



As known, Yushchenko's face was disfigured and became ugly after he was poisoned during a dinner. The effect of the poison still persists today, his face turns purple. However, Yushchenko does not care at all about it, he is trying to change and beautify the face of Ukraine as he promised, rather than change his face.

In order to beautify Ukraine's face, Yushchenko, his Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and her government, need to make remarkable success in reasonable time. Among these, taking necessary action to curb widespread corruption and other illegal activities within the shortest possible time, reviewing the plundering of state property in the name of privatization during the [Leonid] Kuchma era, annulling illegal privatizations and shedding light on one unsolved murder, are considered the top priority issues.

This is about the murder of Internet journalist Georgi Gongadze. Gongadze was an investigating journalist, who founded the Ukrainska Pravda Internet newspaper. After he brought corruption allegations about Kuchma, his friends and other high-level officials to the agenda, he disappeared all of a sudden in mid-September 2000, and his beheaded body was found on November 2 in a pit in a forest 150 kilometers outside the capital, Kiev.

This murder has been uncovered, but had not been solved, at least in the beginning of this month. Yushchenko, who had pledged it was imperative that light be shed on this murder during his election campaign and also turned it into an important part of his campaign, has thus gained a great political advantage from this, and has shown that he is now fulfilling the promise he made. Because Yushchenko, in his statement on March 1 announced that the killers of Gongadze have been arrested and are being interrogated by prosecutors. Undoubtedly, the solving process of Gongadze's murder is under way following Yushchenko's statement.

The other crucial issue related to this murder is the secretly recorded conversations between Kuchma and his friends, which were taped by Kuchma's bodyguard, Mykola Melinchenko, while on duty. The tapes, in which Melinchenko recorded the conversations between Kuchma and his friends, is said to be 700 hours and only 30 hours of the recordings have been made known, and the conversations incriminating Kuchma and his friends in the murder of Gongadze are also in this 30-hour recording. Kuchma and his government had originally denied any knowledge about the existence of these tapes, but said afterwards, "There are tapes, but they have been altered." They had repeatedly and insistently claimed that they considered these tapes as part of a political conspiracy targeting them.

Melinchenko, who recorded these tapes, is now living as a fugitive in an unknown place outside Ukraine. The original tapes are said to be in a safe at a bank in Liechtenstein. The Yushchenko administration has given Melichenko a security guarantee, and also made an official announcement in this regard, in order to make him come back home. However, Melinchenko is not very willing to return after the suspicious suicide of former Interior Minister Gen. [Yuriy] Kravchenko, said to have been committed on March 4, and also after one of the eyewitnesses of the Gongadze murder was wounded in a grenade attack. Nevertheless, in spite of all these, shedding light on the Melinchenko tapes is the responsibility of the Yushchenko administration. We will see how Yushchenko will respond to this challlenge in the upcoming days.

Ukraine's face under the Yushchenko administration is in the process of being beautified. This treatment, without the slightest doubt, will be tough and painful. In the meantime, I hope Yushchenko's face heals and returns to normal.

Russian Businessman Placed on Ukraine Wanted List

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian businessman Maxim Kurochkin has been put on a wanted list by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry for organised crimes, ITAR-TASS reports.

According to local media, criminal proceedings against him were instigated over two episodes of misappropriation of economic units. But Deputy Interior Minister Gennady Moskal, who was quoted by ITAR-TASS, did not specify the offenses. “It’s a purely criminal case,” he said.

Unofficial sources believe that Maxim Kurochkin owned power engineering units and hotels in Ukraine. It can not be said for sure what kind of business he has there now.

The deputy interior minister says that in late 2004 companies controlled by Kurochkin received real estate in Ukraine, including three sanatoria in the Crimea and the Zaozerka market in the town of Dnepropetrovsk.

On Nov. 2, 2004 the Crimea’s Council of Ministers decided to hand over 346 hectares of the Crimea preserve to companies run by Kurochkin, and a day later he received the Dnepr Hotel in Kiev from the state administrative department.

These facilities were handed over for free to dummy firms through various schemes, Gennady Moskal said.

On Nov. 6, 2004 an attempt was made on Kurochkin’s life when a car bomb was detonated as he was passing nearby.

Maxim Kurochkin is also a head of the non-governmental Russian Club set up in August 2004 to promote a dialogue between the public, political and business circles of Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine to Drop Dollar Peg, Add Euro to Reflect Trade With EU

LONDON, England -- Ukraine plans to replace the hryvnia's peg to the dollar with a more flexible exchange-rate system that includes the euro, reflecting the former Soviet state's growing trade with Western Europe, Economy Minister Serhiy Teryokhin said.

The policy will raise the share of Europe's common currency in Ukraine's $9.5 billion of foreign exchange reserves to about 25 percent and may involve a "managed float," in which the hryvnia will trade more freely after being linked to the dollar since 1998, Teryokhin said.



"The strict peg to the dollar should be replaced by a basket at a first stage," Teryokhin said in an interview during a London investment conference yesterday. "It is too early to say how" the exchange-rate system "will look."

President Viktor Yushchenko, who won an election in December, wants the nation to join the European Union to boost growth and raise living standards. Easing limits on the hryvnia would help move the $60 billion economy closer to the EU and follow similar moves by regional peers including Poland and the Czech Republic, which ousted communism in 1989 and joined the EU last year.

Ukraine, with a population of about 47 million, is sandwiched between Russia and the EU and is the main transit territory for delivery of Russian natural gas to Europe. Russia supplies about a quarter of Europe's gas.

Strengthening Currency

The hryvnia may strengthen to as high as 4.8 against the U.S. dollar by the end of the year, Teryokhin said. It traded at 5.2765 per dollar at the close of trading yesterday, little changed from the day before, according to Bloomberg data.

"We already started to strengthen the exchange rate," he said. "We'll see. If budget revenue increases it is clear that we won't be changing the exchange rate sharply."

Central banks of countries including China, Japan and Russia are mulling increasing their holdings of currencies other than the dollar as they seek to raise returns in their foreign-exchange reserves, said Alex Patelis, head of G-10 currency strategy in London at Merrill Lynch & Co. on Feb. 3.

Dollars accounted for 63.8 percent of the world's currency reserves at the end of 2003, down from 66.9 percent two years earlier, according to International Monetary Fund figures released in April last year.

Boosting Trade

The 25-member EU accounts for 42 percent of Ukrainian trade, including exports of metals and chemicals, Teryokhin said. Poland and the Czech Republic ship three-quarters of their goods to other EU nations.

Ukraine's exports to Europe as a whole rose to $11.3 billion in 2003 from $8.6 billion in 2002, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Imports from Europe rose to $13.9 billion in 2003 from $10.7 billion in 2002.

The changes would involve removal of controls on "non- capital" foreign-exchange transactions and restrictions on investing in foreign securities markets, the minister said. The government also plans to remove a 1.5 percent tax on repatriation of profits for foreign investors, he said, without giving a time- frame.

The proposals will need to be outlined in draft budget proposals to parliament on March 21, he said. The measures don't require parliamentary approval, he said.

At the same time, the government and the central bank are discussing how to prevent an increase of "speculative" investments, especially in Ukraine's stock market, he said.

Higher Growth

The central bank has been buying foreign currencies from exporters, increasing the money supply and adding to inflation, to keep the hryvnia from strengthening. Demand for the local currency is rising as exporters are bringing home more revenue because of high prices for metals, chemicals and grain.

Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's government has raised its forecast for economic growth this year to 8.6 percent from 6.5 percent to 436 billion hryvnia ($83 billion), Teryokhin said. The economy grew 12 percent last year.

The government is seeking to bring down the inflation rate to 9.8 percent in December from 12.3 percent in 2004. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in the first two months of the year, he said.

To rein in inflation, the government plans to curb spending, end tax exemptions, raise excise alcohol and tobacco taxes and rent payments for natural resources, coal, power, oil and gas. It will also cancel tax exemptions on energy tariffs, to collect a total of at least 8 billion hryvnia, he said.

Budget, Assets

The government plans a balanced budget for this year and an average exchange rate of 5.1 hryvnia per dollar, he said.

Ukraine also is seeking to accelerate sales of state assets, including, phone company VAT UkrTelecom, to raise 5.4 billion hryvnia, he said. That sale won't happen before the second half, he said.

Separately, Yushchenko plans to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin contracts for shipping Russian gas to Europe, Teryokhin said. Yushchenko said on Oct. 27 he planned to review the contracts, if elected. Putin will visit Kiev March 19.

"This is a very sensitive" issue, Teryokhin said. "The Kremlin doesn't want at all to discuss this issue and is threatening us with all sorts of sanctions if we continue this discussion."

