CIS SUMMIT SIGNS OFF ON PERSONNEL APPOINTMENTS... In addition to appointing Berezovskii as CIS executive secretary, the CIS summit participants decided that Yeltsin will remain chairman of the CIS Heads-of-State Council until 2000. They also appointed Uzbek Prime Minister Utkir Sultanov chairman of the CIS Council of Heads of Government and Aueznur Kazhenov as chairman of the CIS Economic Court. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma told Interfax on 29 April that by re-electing Yeltsin as chairman of the CIS Council of Heads of State, CIS leaders have stressed "there is no alternative" to the commonwealth. He added the Moscow summit showed that reform has begun in the CIS. Commenting on Berezovskii's appointment as CIS executive secretary, Kuchma said "I like intelligent people." LF/JM

...BUT FAILS TO ADOPT KEY DOCUMENTS. Participants at the 29 April CIS summit failed to adopt proposals drafted by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev on creating a single economic space and a free trade zone within the CIS. They did agree, however, to discuss proposals for its reform at a CIS interstate forum in July. The presidents also failed to adopt a draft Declaration on Further Equal Partnership and Cooperation, which, according to a Ukrainian official quoted by Interfax, was rejected by unspecified participants because it did not explicitly affirm the territorial integrity of CIS member states. But Caucasus Press quoted a member of the Georgian delegation as saying that the draft affirms support for the territorial integrity of member states and that Armenia has therefore refused to sign it. At a session of the CIS Foreign Ministers' Council on 28 April, the representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Moldova refused to sign the draft, Noyan Tapan reported. LF

CIS PRESIDENTS NOT UNANIMOUS IN SUPPORTING BEREZOVSKII? It is still unclear from Russian media reports how Berezovskii's candidacy for the post of CIS executive secretary was decided on. Yeltsin said that Berezovskii was proposed by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, but "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 30 April quoted Federation Council chairman Yegor Stroev as claiming that Kuchma and Shevardnadze jointly suggested Kuchma after a lengthy argument between the presidents. Acting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Rybkin, rumored to have been instrumental in proposing Berezovskii's candidacy, said that a total of seven possible candidates were discussed, including Yabloko faction leader Grigorii Yavlinskii and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tyhypko. Russian Presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii said that Berezovskii's candidacy was approved by all CIS presidents except for Armenia's Robert Kocharian, who canceled a scheduled post-summit press conference, Interfax reported. LF

End Note: KUCHMA FACES HARD TIMES AFTER ELECTIONS

UKRAINE STILL ELIGIBLE FOR U.S. FINANCIAL AID. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who is currently on a tour of Asia, said on 29 April that Ukraine remains eligible for U.S. financial aid, Reuters reported. The U.S. Congress suspended aid worth $100 million after U.S. firms investing in Ukraine complained of unfair treatment and an unfavorable business climate in Ukraine. According to State Department spokesman James Rubin, Kyiv has "made significant progress toward resolving U.S. investor complaints." Albright agreed to releasing $80 million and withholding $20 million until the remaining problems faced by U.S. investors in Ukraine are resolved. JM

NEW CRIMEAN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ELECT SPEAKER. The new parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea began its first session on 29 April, Ukrainian Television reported. Communist pickets outside the parliament building called on deputies to elect Communist leader Leonid Hrach as speaker. However, in the vote for the parliamentary speaker, neither Hrach nor former speaker Anatoliy Hrytsenko won the required 51 votes to be elected. The following day, the Communists refused to participate in the session, ITAR-TASS reported. Hrach told journalists that his faction will paralyze the work of the parliament unless a "normal, democratic situation" is created within it. He said that the elections of the parliamentary speaker are taking place under pressure from the government. JM

KUCHMA FACES HARD TIMES AFTER ELECTIONS

One month after the 29 March parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the Central Electoral Commission is still counting votes. A flood of complaints about election fraud and irregularities has delayed the announcement of the final results. On 18 April, the commission published an incomplete list of 413 deputies, adding eight names to that list several days later.

