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UKRAINE'S KINAKH PLEDGES TO ADD TO YUSHCHENKO'S SUCCESSES... Anatoliy Kinakh, the newly appointed prime minister, promised on 29 May that he will do everything possible "to consolidate" the achievements of the previous cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko, Interfax reported. Kinakh said he is going to form a new cabinet as soon as possible but mentioned no names. Meanwhile, Oleksandr Volkov, leader of the Democratic Union parliamentary caucus, said the parliamentary groups that voted to approve Kinakh should propose their ministers for a new coalition cabinet. "It cannot be otherwise, since then this country would have no future," the agency quoted Volkov as saying. JM

...WHILE PRESIDENT REAPPOINTS FIVE FORMER CABINET MEMBERS. President Leonid Kuchma, who issued a decree on Kinakh's appointment following the parliamentary approval (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 May 2001), made five other cabinet appointments. Kuchma appointed Oleh Dubyna -- deputy premier for industrial policy in Yushchenko's cabinet - - as first deputy premier. Kuchma also reappointed Foreign Minister Anatoliy Zlenko, Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, Interior Minister Yuriy Smyrnov, and Minister for Emergency Situations Vasyl Durdynets. Kuchma said establishing cooperation between the government and the parliament will be a priority task for Kinakh's cabinet. "If there is no parliamentary coalition on which the cabinet could lean, we do not need such a parliament or such a government," Interfax quoted Kuchma as saying. JM

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT TIGHTENS GRIP ON GOVERNMENT BY INTRODUCING STATE SECRETARIES. President Kuchma has signed a decree introducing the posts of state secretaries and deputy state secretaries for the Cabinet of Ministers and individual ministries, Interfax reported on 29 May. The state secretaries are to be appointed for fiveyear terms. Kuchma's spokesman, Volodymyr Lytvyn, explained that the decree was necessitated by frequent cabinet reshuffles which, he argued, threaten to "disorganize the executive branch" in the country's "period of transition and political structuring." The state secretaries are to deal with day-to-day running of the government and provide continuity between consecutive cabinets. JM

KYIV PROSECUTOR CHARGES JUDGE WHO FREED PRESIDENT'S OPPONENT. Kyiv City Prosecutor Yuriy Haysynskyy has launched a criminal investigation of Judge Mykola Zamkovenko for abuse of office, Interfax reported. In March, Zamkovenko canceled a warrant for the arrest of former Deputy Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko, President Kuchma's most outspoken opponent, and released her from a remand prison (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 March 2001). JM

HUNGARIAN PREMIER SAYS NATO MUST NOT FORSAKE UKRAINE. Opening the NATO foreign ministers' conference in Budapest on 29 May, Viktor Orban appealed to the alliance and to the EU "not to forsake Ukraine," Hungarian and international media reported. Orban said it is in the interest of Western countries to encourage Ukrainian reforms and urged participants to support Ukrainian plans to join the EU sometime in the future. "Any slackening of support," Orban said, "would send the wrong signal." In other news, some 100 antiglobalization activists staged a peaceful protest in Budapest, condemning international organizations such as NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank. One of the speakers at the protest said it was staged against "a violent and inhumane" international system and in order to show that "not everyone agrees with what is going on at the NATO summit." MSZ