Yushchenko Says He Has Given No Immunity Guarantees To Kuchma Over Gongadze

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko said he has given no immunity guarantees to his predecessor Leonid Kuchma in connection with the brutal slaying of a journalist nearly five years ago, his office said March 16.

"Each citizen of Ukraine is equal before the law," Yushchenko said, according to a statement distributed by his office. "Everyone who violated the law must be responsible for the law."

Opponents of former President Kuchma have accused him of masterminding the 2000 abduction and killing of Gongadze, who wrote about high-level corruption.

Kuchma has repeatedly denied the allegations, which are largely based on secret recordings in which a voice resembling Kuchma's is heard railing against Gongadze and ordering his underlings to deal with the journalist.

Suspicions in Ukraine have run high that Kuchma was offered a special immunity deal by Yushchenko at the height of last year's political crisis. Many lawmakers suggested that such a deal might have helped dissuade Kuchma from calling on troops to disperse the mass protesters.

In an interview published March 16 in Russia's Vremya Novostei newspaper, Kuchma insisted that not only had he not received any special guarantee from Yushchenko - but that he didn't need any.

"I have said many times that I don't need any guarantees," he was quoted as saying.

Kuchma questioned the authenticity of the recordings made by his former bodyguard, Mykola Melnychenko, who fled Ukraine after revealing the tapes and now lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.

"The tape scandal is a thoroughly planned action aimed personally against me," said Kuchma, who was questioned last week by prosecutors investigating Gongadze's case.

He said that prosecutors asked him about the tapes, and "I repeated what I had said before: I don't consider them genuine."

In the newspaper interview, Kuchma also said the March 4 death of former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko, whose voice was also allegedly heard on the tapes discussing Gongadze, has left "many questions."

Kravchenko was found dead with two gunshot wounds to his head at his country house just hours before he was to testify to prosecutors. Officials said Kravchenko killed himself, but some lawmakers questioned that.

"If investigators prove that it was a murder, I won't doubt that someone wanted to remove an uncomfortable witness," Kuchma said. "If it was a suicide, that means he couldn't bear being hunted down with suspicions."

Kravchenko's death prompted Kuchma to cut short a vacation abroad and return to Kyiv, where he later voluntarily submitted to questioning.

"I consider myself innocent," Kuchma said. "I think I have proven it by returning to Ukraine after I learned about Kravchenko's death. Some people didn't expect me to do that."

The Prosecutor General's Office said March 16 that it also questioned Volodymyr Lytvyn, Kuchma's former chief-of-staff, and former State Security Service head Leonid Derkach this week about the Gongadze case. Their voices also appeared on the alleged recordings.

Kuchma's decade in office ended with the December election of President Viktor Yushchenko, whose victory followed mass opposition protests known as the "Orange Revolution."

Kuchma's critics accused him of presiding over a corrupt government in which his cronies made fortunes through government connections, and of sanctioning election fraud to keep his hold on power.

The slaying of Gongadze, whose decapitated corpse was found outside Kyiv more than a month after his disappearance, sparked massive street protests and became a rallying cry that helped unite the opposition.

In the statement released by his office March 16, Yushchenko said his government will not "hold a witchhunt."

Meanwhile, prosecutors also questioned the discredited former head of Ukraine's Central Election Commission Serhiy Kivalov, who presided over the fraudulent November presidential runoff, and former Kuchma chief-of-staff Viktor Medvedchuk about election fraud, Prosecutor General's Office spokesman Vyacheslav Astapov said.

Oleksandr Turchinov, who heads the State Security agency, told the Ukraina Moloda weekly that Kuchma's former bodyguard, Melnychenko had "received security guarantees and he promised he will return home to testify."

Yushchenko Feels Fine, Hasn’t Seen Doctors for 3 Weeks

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko “hasn’t seen doctors” for three weeks. “The doctors managed to find a program of post-poisoning treatment two months ago,” the Ukrainian president stressed on Wednesday.



“The dynamics of the recovery process has surpassed the doctors’ expectations. I am feeling myself more optimistic and have begun going in for sports. I haven’t seen my doctors for the past three weeks,” Yushchenko stressed. He thanked “European and American doctors” for their medical assistance. Yushchenko added that he feels normal and works a lot.

Yushchenko’s health problems began in September 2004. He underwent several medical examinations and treatment in a Vienna clinic. The clinic’s doctors said that he had been poisoned last December. Yushchenko had met the leadership of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) over dinner in the country-house of the former SBU first deputy chief on September 5, 2005. Yushchenko felt bad after that dinner and was hospitalised on September 10.

Blokhin Resigns as Ukraine Coach

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin resigned Wednesday to focus on his duties as a lawmaker.

Blokhin's resignation, which was accepted by the soccer federation's executive committee, came after the Ukrainian parliament asked a Kyiv court to rule on the legality of his holding two positions.

Ukrainian law prohibits lawmakers from having other paid employment, and Blokhin did not give up the seat in Ukraine's legislature that he held when appointed.

The court hearing was scheduled for Thursday.



"It's with pain in my heart that I'm handing over a baton to the team that my whole life has been linked with," Blokhin told the parliament.

There was no immediate word as to who would replace Blokhin, who took over as coach in 2003 after Leonid Buryak was let go.

Ukraine, which hosts Denmark in a World Cup qualifying match on March 30, leads Group 2 with 14 points, six more than European champion Greece.

As a player, Blokhin won the European player of the year award in 1975 with Dynamo Kyiv. He was also the first Soviet player to reach 100 international appearances.

Analysis: Yushchenko's First 50 Days

MOSCOW, Russia -- Viktor Yushchenko has been Ukraine's president for 50 days. During this time he has made good on a number of high-profile promises, but policy tensions within his government -- headed by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko -- are steadily becoming evident. The "Orange Revolution" is far from complete and faces some stormy sailing.

The final weeks of last year saw Ukraine undergo dramatic political change. A corrupt president and his cronies were overthrown in a popular uprising. The opposition united under the rubric of the "Orange Revolution" stood up to a regime that no longer believed in itself.


Tymoshenko (l) and Yushchenko during Orange Revolution
However, almost two months into his administration, Yushchenko is finding the unity that brought him to power is being tested. Yushchenko is not faced with a resurgent "old regime" backlash, but rather from competing agenda from his prime minister.

The first 50 days of the "Orange Revolution" has seen Yushchenko and Tymoshenko pursuing and being responsible for different policy spheres. Yushchenko has opted to pay attention to foreign policy issues, with very general comments about economic policy. Tymoshenko's area of responsibility is the economy and some international issues. The lack of a strong policy overlap has seen both achieve results in their respective spheres, but this separation can't last for long.

There is no doubt Yushchenko is one of the most popular figures on the world today. Business leaders and politicians attending the Davos World Economic Forum vied for a photo-op with Ukrainian president. Yushchenko's attendance at the memorial events in Auschwitz, Poland, at the end of January also attracted enormous media coverage.

Yushchenko is using his new-found status to its maximum effect. Promising to unequivocally recast Ukraine's foreign policy, has gotten the attention of Western leaders to promote his country's eventual induction into such institutions as the World Trade Organization, the European Union and even NATO -- while redefining relations with Russia.

The new president has also pushed hard for foreign investment. Yushchenko and Tymoshenko don't always appear to agree on this issue.

At home, Yushchenko, with an eye on parliamentary election to be held in year's time, has focused on defeating his political opponents by political means. He has called for high-level and thorough investigations of past injustices; the aggressive investigation of the slain journalist Georgiy Gongadze stands as the best example. Yushchenko's other high-profile domestic political interests include publicly investigating past secret deals made by the state and finding out who poisoned him during the presidential campaign.

Yushchenko's approach to the economy has been very general, primarily concerned with assuring fiscal and monetary stability, creating a favorable investment climate and building solid foundations for sustainable growth. In short, Yushchenko can be described as an economic liberal supporting a laissez-faire approach.

Tymoshenko is very different. Judging by her public statements, Tymoshenko supports strong state intervention in the economy and a statist economic policy. While Yushchenko uses political means to deal with his enemies, Tymoshenko is attempting to exert economic and financial control over political opponents through tough state regulation. Her calls to revisit the privatization of a thousand formerly state-owned firms has not only shaken business confidence, it has also alarmed minority shareholders in former state firms. Potential foreign investors have also questioned Tymoshenko's intentions.

While Tymoshenko and many Ukrainians would probably disagree, she has actually torn a page from Russian President Vladimir Putin's playbook. Ukraine's economy, much like Russia's, is largely controlled by "oligarchic" clans -- most of whom supported Yushchenko's opponent Viktor Yanukovych. Putin has challenged Russia oligarchs by attacking the oil giant Yukos and significantly empowered the tax authorities.

