UKRAINIAN NATIONAL BANK NOT TO USE RESERVES TO SUPPORT HRYVNYA. Ukrainian National Bank Chairman Viktor Yushchenko said at a cabinet meeting on 21 September that the bank has no plans to use its hard-currency reserves to support the hryvnya, Ukrainian Television reported. "Support for the hryvnya is provided through limiting hard-currency operations on the market and closing the interbank market," the station quoted him as saying. Citing Russia's futile attempts to support the ruble, Yushchenko added that the government has not ruled out "administrative methods" to stave off the financial crisis. He also announced that Ukrainian banks will soon be ordered to make payments to a special compensation fund for victims of possible bank bankruptcies. Ukrainian Premier Valeriy Pustovoytenko told the same cabinet meeting that the government "should preserve the banking system, not individual banks." JM

PUSTOVOYTENKO THREATENS CRACKDOWN ON DEBTORS. The Ukrainian premier has said his government will crack down on enterprises that delay paying off state credits, despite having money on their accounts, Ukrainian Television reported on 21 September. According to Pustovoytenko, some $150 million in state credits is due to be paid back by the end of this year. He instructed the Prosecutor-General's Office and the Interior Ministry "to work out measures oriented toward repaying credits by enterprises." JM

MOROZ TO RUN FOR UKRAINIAN PRESIDENCY IN 1999. Oleksandr Moroz, leader of the Ukrainian Socialist Party and former speaker of the Ukrainian Supreme Council, has announced that he will run in the 1999 presidential elections, Ukrainian Television reported on 21 September. The Socialist Party Political Council has appealed to the left-wing, left-ofcenter, and democratic forces to support Moroz as the "only realistic alternative" to President Leonid Kuchma. UNIAN reported that Moroz may be nominated by the Socialist Party as its official presidential candidate at a party congress in October. JM

BELARUSIAN FOREIGN TRADE DEFICIT NEARS $1 BILLION. According to the Belarusian Ministry of Statistics and Analysis, foreign trade in the first seven months of this year increased by 11 percent, compared with the same period last year, Belapan reported on 21 September. The foreign trade deficit stood at $988.8 million. Belarus's main trade partners are Russia (60.4 percent of total foreign trade), Ukraine (7.4 percent), Germany (5.5 percent), and Poland (2.9 percent). JM