RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
A Survey of Developments in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine by the Regional Specialists of RFE/RL's Newsline Team.
UKRAINE
RUSSIA WANTS UKRAINIAN COMPANIES FOR GAS. Following Russian First Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's visit to Kyiv last month, Moscow has toughened its stance with regard to Ukraine's debt for Russian gas supplies. As a precondition for the possible restructuring of the gas debt, Moscow demands that Kyiv recognize the gas debts of both the state-run company Naftohaz Ukrayiny and Ukrainian commercial firms as a state obligation and immediately start paying for current gas supplies in cash.
According to Moscow, Ukraine owes Russia $1.9 billion for gas deliveries. Kyiv admits to owing only $1.4 billion, saying the rest is the debt of commercial firms, for which the government bears no responsibility.
The 7 March "Kommersant-Daily" reported that Kasyanov has proposed that Kyiv cover its gas debt by transferring to Russia's ownership a number of Ukrainian enterprises, primarily those "closely connected with Russian [companies] in the fuel and energy sector, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, agricultural machine building, and others." According to the Russian newspaper, Moscow has received no official response to its proposal.
UNIAN reported that the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant heads the list of the enterprises that Russia would like to get a hold of and is followed by the LiNOS oil refinery (Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast), the Oriana chemical company (Kalush in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), and the Turboatom joint-stock company--the Kharkiv-based producer of nuclear power plant equipment. According to experts from the Texasbased Stratfor Analytical Center, Ukraine might fail to generate the planned $450 million from privatization this year if it starts paying off the debt to Russia with companies slated for privatization. On the other hand, the experts add that the country could face another oil and gas crisis if it refuses to pay.
President Leonid Kuchma commented in the 10 March Kyiv-based "Fakty," that Kyiv will not transfer Ukrainian companies to Russia as repayment of the gas debt. "I think that it is simply inappropriate and rude, if not worse, to raise the issue of gas debts in such a manner, particularly since Russia itself only a few days ago managed to restructure its debts to the West," Kuchma noted. Kuchma said he had agreed with former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and current acting President Vladimir Putin on a "mechanism" for repayment of Ukraine's gas debt but did not elaborate. He added that he has instructed the cabinet to determine the state and commercial components of the gas debt in order to clarify "who owes how much to whom and at what deadlines the debts are to be paid off." He added that the debt amount and repayment schedule should be made public. "Today our officials quote different [gas debt] figures. Apparently, this mess is beneficial to somebody," Kuchma noted.
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report is prepared by Jan Maksymiuk on the basis of a variety of sources including reporting by "RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's broadcast services. It is distributed every Tuesday.
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
A Survey of Developments in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine by the Regional Specialists of RFE/RL's Newsline Team.
UKRAINE
RUSSIA WANTS UKRAINIAN COMPANIES FOR GAS. Following Russian First Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's visit to Kyiv last month, Moscow has toughened its stance with regard to Ukraine's debt for Russian gas supplies. As a precondition for the possible restructuring of the gas debt, Moscow demands that Kyiv recognize the gas debts of both the state-run company Naftohaz Ukrayiny and Ukrainian commercial firms as a state obligation and immediately start paying for current gas supplies in cash.
According to Moscow, Ukraine owes Russia $1.9 billion for gas deliveries. Kyiv admits to owing only $1.4 billion, saying the rest is the debt of commercial firms, for which the government bears no responsibility.
The 7 March "Kommersant-Daily" reported that Kasyanov has proposed that Kyiv cover its gas debt by transferring to Russia's ownership a number of Ukrainian enterprises, primarily those "closely connected with Russian [companies] in the fuel and energy sector, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, agricultural machine building, and others." According to the Russian newspaper, Moscow has received no official response to its proposal.
UNIAN reported that the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant heads the list of the enterprises that Russia would like to get a hold of and is followed by the LiNOS oil refinery (Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast), the Oriana chemical company (Kalush in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), and the Turboatom joint-stock company--the Kharkiv-based producer of nuclear power plant equipment. According to experts from the Texasbased Stratfor Analytical Center, Ukraine might fail to generate the planned $450 million from privatization this year if it starts paying off the debt to Russia with companies slated for privatization. On the other hand, the experts add that the country could face another oil and gas crisis if it refuses to pay.
President Leonid Kuchma commented in the 10 March Kyiv-based "Fakty," that Kyiv will not transfer Ukrainian companies to Russia as repayment of the gas debt. "I think that it is simply inappropriate and rude, if not worse, to raise the issue of gas debts in such a manner, particularly since Russia itself only a few days ago managed to restructure its debts to the West," Kuchma noted. Kuchma said he had agreed with former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and current acting President Vladimir Putin on a "mechanism" for repayment of Ukraine's gas debt but did not elaborate. He added that he has instructed the cabinet to determine the state and commercial components of the gas debt in order to clarify "who owes how much to whom and at what deadlines the debts are to be paid off." He added that the debt amount and repayment schedule should be made public. "Today our officials quote different [gas debt] figures. Apparently, this mess is beneficial to somebody," Kuchma noted.
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report is prepared by Jan Maksymiuk on the basis of a variety of sources including reporting by "RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's broadcast services. It is distributed every Tuesday.
TURKMENISTAN DEPORTS THREE RUSSIAN BAPTIST FAMILIES. From 11- 13 March, the Turkmen authorities forcibly returned to Russia three Baptist preachers and their families who had been living in Ashgabat and the town of Mary to the southeast, Keston News Service reported on 13 March. Two other leading members of Turkmenistan's Baptist community were deported to Russia and Ukraine last December. LF
ANOTHER TWO REFERENDA IN UKRAINE? The Central Electoral Commission has registered two initiative groups that will collect signatures in support of referenda that would be alternatives to the constitutional referendum scheduled for 16 April, Interfax reported on 13 March. The first group is seeking the population's consent to include a number of social guarantees in the constitution, abolish the post of president, and grant the legislative branch the "exclusive right" to form executive bodies. The second group wants to pose questions about suspending Ukraine's obligations to the IMF, passing a vote of no confidence in the president, and canceling the immunity of the president, people's deputies, and judges. The first plebiscite is proposed by the Communist Party, while the second is the joint initiative of the Communist Party, the Progressive Socialist Party, and the Peasant Party. The groups each have to collect 3 million signatures by mid-June if the referenda are to take place. JM
UKRAINE'S SYMONENKO ACCUSES PRESIDENT OF SEEKING SPLIT AMONG COMMUNISTS. Communist Party of Ukraine leader Petro Symonenko told Interfax on 13 March that the Ukrainian Communist Youth Union (UKSM) was created "under the patronage" of the presidential administration, which "seeks to split the left spectrum of political parties" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 March 2000), According to Symonenko, a majority of delegates to the UKSM constituent congress were students who "had no idea" where they were being taken to by their deans. Symonenko added that there will also be attempts to split the Communist Party of Ukraine and create an alternative organization, the Ukrainian Communist Party. Symonenko also noted that the authorities are seeking to stoke "enmity toward Communists" in society and had an "interest" in the seizure of the Communist headquarters by young radicals last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 March 2000). JM