Tymoshenko -- regarded by many as an "oligarch" -- clearly sees the political advantages of the mere threat of re-privatization of state property to keep her political opponents on the defensive.

Her use of the tax code for political purposes is a clear possibility. Her demand that all state-owned firms conduct a thorough audit in a month's time is a tall and almost impossible order -- many of these firms have never been audited.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko appear to represent two different faces of the "Orange Revolution." One face is very liberal and courting the West; the second is statist with an eye to keep political enemies on notice while reforming the economy. Will these two aims eventually collide?

Both will probably go to great lengths to avoid any meaningful public disagreement for the time being -- having already agreed to approach the 2006 parliamentary election as a team. However, the differences that separate Yushchenko and Tymoshenko can't remain hidden for long.

Yushchenko's role as president and super ambassador-at-large will be degraded in the eyes of his potential Western partners and foreign investors if Tymoshenko moves too hard and fast against the economic power of the "old regime." If Tymoshenko doesn't move fast enough to fight corruption and improve the standard of living for the average Ukrainian, the great hopes of the "Orange Revolution" Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are identified with could be challenged by the voters 12 months from now.

Yushchenko's first days as president have not institutionalized the "Orange Revolution." They have only highlighted what might now be called the "Orange Challenge."

Exiled Russian Oligarch Requests Ukrainian Visa

KIEV, Ukraine -- Exiled Russian oligarch and media magnate Boris Berezovsky, who has been living in Britain over the past few years with the status of of a political refugee, has filed a request for the Ukrainian visa, a senior official at Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

"Issuing a visa permitting entry to the territory of a country is the sovereign right of that country," said Mekola Tochitsky, the chief of the Foreign Ministry's consulate service, when a correspondent asked him if Berezovsky was destined to get the visa.

"Taking a decision on that issue is not the exclusive prerogative of our Ministry," he said.

Berezovsky indicated earlier he planned moving to Ukraine from Britain shortly. According to Tochitsky, the exiled oligarch filed the visa application a week ago.

"An interdepartmental scrutiny of the problem is underway now, and the dates of issuance and expiry of the visa are not yet known," he said.

In the meantime, Ukraine's Minister of Emergency Situations David Zhvania made promises earlier he would personally extradite Berezovsky to Russia should, the man step on Ukrainian soil.

Zhvania, who is a closest ally of President Viktor Yushchenko and reportedly is on friendly terms with Berezovsky, said: "If Berezovsky comes here and Viktor Yushchenko or Julia Timoshenko [Ukrainian prime minister] refuse to extradite him, I'll turn him over to Russia on my own, because that's the way I understand democracy".

However, Justice Minister Roman Zvarich told the Moscow-based Izvestia daily February 8 Ukraine could not extradie Berezovsky to Russia since it was a signatory country of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees.

Russian Prosecutor General's Office has placed Berezovsky on the list of internationally wanted criminals on charges of large-scale fraud.

Ukraine: Ex-Minister Driven to Suicide, Assumes Parliament Speaker

KIEV, Ukraine -- Yuri Kravchenko, Ukraine's previous Interior Minister, was driven to suicide, holds Speaker Vladimir Litvin of the Supreme Rada, parliament.

"I regard the matter as a man-in-the-street, and I suspect Yuri Kravchenko was deliberately driven to suicide. To have him dead meant to remove all who could be held responsible for the conjectures that law enforcement people are obstinately thrusting on the public. It is up to the law court alone to determine whether one is guilty or innocent. Meanwhile, what's going on in this country ever closer resembles lynching," the Speaker said in an interview with the newspaper, Stolichnye Novosti, reports Novosti/Ukraine news agency.

Yuri Kravchenko was found dead in his country house near Kiev, with two bullets through his head, in the morning March 4, the day for which he had been summoned to the Prosecutor General's office to be questioned on the Gongadze murder.

Georgi Gongadze, editor-in-chief of Ukrainskaya Pravda, prominent opposition on-line periodical, was reported missing in Kiev, September 16, 2000. Murder proceedings were launched. Detection has not finished to this day. A beheaded body was found in the Taraschani District woodlands, not far from Kiev, early November the same year. Forensic experts identified the muckraking journalist.

A sensation shook the Rada, November 28, 2000, as Alexander Moroz, Socialist Party group leader, offered to parliament audio recordings which Nikolai Melnichenko, President Leonid Kuchma's bodyguard, had allegedly made in his boss's office. Burning issues were under debate in the footages, in particular, Georgi Gongadze's work. The voices closely resembled those of President Kuchma; Vladimir Litvin, then his chief of staff; Leonid Derkach, Security Service chief; and Yuri Kravchenko.

Yushchenko and Depardieu Discuss Joint Projects

KIEV, Ukraine -- President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko met with the French screen icon Gerard Depardieu, as reported by the President's press-service.

They discussed the possibility of joint Ukrainian-French projects in the cinema sphere.


Victor Yushchenko (l) greets Gerard Depardieu (r)
Yushchenko supported the idea of such collaboration, underlining that there were unrealized creative concepts from the side of actors, producers and scenario writers in Ukraine.

In turn, Depardieu told the President that he took a great interest in the history of the Cossacks. According to Depardieu, it would be better to expose this theme through the image of Gogol’s hero Taras Bulba.

The Minister of Culture and Arts, Oksana Bilozir, Prime Minister Tymoshenko and Ukrainian actor Ivan Gavriluk also took part in the meeting.

Ukraine Begins Iraq Withdrawal

KIEV, Ukraine -- The first batch of Ukrainian troops arrived from Iraq on Tuesday, three days after the ex-Soviet republic began a gradual pullout that is to be complete by the end of the year, the Defense Ministry said.

Two cargo aircraft that carried 137 servicemen from a mechanized company that was based near the Iraqi city of Suwayrah landed at an air base in Mykolaiv, 520 kilometers (320 miles) south of Kiev, the ministry said in a statement.



Earlier this month, President Viktor Yushchenko and top defense officials ordered a phased pullout of Ukraine's 1,650-strong contingent from the U.S. coalition in Iraq.

Officials had said 150 servicemen would return in the first phase, but the military later said the number was decreased to take into account "the dead, wounded and those who left Iraq due to family matters."

Ukraine lost 18 soldiers in Iraq, and more than two dozen were wounded.

Ukraine plans to withdraw another 550 soldiers from Iraq by May 15 and the rest by the end of the year, the Defense Ministry said.

Earlier this month Yushchenko said that the pullout would be completed by Oct. 15, but Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko later said Ukraine might leave some troops in Iraq two months beyond that deadline.

He suggested that an unspecified number of troops should remain behind as liaison and staff officers and military instructors after the withdrawal.

Ukraine strongly opposed the U.S.-led war but later agreed to send a large contingent to serve under Polish command in central and southern Iraq.

The deployment was widely seen as an effort by former President Leonid Kuchma to repair relations with Washington, frayed by allegations that he had approved the sale of radar systems to Saddam Hussein's regime in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Ukraine's participation in the U.S.-led coalition is deeply unpopular here, but Yushchenko said that Ukraine should maintain a presence in Iraq and take part in development and reconstruction efforts there.

Last year several Ukrainian companies were awarded with contracts to supply Iraqi military and development companies with weapons, equipment and vehicles.

The military has begun training some 40 officers who will take part in training of the fledgling Iraqi army, the Defense Ministry said in a separate statement.

Last week, Ukraine completed withdrawal of its peacekeeping contingent from Sierra Leone where it served under U.N. command since 2000.

Ukrainian troops are currently serving with the NATO contingent in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and in Georgia, Congo, Lebanon, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Liberia and the former Soviet republic of Moldova.

Last year, Kuchma endorsed sending troops to take part in the U.N. observer mission in Syria's Golan Heights.

Ukraine: A Sticky Business

KIEV, Ukraine -- Might Ukraine's "reprivatization" merely be a repeat of the wild privatization of the 1990s? The signs are unhealthy.

When he was on the campaign trail last autumn, one of the more notable promises made by Viktor Yushchenko was that, as president, he would "separate government from business," a radical departure from the old ways of doing things in Ukraine where government and business were closely intertwined to the benefit of the country's nouveaux riches and the "oligarchs," super-rich businessmen with close ties to those in power. Yushchenko repeated his promise after his inauguration on 23 January, saying that members of his new government would sign a resolution in which they would promise to sell their businesses or transfer them into the hands of others. "This will serve as confirmation that this person will never use their official position to lobby for their own business interests," he said.

Yet, one month after Yushchenko's new government was sworn in, a scandal involving Ukraine's new justice minister, Roman Zvarych, suggests his ministers are doing little to offload their businesses, to stop lobbying, to heed Yushchenko's words.

Too oily to govern?

