UKRAINE MAY SUPPLY TURBINE TO IRAN. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko on 18 August said is considering a proposal by Turboatom, a Kharkiv-based factory, to supply a turbine for a reactor Russia is building in Iran," Interfax reported. Udovenko was speaking during a visit to the eastern Ukrainian city. Udovenko said he will study a draft contract under which Turboatom would supply a 1,000-megawatt turbine for the plant in the Iranian city of Bushehr. Udovenko admitted that "fulfillment of the contract could complicate relations with our partners." The U.S. and Israel have argued that the plant could help Iran develop nuclear weapons. In April, Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Natan Sharansky said Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma had promised him that Ukraine would not provide Russia with turbines for the Bushehr project or "do anything to help Iran, Iraq, or Libya build weapons of mass destruction."

SECT LEADER RELEASED FROM UKRAINIAN PRISON. Marina TsvygunKrivonogova, one of the leaders of the White Fraternity sect, was released from the Dneprodzerzhinsk corrective labor camp on 17 August under an amnesty, ITAR-TASS reported. TsvygunKrivonogova was sentenced to four years in prison in February 1996 on charges of citing mass disorder during a prayer vigil outside Kyiv's cathedral. Tsvygun-Krivonogova, together with her husband Yuri Krivonogov, patriarch of the sect, involved mostly teenagers in their organization. Calling herself Maria Devi Christ, TsvygunKrivonogova last addressed supporters of her faith one month ago in a televised interview from the camp.