RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN PREMIERS INITIAL ECONOMIC PROGRAM. Viktor Chernomyrdin and Valery Pustovoytenko, meeting in Kyiv on 20 February, initialed a 10-year economic cooperation program, AFP reported. Chernomyrdin, who was in the Ukrainian capital to prepare for President Leonid Kuchma's trip to Moscow, said the program "deals with all main aspects of economic relations between our two countries." The agreement is to be signed by Kuchma and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin. Chernomyrdin said the program will more than double bilateral trade in the next decade. Last year, the volume of trade between the two countries was some $15.3 billion. Chernomyrdin also extended a $180 million technical credit to Ukraine toward the construction of two new nuclear reactors needed to enable Kyiv to permanently close Chornobyl, the "Eastern Economist" reported on 21 February. PB

YELTSIN HAILS IMPROVEMENT IN RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE. Russian President Yeltsin announced on 20 February that Russia and Ukraine left behind "the most difficult phase" in their relations last May, when the two countries signed a wide-ranging friendship treaty and an agreement on dividing the Black Sea Fleet, Russian news agencies reported. He added that Moscow has since made some concessions to Kyiv, such as the bilateral agreement not to charge value-added tax on each other's imports. But Yeltsin said such concessions were worth making in order to protect the "friendship" between the two countries. He attributed the progress in bilateral relations to more frequent meetings and telephone conversations between himself and President Kuchma. Kuchma paid an informal visit to Moscow in late January and is to make a state visit to Russia on 26-27 February. LB

LUZHKOV WANTS RUSSIAN JURISDICTION OVER SEVASTOPOL. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov promised on 21 February to demand "that Sevastopol be placed under Russia's jurisdiction again," Interfax reported. Addressing a group of Sevastopol residents and Black Sea Fleet sailors, he again denounced the "forced Ukrainianization" of ethnic Russians and warned that "relations between Ukraine and Russia will never be transparent or sincerely fraternal if injustice continues with regard to Sevastopol and Crimea." Luzhkov came to Sevastopol for the opening of a new apartment block for families of Black Sea Fleet sailors, which was funded by the Moscow city government. Russia renounced all territorial claims on Ukraine in a treaty signed last May, but Russia has not yet ratified that treaty. LB

RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN PREMIERS INITIAL ECONOMIC PROGRAM. Viktor Chernomyrdin and Valery Pustovoytenko, meeting in Kyiv on 20 February, initialed a 10-year economic cooperation program, AFP reported. Chernomyrdin, who was in the Ukrainian capital to prepare for President Leonid Kuchma's trip to Moscow, said the program "deals with all main aspects of economic relations between our two countries." The agreement is to be signed by Kuchma and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin. Chernomyrdin said the program will more than double bilateral trade in the next decade. Last year, the volume of trade between the two countries was some $15.3 billion. Chernomyrdin also extended a $180 million technical credit to Ukraine toward the construction of two new nuclear reactors needed to enable Kyiv to permanently close Chornobyl, the "Eastern Economist" reported on 21 February. PB

YELTSIN HAILS IMPROVEMENT IN RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE. Russian President Yeltsin announced on 20 February that Russia and Ukraine left behind "the most difficult phase" in their relations last May, when the two countries signed a wide-ranging friendship treaty and an agreement on dividing the Black Sea Fleet, Russian news agencies reported. He added that Moscow has since made some concessions to Kyiv, such as the bilateral agreement not to charge value-added tax on each other's imports. But Yeltsin said such concessions were worth making in order to protect the "friendship" between the two countries. He attributed the progress in bilateral relations to more frequent meetings and telephone conversations between himself and President Kuchma. Kuchma paid an informal visit to Moscow in late January and is to make a state visit to Russia on 26-27 February. LB

LUZHKOV WANTS RUSSIAN JURISDICTION OVER SEVASTOPOL. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov promised on 21 February to demand "that Sevastopol be placed under Russia's jurisdiction again," Interfax reported. Addressing a group of Sevastopol residents and Black Sea Fleet sailors, he again denounced the "forced Ukrainianization" of ethnic Russians and warned that "relations between Ukraine and Russia will never be transparent or sincerely fraternal if injustice continues with regard to Sevastopol and Crimea." Luzhkov came to Sevastopol for the opening of a new apartment block for families of Black Sea Fleet sailors, which was funded by the Moscow city government. Russia renounced all territorial claims on Ukraine in a treaty signed last May, but Russia has not yet ratified that treaty. LB

OSCE ACCUSES UKRAINE OF CURTAILING PRESS FREEDOM. The head of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe delegation in Kyiv has accused the Ukrainian government of violating press freedom, the "Eastern Economist" reported on 23 February. Kare Vollan, who leads an OSCE team of election observers in Ukraine, said "the forced closure of one newspaper and the potential imposition of an extraordinarily severe payment on a second are highly disturbing." Vollan was referring to the closure of "Pravda Ukrainy" over an alleged registration irregularity (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 January 1998) and the levying of a 3.5 million hryvnya ($1.84 million) fine against "Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti" for a mistaken report about a soccer player transfer. Both newspapers support opposition candidate Pavlo Lazarenko and his Hromada party. PB

GDP DECLINES IN UKRAINE. The State Statistics Committee reported on 20 February that GDP fell 0.8 percent and that inflation was 1.3 percent in January. The Ukrainian government has predicted a rise in GDP in 1998 after several years of decreases. The monthly drop was blamed on a devastating 11.7 percent decrease in industrial production in January. PB

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT IN ROMANIA. Meeting with President Emil Constantinescu in Galati on 21 February, Petru Lucinschi said his country "cannot afford" to participate in the financing of a second reactor at the Cernavoda nuclear plant in Romania, Reuters reported. The two presidents also discussed plans for cooperating with Ukraine on the construction of a gas pipe-line and on setting up so-called Euro-regions. The previous day, Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu, who accompanied Constantinescu, to Moldova said that the pending basic treaty between the two countries must be "mutually acceptable" not only to the two countries' governments but also to "public opinion in Moldova and Romania." This may be a hint that Bucharest is exercising pressure on Chisinau to accept a formulation emphasizing the countries' common history. MS