The Zvarych affair was sparked on 16 February, when Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her government banned the re-export of crude oil from Ukraine. The government argues that Ukraine, a country which imports over 90% of its oil, needs to maintain stable prices for petroleum products. The import of Russian oil for subsequent export at a hefty mark-up distorts and destabilizes oil prices in Ukraine, it contends. The next day, Zvarych said he would not sign off on the government's new decree, even hinting that he might resign.

Then an open letter to Tymoshenko appeared from a company, Oil Transit, whose deputy director happens to be Zvarych's wife, Svitlana. It complained that the government's decision interfered with its plans to re-export 3 million tons of oil from Russia to Slovakia. That would be roughly one-tenth of the 34 million tons of oil that Ukraine has so far imported each year from Russia. (Ukraine itself needs 22 million tons; the rest goes to Ukraine's petroleum refineries.)

For a country such as Ukraine, not used to debate about conflicts of interest, the Zvarych scandal has been a learning experience. (Zvarych himself, a former U.S. passport-holder, should know a little more about conflicts of interest.) Initially, the media were concerned primarily about Zvarych's accusation that the government was "attempting to drag members of [his] family into corrupt schemes," a reference to a complex business deal that he claims was suggested to him. When a connection with Zvarych's wife came to light, however, cries of "scandal" were heard and sentiment turned against the minister.

Yushchenko, however, came down on Zvarych's side and stated publicly that he was against banning the re-export of oil but favored imposing a value-added tax on the import of oil. That would limit the mark-up on re-exports by Oil Transit, while boosting budget revenues.

In the end, Svitlana Zvarych's business interests have been dealt a double blow: the government's ban on re-export has not been lifted, and oil imports are now subject to a 20 percent value-added tax (that is a hefty blow since Oil Transit had not yet imported most of the 3 million tons earmarked for re-export).

The scandal seems far from over, given that Zvarych last week claimed the ban on re-exports violated Ukraine's constitution, while the economics minister, Serhiy Teryokhin, claimed that there would be no re-export of crude oil from Ukraine, at least while he is a minister.

Government seeks metals giant for reprivatization

But a new government policy is attracting even more attention than this one minister's conflict of interests. That issue is the possibility of a large-scale review of previous privatizations.

The focus so far has been on Kryvorizhstal, a privatization singled out by Yushchenko in his election campaign as a particularly questionable deal. When, on 12 May 2004, Ukraine's State Property Fund put 93 percent of the factory's shares up for sale foreign investors such as the LNM Group, U.S. Steel, and TATA Steel showed an immediate interest in the largest steelmaker in what is a major steel-making country. But, then, after the tender had already been announced, the State Property Fund ruled that potential investors must have a history of producing at least one million tons of coke--a coal residue used in smelting iron ore--per year in Ukraine. Perhaps not coincidentally, only Ukrainian companies fulfilled this condition.

But what particularly concerned Yushchenko, and many others, was that the buyer, Investment Metallurgical Union, won with an offer ($800 million) that was only a little higher than the starting price ($715 million). Interested foreign investors had mentioned sums at least twice as large. The privatization had also proceeded at a record pace, with the deal concluded by 14 June 2004. Investment Metallurgical Union is a joint venture between Viktor Pinchuk, the son-in-law of former President Leonid Kuchma, and Renat Akhmetov, a man who later bankrolled much of the presidential campaign of then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

After her appointment as prime minister on 24 January, Yulia Tymoshenko announced that Kryvorizhstal would be returned to the state and, on 8 February, her cabinet instructed the State Property Fund to cancel all its decisions regarding the metal giant's privatization.

The real battle for Kryvorizhstal, however, is taking place in the courts. So far, Tymoshenko also seems to be getting her way there. On 17 February a local Kyiv court annulled its own decision from August 2004 that Kryvorizhstal's privatization was legal, and on 25 February froze the company's shares. On 1 March, Ukraine's Supreme Court annulled a number of lower-court decisions that had ruled the sale legal. It sent the case back to the commercial court to review from scratch.

In the meantime, Oleksandr Turchynov, the newly appointed head of Ukraine's secret service and before that the first deputy chairman of Tymoshenko's party, Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), said on 17 February that his agency would investigate 3,000 cases of alleged corruption in the privatization of state enterprises. In what is probably not a coincidence, Tymoshenko had earlier announced that her government would review 3,000 privatizations.

A bad example?

This policy has been dubbed "reprivatization" and stirred lively debate in the press and among policy-makers. Indeed, even Yushchenko seems to have been taken aback by the ambition of Tymoshenko, his main ally in the Orange Revolution. He responded to Tymoshenko's declarations by saying that at most 30 large enterprises would be reprivatized. But the intense and driven Tymoshenko has in the past proven hard to stop.

The danger is that "reprivatization" might become wild. Already, there is some sign that the Orange Revolution has introduced a new and disturbing element into Ukrainian business life. A case in point is the ownership of the football team Dynamo Kyiv, which was privatized in 1993 by the Surkis brothers, Hryhoriy and Ihor. Since then, it has expanded into a sports empire worth $200 million, according to Kostiantyn Grigorishin, a former business partner of the brothers'.

Grigorishin, a Russian businessman, began cooperating with the Surkises and their partners in 1998, when Ukraine's regional electricity distributors began to be privatized. But this cooperation stalled by 2002, when Grigorishin was briefly arrested at the instigation of another business partner of the Surkis brothers, Viktor Medvedchuk.

Medvedchuk is the former head of President Kuchma's administration. Hryhoriy Surkis is a member of the Social Democratic Party (United), a party led by Medvedchuk.

When the Orange Revolution was in full swing in November and December, Grigorishin declared publicly that he would "take back" Dynamo Kyiv. That threat took a tough form in mid-February when armed guards hired by Grigorishin tried unsuccessfully to seize two energy companies from the Surkis brothers. His attention has now turned to Dynamo Kyiv, although in a less violent fashion. An offshore company belonging to Grigorishin is now taking the football club to court for allegedly diluting the rights of minority shareholders. It has already won a court order prohibiting the sale of Dynamo Kyiv shares, though this might prove problematic in practice since court executors have been unable to locate the shares' registrar. All of this is worrying observers. Grigorishin clearly feels he has a chance to wrest control over companies belonging to the Surkis brothers at a time when their fortunes, long closely tied to the political scene, have taken a sharp downturn. Grigorishin knows that the new government will not interfere to protect the Surkises as it would have under Kuchma and Medvedchuk. Some fear Grigorishin may even have the backing of the current administration. During the Orange Revolution, Grigorishin made several appearances on stage with members of the opposition. He denies he offered any material help to the opposition or to Yushchenko.

How far Grigorishin is willing to go in his pursuit of the Surkis family's assets is unclear, but his strong-arm approach suggests he will not be meek. Tymoshenko, too, can be remorseless in pursuit of her goals. The danger is that a Tymoshenko-backed mass reprivatization might create a business and legal whirlwind in which men like Grigorishin will pursue their own wild reprivatization. A sense of a free-for-fall akin to the privatization of the 1990s is beginning to emerge. No detailed criteria about what companies might or might not be reprivatized have been announced. The possibility now is that some, like Grigorishin, will look at Tymoshenko's initiative and believe anything goes. Those may just be fears at this point, but already the atmosphere is unhealthy. What looks certain is that Ukraine's courts face a very busy period and a test of their malleability.

Eurovision Hosts Rewrite 'Anthem'

KIEV, Ukraine -- Eurovision Song Contest hosts Ukraine have rewritten the lyrics to their entry song after they were branded "too political" by organisers.

The contest's executive supervisor Svante Stockselius confirmed that the new words for Razom Nas Bagato!, by group Greenjolly, had been accepted.

The song, which translates as Together We Are Many!, became the anthem of Ukraine's "orange revolution" in 2004.

The group submitted the new lyrics at the request of organisers last week.

The original song became the theme for the mass protests following the country's disputed presidential election last year, which was eventually won by Viktor Yuschenko after a re-run.

'Non-Political'

The song went on to win a national vote to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest after being accepted as a last-minute wildcard entry in February.

It included the lyrics: "No to falsifications... No to lies. Yushchenko - yes! Yushchenko - yes! This is our president - yes, yes!"

However, Mr Stockselius said earlier this month that the song would not be allowed to take part in the Eurovision with its original words, since the contest is "non-political".

Meanwhile, the entry from Serbia and Montenegro is also causing controversy after being accused of plagiarism.

Mr Stockselius confirmed that the song Zauvijek Moja, by the group No Name, is currently being investigated by the European Broadcasting Union, following accusations that it bears similarities to two other songs from the region.

He said that no decision had been made on whether the song would be allowed to take part.

Ukraine won the right to host this year's contest after winning last year's contest with the song Wild Dances by Ruslana. Serbia and Montenegro, who entered the contest last year for the first time, came second.

