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UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS GOVERNMENT OVER 2002 BUDGET DRAFT. Leonid Kuchma told Anatoliy Kinakh's cabinet on 30 August that he does not share the government's optimism in the making of a draft budget for 2002, Interfax and UNIAN reported. Kuchma stressed that all budget projections should be made while taking into account new tax rates in 2002. The president criticized the government for making 2002 budget assumptions on the basis of old tax rates as well as for its reluctance to pursue tax reform. "How can we ensure competitiveness for Ukrainian goods on the Russian market if the income tax on citizens in Ukraine is two or three times higher than in Russia?" Kuchma asked the cabinet. JM

UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL SAYS TV JOURNALIST KILLED BY MISTAKE. Mykhaylo Potebenko on 30 August said that telejournalist Ihor Aleksandrov was killed by mistake, STB Television reported. Potebenko said that Aleksandrov was mistaken for a lawyer, who had an office in the same building and who was the intended victim. Potebenko added that the attackers were told only to beat the lawyer but "they overdid the job." According to the prosecutor-general, "the [arrested] murderer is already giving testimony." Aleksandrov's son has recently cast doubt on the efficiency of the official investigation into the death of his father (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 August 2001). JM