SUSPECTED MONEY-LAUNDERER WINS CASE AGAINST TV IN BUDAPEST COURT. Semyon Mogilevich won a libel case in a Budapest court against the TV station RTL Club on 6 September. The station called him one of the most dangerous criminals in the world, based on American media reports which linked him to the allegedly multibillion dollar Bank of New York Russian money-laundering case. The court ruled that the station did not have the evidence to support its claim and ordered a retraction. Married to a Hungarian, Ukrainianborn Mogilevich lives in Budapest where he also owns some businesses. But hours after he won his case, he disappeared.

UKRAINE'S MOROZ WANTS TO OUST KUCHMA'S 'REGIME OF BANDITOCRACY.' Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, a major rival of President Leonid Kuchma in the upcoming presidential elections, pledged to pursue "genuine socialism" in his election platform published in the 8 September "Holos Ukrayiny." If elected president, Moroz said he will build a state-controlled, market-oriented "genuine national economy" based primarily on domestic industrial potential. According to the platform, an essential condition for implementing Moroz's "new course" for Ukraine is the elimination of the "existing regime of banditocracy," headed by Leonid Kuchma. JM

MORE MONEY FOR KYIV IN THE OFFING? Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tyhypko announced after his meeting with Japan's new ambassador to Kyiv on 8 September that Tokyo may lend Ukraine $80 million in two credits. The second credit, worth $35 million, is to be spent on patching up budget gaps. Meanwhile, an IMF official in Ukraine told journalists the same day that later this month the fund will consider the release of a $90 million credit tranche to Ukraine in 1999, in addition to the $184 million loan approved on 7 September. JM