Pro-Democracy Agitation Sweeps Ex-Soviet States

KIEV, Ukraine -- The peaceful street revolts that recently brought democratic change to Georgia and Ukraine could spawn copy-cat upheavals against authoritarian regimes across the former Soviet Union, experts say.

Waving orange scarves and banners -- the colors of Ukraine's revolution -- dozens of Uzbeks demonstrated in the capital Tashkent last week over the demolition of their homes to make way for border fencing.

The protest reportedly compelled the autocratic government of Islam Karimov, widely condemned for human-rights abuses, to pay compensation.


In Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, hundreds of pro-democracy activists rallied on Saturday to demand that upcoming parliamentary elections be free and fair.

"Rose" and "Orange"

From Kyrgyzstan on the Chinese border to Moldova, where Europe's only ruling Communist Party faces elections next month, opposition parties are eagerly studying Georgia's "Rose Revolution" and Ukraine's "Orange Revolution," which led to the triumph of pro-democracy forces. "The recent events in Ukraine have made people everywhere understand that taking to the streets gets the authorities' attention," says Tatiana Poloskova, deputy director of the independent Institute of Modern Diaspora, which studies Russian minorities in former Soviet countries.

Georgian President Mikhael Saakashvili and newly inaugurated Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko were clearly addressing their former Soviet colleagues last month when they hailed their revolts as the leading edge of "a new wave of liberation that will lead to the final victory of freedom and democracy on the continent of Europe."

Shudders in the Kremlin

The prospect has sent shudders through the Kremlin, still smarting from the "loss" of pro-Moscow regimes in Georgia and Ukraine. For Russia, where authoritarian methods have been taking root under President Vladimir Putin, the prospect of pro-democracy rebellions sweeping the former Soviet Union seems to threaten the underpinnings of domestic stability. The pro-Western bent of the new regimes in Ukraine and Georgia may also threaten the economic ties Russia has built with post-Soviet regimes from Armenia to Uzbekistan.

First in line could be Kyrgyzstan, where any official attempt to rig parliamentary elections scheduled for Monday could trigger Ukrainian popular action. Strongman Askar Akayev, who has ruled the tiny central Asian state for the past 15 years, has already faced street demonstrations over a failed attempt to ban his chief opponent from the parliamentary race. After a recent Moscow visit with Vladimir Putin, Akayev warned that if the opposition takes to the streets, "it would lead to civil war."

But some Russian experts see a "Tulip Revolution" in the near future for Kyrgyzstan, which hosts both Russian and U.S. military bases. "Akayev is lost," says Alexei Malashenko, an expert with the Carnegie Center in Moscow. "The opposition is strong, well-organized, and has international as well as domestic backing."

The Kremlin may fear that political ferment in Kyrgyzstan could spread to more important allies in central Asia. The longtime leader of oil-rich Kazakstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has fixed elections and changed the Constitution to extend his rule, last month dissolved the leading opposition party after it sent a delegation to Ukraine to study the Orange Revolution.

In Uzbekistan, which also hosts a key U.S. military base, President Karimov, a former Soviet politburo member, has ruled with an iron fist since the demise of the USSR. Karimov recently jeered publicly at those "who are dying to see that the way the elites in Georgia and Ukraine changed becomes a model to be emulated in other countries." He warned bluntly: "We have the necessary force for that."

Slimmer Odds

Some experts argue that, while velvet revolution may be possible in semi-authoritarian Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, it is a very distant prospect in Uzbekistan because democracy and civil society are barely developed there. Last week's protests in Tashkent, though based on a narrow economic issue, hint that instability may lie just beneath the regime's tough and orderly surface.

Uzbekistan's gas-rich neighbor, Turkmenistan, is run by a North Korean-style dictatorship that permits no dissent of any kind. "In absolutely authoritarian regimes ... the threat of 'Orange Revolution' is just used by the leaders to crack down harder," says Masha Lipman, an expert with the Carnegie Center in Moscow. "There is no chance for the opposition to actually organize anything, much less a revolution."

That paradox may help to explain why Georgians were able to rally successfully against the lethargic regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, when it attempted to rig the 2003 parliamentary polls, while protesters in neighboring Azerbaijan were put down when the much more efficient dictatorship of Gaidar Aliyev imposed the succession of his son, Ilham, through fraudulent elections just a month earlier.

Ukrainians were able to successfully mobilize against vote-rigging late last year in part because Ukraine had relatively free institutions, including a parliament and Supreme Court that the president was not able to control.

Russian Businesses Hope for Boost From Change in Ukraine Regime

KIEV, Ukraine -- For the Kremlin, Ukraine's Orange Revolution was a serious political defeat. But Russian business sees the end of Leonid D. Kuchma's authoritarian regime and the election of President Viktor Yushchenko as a big economic opportunity.

Kiev's hotels are full of foreign business people, including Poles, Germans and Americans, investigating opportunities created by Yushchenko's promises to open an economy with huge potential. But the largest contingent is Russian.


Two conferences last month drew scores of Russians — one presented by Alfa Group, the Russian conglomerate, which is among the biggest investors in Ukraine, and the other by Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based investment bank.

"We are very much interested in Ukraine," said Peter Aven, president of Alfa Bank, an Alfa subsidiary. "Everybody is very optimistic about Ukraine."

At first sight, this enthusiasm might seem odd, given that the Kremlin originally backed Yushchenko's rival for the presidency, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. Yanukovich was seen as the pro-Russian candidate, while Yushchenko offered the prospect of closer ties with the West.

But as far as Russian business was concerned, a Yanukovich victory would not have been a welcome blessing. He was linked to Ukraine's business oligarchs, who tried to restrict competition from foreigners, including Russians.

Their success was highlighted last year in the controversial privatization of Krivorizhstal, the country's top steel mill. It was sold for $800 million to Viktor Pinchuk, Kuchma's son-in-law, and Rinat Akhmetov, a steel baron allied with Yanukovich. Foreign bidders, including Severstal of Russia, offered more money but were disqualified.

A victory by Yanukovich might have encouraged more such domestic-only deals. A victory by Yushchenko, however, also presents Russian companies with serious challenges.

Groups that developed ties with the Kuchma regime must try to survive without them. They include members of the Russian Club, Russian businesspeople who backed Yanukovich and who can expect no favors from Yushchenko.

Alfa Group also was close to Kuchma. Together with UkrSibbank of Urkaine, it bought control of Storm, a privately owned company controlled by Yuri Tumanov, Kuchma's brother-in-law, which owned 43.5% of Kyivstar, Ukraine's second- largest mobile phone network.

Yushchenko's planned review of privatization also is causing uncertainty among investors from Russia as well as the West. For example, his government is threatening to re-nationalize a 30% stake in the huge Mykolayiv region alumina plant controlled by RusAl, the Russian metals group, on the grounds that investment commitments were not fulfilled.

Such talk, Russian businesspeople say, damages Ukraine's hopes of attracting new investment.

But despite those concerns, Russian investors remain focused on the country's huge economic potential. Ukraine lags behind other ex-Communist states in development. Whole industries — including chemicals, metals and agriculture — are in need of modernization. Other sectors, such as banking and retailing, are ripe for expansion.

Russian companies also are attracted by Yushchenko's aim of integrating Ukraine with the European Union. If he achieves that, this country of nearly 50 million people might follow Central European states into the EU.

For Russian companies operating in the uncertain domestic political environment, investing in an EU-oriented Ukraine would offer a way of diversifying while remaining on familiar turf.

Russian businesspeople accept that Yushchenko could favor other investors to encourage ties with the West. He might, for example, overlook Russian investors in future flagship privatizations such as that of Ukrtelecom, the state telecom group.

But despite the Kremlin's support for Yanukovich, there is no general anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine, except in a few nationalist pockets in the country's western region.

If Yushchenko fulfills his pledge to create a liberalized economy, Russians say, their companies will have important competitive advantages. They include historic, social and trade links, with Russia last year accounting for 18% of Ukraine's exports and 41% of imports, including oil and natural gas supplies.

Russian companies are convinced that they can build on this base even if there is more competition from the West than there was in the past.

Guard’s Tapes Link Murder to Former President

KIEV, Ukraine -- Pressure was mounting on Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma last night after the man who was once his bodyguard vowed to give prosecutors tape recordings that allegedly implicate him in the brutal murder of a journalist.

Mykola Melnychenko, a former major in Kuchma’s personal security unit, said this weekend he would meet a high-level emissary of President Viktor Yushchenko today to obtain guarantees for his own safety and for the recordings. Only then would he be prepared to return from America where he has been granted political asylum. “I have guarded these recording for four years and the American authorities warned me four times about attempts on my life,” he said in an interview in London. “I don’t want it all to go to waste at the last moment. There are two very senior figures in the new administration who I am sure want to destroy the evidence and protect Kuchma because they are on the recordings.”