However, the lineup of the Supreme Council is more or less clear even before the final results are announced. The Communist Party scored an indisputable victory, with a total of 111 mandates gained on the nationwide party lists and single-mandate districts (nearly 25 percent of seats in the 450-strong legislature). But that victory has not strengthened the party's foothold in the legislature. Even in a coalition with the Socialists/Peasants bloc (34 seats)-- their most likely partner--they will not have a legislative majority. One Ukrainian newspaper observed that had the 1994 parliamentary elections been held under the current majorityproportional election system, the Communists would have fared much better at the time.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma seems to fear that the new parliament spells trouble for him. With the ailing economy, deep-rooted corruption, soaring wage and pension arrears, and an uncooperative legislature, he may have few opportunities to improve his ratings in the presidential elections scheduled for October 1999. Since 29 March, he has made a series of uncoordinated maneuvers--most of them strongly reminiscent of the Soviet era --in a bid to reassure both himself and his political foes that he is still in control.

There were two "presidential" parties in the campaign-- the Popular Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Valeriy Pustovoytenko, and the Agrarian Party, both of which were created to secure a pro-Kuchma bloc in the legislature. The former won only 28 seats, while the latter failed even to overcome the 4 percent threshold, gaining a mere seven seats in the single-mandate districts.

Kuchma reacted immediately by replacing three oblast administration heads in the regions where his parties fared badly. In a further move to reinforce his grip on local administration, he demanded that all his regional administration chiefs either decide on their party affiliation by mid-May or face dismissal. Administration executives, according to Kuchma, are allowed to join not only the "presidential" parties but also those of a "centrist and constructive orientation."

The president also lashed out at his ministers for their poor performance and threatened a reshuffle at a 9 April cabinet session. At the same session, he ordered that the 1999 budget deficit be cut to 2.5 percent of GDP and 1998 budget spending trimmed in a bid to curry favor with reluctant Western creditors.

Kuchma then fired the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast administration and went on to deal an even heavier blow. Presenting the new administration chief, Kuchma warned Dnipropetrovsk managers that the "democracy game is over" for them. He added that unless they find a cure for economic ailments at their enterprises by the end of the year, they will also have to look for new jobs.

Moreover, Kuchma has had to deal with former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, leader of the Hromada Party (which gained 23 seats in last month's elections) and chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council. Lazarenko's party garnered some 700,000 votes--nearly two-thirds of the ballots cast for the party nationwide--in that oblast. This was a personal insult to Kuchma, who in the Soviet era had been a powerful party boss at Ukraine's famous Yuzhmash rocket-building plant in Dnipropetrovsk. Kuchma accused Lazarenko of exacerbating tensions in the region and the country as a whole and demanded that the Prosecutor-General's Office examine Lazarenko's "negative barter schemes." It is widely believed that Lazarenko will run against Kuchma in the 1999 presidential race.

Still, Kuchma's gravest concern is Oleksandr Moroz, the leader of the Socialist Party and current parliamentary speaker, whom the left-wing camp would certainly prefer over Petro Symonenko, head of the Communist Party, as its presidential candidate. Kuchma has indicated his desire to remove Moroz from the parliamentary spotlight by replacing him--as he put it--with an "unengaged politician." Hennadiy Udovenko, who resigned his post of foreign minister and is reportedly seeking Moroz's job, may be an ideal replacement.

And on 21 April, Kuchma held a meeting with newly elected deputies from business circles. More than one-third of the new legislature is composed of entrepreneurs and bankers, to whom Kuchma has appealed for support, regardless of their party affiliations and political preferences. He stressed that further confrontation between the executive and legislative branches would be "deliberate suicide" and made it clear that he categorically opposes the formation of a left-wing government.

This latest move by Kuchma has reportedly had one very promising result for the president. According to some Ukrainian newspapers, the Popular Democratic Party's parliamentary faction has already managed to enlist more than 40 independent deputies to form pro-Kuchma faction in the Supreme Council. If those reports are accurate, Kuchma's chances are better than they seemed early this month. But he has only 18 months left of his presidential term to achieve what he has largely failed to do in the past four years.