LUKASHENKA PRAISES PRIMORSKII GOVERNOR. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka highly praised Primorskii Krai Governor Yevgenii Nazdratenko during an visit to Vladivostok on the way home from the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, RFE/RL's correspondent in Vladivostok reported on 23 February. Lukashenka said he and Nazdratenko agree on privatization and border policy. (The governor has long been an opponent of First Deputy Prime Minister Chubais and has accused the government of planning to give up territory in Primore to China.) Lukashenka hinted that the Russian government's "young reformers" are secret opponents of integration with Belarus. But he cited an economic cooperation agreement signed in Vladivostok as evidence that Russian regional leaders are welcoming closer ties with Minsk. He also said he hopes Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma loses a presidential election scheduled for 1999, because, he commented, Kuchma opposes integration with Russia and Belarus. LB

UKRAINE SAYS TERRITORIAL DISPUTE WITH RUSSIA 'NON-EXISTENT.' The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on 23 February that a territorial dispute between Moscow and Kyiv "never existed and cannot exist," ITAR-TASS reported on 23 February. The statement came in response to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's recent claims to Crimea and its port city of Sevastopol (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 February 1998). The Foreign Ministry said that, as in Russia, "serious politicians in Ukraine" realize that good relations between Kyiv and Moscow are based on "mutual respect, sovereignty, and territorial integrity." The Ukrainian parliament has approved a bilateral treaty with Russia that guarantees current borders between the two countries. PB

LUKASHENKA PRAISES PRIMORSKII GOVERNOR. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka highly praised Primorskii Krai Governor Yevgenii Nazdratenko during an visit to Vladivostok on the way home from the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, RFE/RL's correspondent in Vladivostok reported on 23 February. Lukashenka said he and Nazdratenko agree on privatization and border policy. (The governor has long been an opponent of First Deputy Prime Minister Chubais and has accused the government of planning to give up territory in Primore to China.) Lukashenka hinted that the Russian government's "young reformers" are secret opponents of integration with Belarus. But he cited an economic cooperation agreement signed in Vladivostok as evidence that Russian regional leaders are welcoming closer ties with Minsk. He also said he hopes Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma loses a presidential election scheduled for 1999, because, he commented, Kuchma opposes integration with Russia and Belarus. LB

UKRAINE SAYS TERRITORIAL DISPUTE WITH RUSSIA 'NON-EXISTENT.' The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on 23 February that a territorial dispute between Moscow and Kyiv "never existed and cannot exist," ITAR-TASS reported on 23 February. The statement came in response to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's recent claims to Crimea and its port city of Sevastopol (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 February 1998). The Foreign Ministry said that, as in Russia, "serious politicians in Ukraine" realize that good relations between Kyiv and Moscow are based on "mutual respect, sovereignty, and territorial integrity." The Ukrainian parliament has approved a bilateral treaty with Russia that guarantees current borders between the two countries. PB