Melnychenko’s comments capped a dramatic week in which three former police officers were arrested and accused of involvement in the murder. One witness in the case was injured in a grenade attack, and former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko — who also features in the recordings — was [recently] found dead from gunshot wounds hours before he was due to be interviewed.

The journalist, Georgy Gongadze, disappeared on his way home in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in September 2000. His decapitated body was found weeks later in a forest. The murder sparked months of protests against Kuchma whom the opposition accused of ordering the killing. Kuchma, who has denied any involvement, was reported to have returned to Ukraine from a spa holiday in the Czech Republic yesterday.

Melnychenko fled Ukraine for the Czech Republic weeks after the discovery of Gongadze’s body and published damning excerpts from 800 hours of recordings he secretly made of Kuchma’s conversations in his private office. A voice believed to be that of the former president is heard giving instructions to “take care” of Gongadze. “I’m telling you, drive him out, throw him out,” it said. “Give him to the Chechens . . . drive him out, undress him, leave him without his trousers, let him sit there.”

Investigations made no progress while the former president was in power. Ihor Honcharov, a key witness who died in custody in Kiev in 2003 after he was beaten and injected with a drug, accused Kravchenko of ordering the killing on instructions from Kuchma.

Frustrated at the lack of progress, disaffected law enforcement officers leaked documents last summer that showed the police had followed the journalist for weeks before his disappearance and were probably responsible for the abduction and murder. Oleksiy Pukach, the general in charge of the surveillance operation, has since fled Ukraine and is being sought on an international arrest warrant.

Gongadze became an opposition icon during Ukraine’s marathon presidential election which began last October and turned into a peaceful mass uprising that became known as the Orange Revolution after Kuchma’s regime was caught in a huge electoral fraud. Yushchenko, finally inaugurated on January 23, pledged to find those responsible for the journalist’s murder.

Melnychenko said he was seeking guarantees before returning because he feared the two senior figures on the recording would attempt to destroy or discredit his material. He believed Kuchma should be charged with other serious crimes. In particular, he wanted the re-opening of an investigation into the attempted assassination of Oleksandr Yelyashkevych, a former Ukrainian MP, who nearly died from a savage beating.

Melnychenko’s recordings also appear to show Kuchma discussing the distribution of kickbacks under the UN oil for food programme and deliveries of Grad missiles to Iran. There are further references to Kuchma selling arms to Saddam Hussein.

Kravchenko was the third person with close links to Kuchma’s regime apparently to have killed himself. The deaths of the first two are being investigated as possible “assisted suicides.” The authorities said Kravchenko had two bullet wounds to the head either of which should have proved fatal.

Yushchenko To Berlin: 'We Are Family'

BERLIN, Germany -- During his first state visit to Germany, Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko makes a plea for European Union membership, saying Kiev is part of the "European family." But newspapers here note that it was a tough visit for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He wants to help Ukraine on its way to democracy but is also best friends with Yushchenko's greatest detractor: Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko appears before Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, with a message: "We are family."


Long lines surrounded the Reichstag, Germany's parliament, in Berlin on Wednesday as Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko got rock star-like treatment on his first visit to Germany since his election in December following the "Orange Revolution."

The Bundestag's Social Democratic President, Wolfgang Thierse, feted Yushchenko as the representative of "the new, young Ukrainian democracy" and wished him the "strength and skill" necessary to preserve the freedom he and his party have won for the former Soviet country.

In his speech, which he pulled out of an orange binder, he delivered a clear message: Ukraine is part of the "European family," it wants to become a full-fledged member of the European Union and it wants Germany, the "motor of European integration," to help it get there.

Yushchenko thanked Germans for their support of the Orange Revolution, which saw Yushchenko beat out former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was running as the establishment candidate and sought victory with the help of rigged elections.

Yushchenko also touched on the recent visa scandal that has jeopardized the political future of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, until recent weeks the country's reigning most popular politician. Fischer loosened visa-granting policies for Eastern European countries and as a result made it easier for criminals and illegal forced prostitution rings to make their way into Germany and the EU. Without directly mentioning the affair, Yushchenko said he hoped Germany would make it easier for Ukrainians to obtain travel visas. Most Ukrainians, after all, are not smugglers or criminals.

Though Germans universally celebrated the Orange Revolution, Ukraine's subsequent push for EU membership and the untimely emergence of the visa scandal made the visit less comfortable than most would have liked.

Untimely Deaths in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- By all official accounts, Yuri Kravchenko died by his own hand.

The former Ukrainian interior minister, scheduled to meet in just a few hours with prosecutors to give testimony in a high-profile case of political murder, aimed a gun at his chin and fired, sending a bullet ripping through his cheek and out his upper jaw. Then he aimed it at his temple and fired again.

Suicide, government investigators ruled.

Exactly 13.1% of Ukrainians who responded to a Kiev Post Internet poll believed it was suicide. More than 80% thought Kravchenko was slain this month to prevent him from testifying, possibly implicating former President Leonid D. Kuchma in the decapitation of journalist Georgi Gongadze and other crimes. Many are sure that even if Kravchenko pulled the trigger, he was driven to it by his powerful former friends.

It was also ruled suicide when Transportation Minister Hryhoriy Kirpa, believed to be privy to evidence of large-scale vote-rigging in the fall presidential election, was found shot to death Dec. 27 in his bathhouse.

And when banker Yuriy Lyakh, a business associate of Kuchma's powerful chief of staff, was found dead in his office Dec. 3, stabbed through the neck with a letter opener from his desk, that was a suicide too.

High-profile Ukrainians have come to untimely ends in recent years by hanging themselves from refrigerator doors by their sweaters, swallowing poison and swerving suddenly into oncoming trucks — in fact, more than half a dozen outspoken critics of the Kuchma regime have died in unexplained car crashes. President Viktor Yushchenko nearly died from dioxin poisoning during the election campaign.

Now, with the popular revolution that swept the pro-West Yushchenko into power this year, there are growing demands in parliament to open the files on Ukraine's violent past and determine the fate of dozens of opponents of the former regime whose deaths were dismissed as accidents, suicides or unsolved killings.

Equally strong are demands that Kuchma, the tough-talking post-Soviet leader who accumulated vast power before Ukraine's Orange Revolution swept him and his associates from office, be investigated and tried for what happened during his turbulent reign.

"If Ukraine is to become the 'European' country Yushchenko says it is, it must stop being one ... in which skeletons are allowed to rattle eternally in official closets," the Kiev Post editorialized last month. "How can Ukraine move forward if it's weighted down with corpses?"

"Kuchma has committed hideous crimes against the people of Ukraine," said Petro Symonenko, first secretary of the Communist Party. "But I would like to inform you that Kuchma is not going to be held criminally liable. Not a single crime will ever be resolved, for one simple reason: The investigation of these crimes will be a trial of not just Kuchma, but the entire system in this country."

Many are convinced that Yushchenko, whose face is scarred from the poisoning, made a secret pact in the waning hours of the election campaign to allow Kuchma to quietly retire — either to set a precedent for peaceful democratic transition in Ukraine or to protect allies who may have skeletons of their own in Kuchma's closet.

But Ukraine's new leaders insist they are determined to get to the bottom of crimes such as the Gongadze killing and will follow the evidence wherever it leads. There are no deals, Justice Minister Roman Zvarych said in an interview.

"I can respond to this question with absolute certainty. I was Mr. Yushchenko's legal advisor throughout the campaign, and I think I would certainly have been aware ... of any assurances, even half-assurances, half-guarantees, nuances or hints that Mr. Yushchenko would have made to Mr. Kuchma. I can tell you that it is impossible."

On Feb. 2, a parliamentary commission presented the country's prosecutor-general with a 26-page report containing what lawmakers claim is evidence that Kuchma and his associates were responsible not only for Gongadze's death but illegal surveillance of political opponents, journalists and nongovernmental organizations, and bribe taking, money laundering and misappropriation that may have reached $10 billion.

Yushchenko made it clear from the beginning that he was going to demand answers for Ukraine's disturbing past, including the 1999 death of popular opposition leader Vyacheslav Chornovil, who was killed when his car crashed into a Kamaz truck blocking the road, not long before his planned run against Kuchma in the presidential campaign.

Ukraine's roads in recent years have also claimed the lives of Valery Malev, Ukraine's former arms export chief, whose car abruptly swerved into a truck in 2002, a few days after tapes secretly recorded by one of Kuchma's bodyguards revealed that he had discussed the export of air defense missiles to Iraq with the president; Anatoly Yermak, a member of the parliamentary committee investigating organized crime and corruption, whose car plummeted off a road in 2003; and opposition politician Oleksander Yemets, who died in 2001 when his car swerved into a ditch.

Who would go to the trouble of staging a car crash? "I asked the very same question to many people," said Chornovil's son, Taras. "The answer was the same: Different security services have different traditions they follow. Here, they have honed their skills of organizing car crashes to such perfection that they prefer this method ... even if easier and more obvious methods are available."

Lt. Gen. Oleksander Skipalsky, a former deputy director of the federal security service, or SBU, did not rule out that slayings could have been disguised as traffic accidents. "Of course it's possible," he said in an interview. "As a secret service professional, I can tell you that the most important thing is to formulate the task. And 99% of the time, it will be accomplished."

Kuchma has expressed his sympathy and respect for Vyacheslav Chornovil, and often dismisses as ridiculous the notion that the authorities would resort to violence against political opponents. Before being questioned by the prosecutor-general's office for three hours this month in the Gongadze case, Kuchma said he was ready to answer any questions.

"What motives could I as president possibly have for any actions against Gongadze?" he told reporters. "I did not know him and only saw him once. I didn't even know that he opposed the president. There were lots of other journalists, and you know better than me who kept pestering me."

Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun said Kuchma would be questioned again in the case and insisted that he had reached no secret agreement to protect the former president from prosecution.

For much of the last two weeks, the country has been gripped anew with the 5-year-old Gongadze case, starting with Piskun's move this month to arrest three senior police officers, now charged with the investigative reporter's murder.

That was followed within days by the death of Kravchenko, who is heard on the Kuchma bodyguard's tapes being ordered by Kuchma to "throw out" Gongadze and "give him to the Chechens." His cryptic suicide note raised as many questions as it answered.

"My dear ones, I'm not guilty of anything," he wrote. "Please excuse me. I fell victim to political intrigues of President Leonid Kuchma and his associates. I am departing from you with a clear conscience. Farewell."

The newly appointed SBU chief, Oleksander Turchynov, told reporters that the first bullet from Kravchenko's 9-millimeter Beretta went through his mouth and out his upper jaw, and was "far from being fatal." The second went through his right temple.

Zvarych, the justice minister, has expressed doubt that the former interior minister could have recovered sufficiently from the shock of the first wound to have delivered the second.

"I have certain doubts personally speaking about whether someone can pull the trigger twice in order to commit suicide," he said. "There's this threshold of pain, I think, that one would need to be able to cross in order to be able to do that, something called a 'pain syndrome,' that I think is very difficult to overcome.

"But whether it was suicide or murder, this pattern [of deaths] has begun to emerge as a result of the psychological aftershock that these people [of the former regime] must be dealing with at this point."

Because of the widespread doubts over the announcement that Kravchenko's death was a suicide, Piskun said Friday he was pursuing the investigation as if it were a homicide to make sure any possibility of foul play could be ruled out.

The apparent suicide of Kirpa has also aroused questions and doubts, not least because of the former transport minister's reputation of being a man accustomed to fighting and winning.

According to several journalists and politicians who knew him, Kirpa had a habit of laying a handgun down prominently on his desk when beginning a meeting with an opponent or subordinate. "It's money and fear that rule this world," he would say. "The money is mine. And the fear is yours."

If he died by his own hand, many want to know, what was he afraid of? And how many others are also afraid?

Reviewing the large number of tapes that apparently rest in the hands of Kuchma's bodyguard, now negotiating his return to Ukraine with senior administration officials, could open a Pandora's box, many analysts say.

The current speaker of the parliament, for example, can be heard on the tapes. Symonenko, the Communist Party chief, has publicly wondered whether the tapes might also include conversations between Kuchma and Yushchenko, who was Kuchma's prime minister in 1999.

Viktor Shyshkin, a former judge and prosecutor-general who served on the commission that investigated Gongadze's death, said the public would hold Yushchenko to account for assuring that the Orange Revolution achieves a moral victory, not merely a change of power.

"In a lot of cases, people go out into the streets for economic reasons, when their stomach gets less than it had before. In our case, the locomotive force was our trampled dignity," he said. "So the betrayal of these spiritual values will by no means be forgiven to Yushchenko."

Part of what Yushchenko owes the revolution is holding Kuchma to account, Shyshkin said.

"We're not bloodthirsty. But what is important is to have the Kuchma regime and what it did condemned in court. This is not vengeance. This is justice."

Orange Clean-Up Looms In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- "My government will not take bribes. My government will not steal", Ukraine's new liberal President Viktor Yushchenko proclaimed as the new cabinet was triumphantly voted in by parliament last month.

Yulia Tymoshenko, nicknamed "the goddess" of the Orange Revolution and now Ukraine's prime minister, spoke of separating Ukraine's "Siamese twins" - business and politics.

Other key changes were looming: reviewing controversial privatisations, weeding out unfair tax privileges and improving the management of state monopolies by hiring new staff in open tenders.


The ambitious plans are causing a stir in Ukraine's business community and among the public at large.

Ukrainians accustomed to the cronyism and corruption associated with Mr Yushchenko's predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, were stunned by the new government's pledges.

It was hard to believe that the interests of the powerful oligarchs controlling large chunks of Ukraine's economy could be trampled upon.

Transparency

As in most other former Soviet countries, during Mr Kuchma's reign ministerial offices were often viewed as a mere extension of the oligarchs' business empires, competing for markets and influence.

Some have already hailed the new government for transparency.

"They are already more open than the previous Ukrainian governments, they are talking more openly and publicly about the reforms, explaining what they want to do and why they want to do it," said economist Edilberto Segura at the Kiev offices of SigmaBleyzer Investment Bank, in a newspaper interview.

But others see confusion and internal strife within the government about how the reforms should proceed.

The policy of re-privatisation is highlighted: President Yushchenko said some 30 dubious privatisation deals would be revoked, while Ms Tymoshenko said some 3,000 deals had irregularities.

According to Gennady Bogolubov, of the Privat Group industrial holding, "the biggest blow is occurring now, in the uncertain time between the declaration of their privatisation plans and the announcement of the list".

But Russia's Lukoil group announced it was increasing its investment in Ukraine by $300m, while the stock market reported a 200% rise in some shares.

Test Case

It is almost certain that top of the list will be the Kryvorizhstal steel mill, which in 2004 went to two Ukrainian business tycoons with close links to the government for some $800m.

One was Viktor Pinchuk, Mr Kuchma's son-in-law. The other was Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who bankrolled the campaign of Mr Yushchenko's rival, Viktor Yanukovych.

The deal was rigged, according to the new government: the LNM Group and US Steel offered twice as much. Ukraine's Supreme Court has ruled the sale of the mill invalid.

"Kryvorizhstal is doomed," says Andriy Blinov of the International Centre for Policy Studies.

"It is about political face. But it is important that everything is resolved through courts, within the legal framework."

The Supreme Court's ruling could be the beginning of a protracted legal battle to return the giant to state hands. Some argue that if applied on a larger scale, it could clog up Ukraine's legal system.

Vested Interests

Many Ukrainians remain sceptical about the leadership's willingness to separate business from politics.

Ministers should hand their businesses over, President Yushchenko insisted - and not just to their families, but to outside managers.

Last month the pledge was tested when a scandal erupted over the newly appointed justice minister, Roman Zvarych.

The Ukrainian media claimed that the minister's wife was a top manager in an oil exporting company with illegal multi-million profits.

For the first time Ukraine witnessed a widely publicised conflict of interest concerning a government official. It was not resolved and the minister stayed in the government.

"Double standards are inherent to this government," Andriy Blinov says. "Something is happening, but there is no public information. The government promised to declare the incomes of their family members, but this has not been done."

There are considerable business interests behind several government members, like Petro Poroshenko, head of Ukraine's Security Council, and David Zhvaniya, minister for emergencies.

It is unclear whether any of them has relinquished control over these interests.

Meanwhile, many members of parliament also have strong business interests.

Ms Tymoshenko, who was known to be one of the richest women in Ukraine in the 1990s, insists that her business was destroyed under Mr Kuchma's reign.

"My past and my future testify that I love my country and want to serve its interests," she told Time magazine.

Rice Downplays Ukraine Withdrawal Of Iraq Troops

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice downplayed Ukraine's planned withdrawal of troops from Iraq, emphasizing the issue was being coordinated between the two countries.

"We fully understand that the Ukrainian government has decided to end that troop presence," Rice said in Washington after meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart, Boris Tarasyuk.


On March 1 President Viktor Yushchenko announced that Ukraine would withdraw its coalition 1,650 troops in Iraq in three stages between mid-March and mid-October.

Yushchenko is scheduled to visit the White House on April 4 for talks with President George W. Bush aimed at deepening "strategic" ties, both countries said Friday.

"There are discussion going on about how that will be done," said Rice. "The one thing that I am very certain is that Ukraine will do it in a way that does not in any way endanger the mission or endanger the forces of others there."

Kiev also "intends to continue to be involved in helping the Iraqi people, through technical assistance, perhaps through some training," said Rice.

"We understand the commitment that the Ukrainian government has made to its own people," Rice said, referring to Yushchenko's campaign promise to pull Ukrainian troops from Iraq.

The withdrawal "has been handled in a way that demonstrates that this is a relationship that is based on partnership, based on values and where we can work together on even the most difficult issues," said Rice.

Ukraine has the sixth-largest contingent in the US-led coalition in Iraq after the United States, Britain, South Korea, Italy and Poland.

Yushchenko won a rerun presidential election in late December after mass protests and a supreme court decision annulling the previous round, which opponents called fraudulent.

Ukraine’s Yushchenko To Cancel All VAT Breaks

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has announced plans for canceling all value added tax breaks, introduced earlier under presidential decrees, Prime-Tass reports.

“I will issue a decree next week to cancel all value added tax breaks, because this tax can be balanced and not a burden on the economy only when it is the same for all,” Yushchenko told a business forum in Kiev.

The president said that “many these days have been trying to change the fiscal system just for the sake of changing.”

“If we want to replace one fiscal regime with another, it is fine, but we should discuss all this first and do it transparently,” Yushchenko said.

He recalled that in France VAT debates lasted for five years.

“The VAT works well in dozens of countries around the world, and if this tax works ideally, it is a tax on the buyer, and not on the producer,” Yushchenko said.

Prime-Minister Yulia Timoshenko told the business forum she had instructed the tax administration to calculate likely budget revenues without the VAT, relying only on a 7-10 percent sales tax, the existing 13 percent tax on the incomes of individuals, the rent and excise duties.

Ukraine PM Opposes Constitution Change

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she opposed changes to the constitution that will limit the responsibilities of President Viktor Yushchenko and make her post more powerful.

Tymoshenko, interviewed by Reuters late on Friday, said she remained ardently against the changes approved by parliament in December in a deal that allowed a re-run of rigged elections, despite standing to gain personally if she keeps her job.

"The fact is these reforms were done in an absolutely incoherent fashion and have nothing to do with what might be called a parliamentary republic," Tymoshenko said.

She has previously said she would challenge the changes in the Constitutional Court. She gave no indication she would follow her threat through, saying she would wait for Yushchenko's instructions.

Yushchenko has given no indication he wants to revisit the deal he made with another party to back him in exchange for the constitutional changes. Most of his supporters voiced no objections and reviewing the deal would spark uproar.

The changes will hand to parliament the president's power to nominate the prime minister, many cabinet members and regional governors. The president will retain the authority to choose ministers linked to foreign, defense and security policy.

"It amounts to turning over uncontrolled, irresponsible powers without distributing them in a reasonable way," said Tymoshenko.

The new system, she said, would enhance the authority of parliamentary groups who could be corrupted.

"We not only have leaders of parliamentary factions, we also have owners of parliamentary factions," she said. "I believe this is a very bad model for Ukraine. I remain consistent in my views."

The changes, due to go into effect in September subject to certain conditions, were part of a deal to secure the approval of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma for a re-run of the rigged presidential election -- eventually won by Yushchenko.

Ukraine's New PM Promises 'Nice' Budget

KIEV< Ukraine -- Ukraine's young government, which rose to power on the back of mass protests, promised to revamp the budget to give a lift to the poor and end the graft and waste which marked its predecessor's rule.

"We believe it will be quite a nice budget," Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told Reuters in an interview late Friday.

Her government plans to finalize a revised budget for this year on March 19 and will present the draft to parliament two days later for approval.


Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
"The budget we inherited looks very much like a large accident in the country's public life," Tymoshenko said.

She said there was a hidden deficit of around $6 billion in the previous government's budget proposals because of populist spending pledges it made without setting aside money to pay for them.

"It is a very large sum. We are trying to balance this and create a budget practically free of deficit."

Tymoshenko, a popular and fiery street orator in support of the 'Orange Revolution' late last year which handed her ally Viktor Yushchenko the presidency, said her government was focusing on rooting out waste and corruption.

She cited the need to curtail Ukraine's pervasive shadow economy, thought to be about the same size as the official one.

She also wanted to end tax evasion and large scale smuggling.

Her government, in office less than two months, has promised to end the corruption and unfair business practices which marked the rule of ex-President Leonid Kuchma and scared away foreign investment in what used to be one of the wealthier regions of the Soviet Union.

"It means a totally new management of what remains of state property."

But she said ordinary Ukrainians would not be hurt.

"We have no intention of touching people in terms of the benefits they receive. On the contrary, we intend to raise benefits," she said.

The government plans to multiply benefits for such groups as orphans and single mothers and to boost salaries of doctors, teachers and the military by 56 percent, she said.

She also included privatization receipts of 5-6 billion hryvnias ($944 million to $1.13 billion) which she said meant the budget would be balanced.

Under IMF calculations, those receipts would not be counted as revenue and Ukraine would run a budget deficit equivalent to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Last year, the budget deficit rose to a five-year high of $1.7 billion.

"In our system of counting, it is not a deficit budget ... we don't consider this a deficit because we are not going to borrow on foreign markets."

Yushchenko Said Govt Ready to Declare Fiscal Amnesty

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's new leadership is ready to declare fiscal amnesty, that is, to amnesty capitals, President Viktor Yushchenko said addressing a forum on Partnership between Business and Government.

"We're ready for fiscal amnesty, the amnesty of capitals and property," he said.

He offered the government to consider tax privileges for newly emerging businesses.

The tax vacation may last from one to three years, Yushchenko said. "New enterprises must be given a chance to develop their business," he added.

He also called for introducing a simpler procedure of business incorporation.

Yushchenko urged businesses to get out of the shadow and pay taxes regularly.

"Shadow business operations account for 50% to 55% of the Gross Domestic Product," Yushchenko said.

He promised to set up a bureau of national investigations that will fight with corruption in the top three echelons of government.

Ukraine Eurovision Entry Is On Song

KIEV, Ukraine -- When Ukrainians took to the streets last November, they intended to jail their president and overthrow his regime.

Little did they expect that their "Orange Revolution" would throw an even greater institution - the Eurovision Song Contest - into turmoil.

With revolutionary aplomb, the new Government of Viktor Yushchenko has stepped in to effectively impose its own candidate to represent Ukraine at this year's event. The group Greenjolly will perform its rap "Together We Are Many", we will not be overcome, which became the Orange movement's anthem.

Ukraine is hosting the event in May, thanks to the victory in Turkey last year of Ukrainian pop singer Ruslana. The festival of kitsch is watched annually by 100 million culturally challenged people.

TV viewers were due to choose Ukraine's Eurovision candidate last week. But with just days to go before the audience vote, the Government realised the likely winner had stood on the other side of the barricades in November. Singer Ani Lorak was widely expected to win the nomination.

But Lorak, 26, voted Ukraine's sexiest woman, had made the mistake of singing at concerts in support of losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich.

At the last minute, Greenjolly was entered into the finals at Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko's request. The group therefore bypassed the heats, participation in which was supposedly obligatory.

The Government justified its decision by pointing out that the process of finding a winner had begun before the Orange Revolution. The mass movement had such an impact on Ukrainian society that this ought to be reflected in the contest, Mr Tomenko said.

Others have pointed out the blandness and poor quality of the finalists before Greenjolly was added to the list.

But to be fair, accusing Eurovision entrants of blandness is like blaming paint for the dullness of watching it dry.

Also, 100,000 copies of Greenjolly's rap have been downloaded in two days during the revolution. As well, the peculiar Ukrainian context closely defines the song's popularity.

Its lyrics are hardly a universal song for Europe: "Yes, Yushchenko! No Lies! No falsifications! Yes, Yushchenko! He's our president! We are Ukraine's sons and daughters."

Eurovision's organisers have ruled that the rap is too political and must be rewritten to be suitable. At a press conference last week Greenjolly ("wooden sledge" in Ukrainian) said it was planning new lyrics, possibly in English.

In a faint echo of last year's dramatic political confrontation in Ukraine, Lorak claims the vote was rigged against her. Her manager says viewers could not get through to the telephone voting lines, and that the SMS number for his candidate also failed.

But unlike Mr Yanukovich, Lorak is accepting defeat gracefully - there will be no "tent cities" of Lorak supporters blocking Kiev streets.

"I am a creative person, and the winner should be music, art," she said. "I will seek a place where people will respect and love me."

NASA, Ukraine Prepare Flights to Moon

KIEV, Ukraine -- NASA and the Ukrainian space agency are preparing unmanned flights to the moon under a joint project, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

Eduard Kuznetsov, deputy director general