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LUZHKOV OFFERS TO BUY CRUISER FROM UKRAINE. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov and his administration have proposed to Prime Minister Kasyanov that the city help purchase the cruiser "Admiral Lobov" to help develop the Black Sea Fleet, Ekho Moskvy reported on 6 September. Such a ship, Luzhkov said, will enable Russia to project power into the Adriatic and beyond. Meanwhile, Luzhkov issued an order the same day to remove what he called "superfluous" advertising in the center of the city, Russian agencies reported. Such a move, he said, not only will make the city a more attractive place but also reduce maintenance costs. In another move, officials in the Russian capital said that they are considering relocating Moscow's railroad terminals to the outskirts of the city by 2020, Interfax reported. VY
BUTYRKA ESCAPEES STILL AT LARGE. The three inmates who escaped from Moscow's Butyrka prison on 5 September remain at large, Russian and Western agencies reported the following day. Police officials launched a countrywide search and said that the three may be headed toward Ukraine or Moldova, Interfax reported. The officials speculated that the three, who they said are not armed, may have had help from jailers or alternatively may have escaped because of the inability of the overstretched guard staff to keep track of all prisoners. PG
IMF MISSION TO RECOMMEND LOAN RESUMPTION TO UKRAINE. An IMF mission in Kyiv decided on 6 September to recommend that a loan installment be made this year to Ukraine, AP reported. Mission head Julian Berengaut, the deputy director of the IMF's Second European Department, said Ukraine has fulfilled all the necessary conditions for the payment, including timely drafting of a satisfactory budget for 2002 (see RFE/RL Newsline," 6 September 2001). If the IMF restarts lending, Ukraine can receive $375 million this year and a further $580 million in 2002. JM
TWO UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS STAGE BLOODY PROTEST OVER ARREST OF COLLEAGUES. Two men from Ukraine's radical nationalist Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNAUNSO) on 6 September slashed their stomachs and attempted to stick posters to Kyiv's independence monument with their blood, Reuters reported. The men were protesting against the continued detention of their 16 brothers-in-arms, including UNA-UNSO leader Andriy Shkil. Police arrested them on 9 April during a violent antipresidential protest. The two 6 September protesters were detained and transported to a hospital. Police said their wounds are not life threatening. JM
AMBASSADOR DENIES ALLEGATION OF TURKISH CLAIMS TO CRIMEA. In a letter published in the "Krymskiye izvestiya" on 6 September, the Turkish ambassador to Ukraine, Alp Karaosmanoglu, said he is surprised at pronouncements made by the Crimean parliamentary speaker Leonid Hrach that Turkey allegedly has claims on Ukrainian territory, Interfax reported. The ambassador recalled that Turkey was among the first countries to recognize Ukraine's sovereignty in 1992. In July, "Krymskiye izvestiya" published Hrach's public speech in which he said that "Turkey has long ago begun making maps on which Crimea is tinged with Turkish national colors." Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Mustafa Dzhemilev commented that Hrach has repeatedly made anti-Turkish and anti-Tatar statements and warned that Crimean Tatars want to unite the peninsula with Turkey. According to Dzhemilev, Hrach, who is also the leader of Crimea's Communist Party, is playing on pro-Russian and antiTatar sentiments on the peninsula in order to garner as many votes as possible in next year's parliamentary elections. JM
POLISH PRESIDENT WARNS AGAINST RICH-POOR DIVISION IN EUROPE. Aleksander Kwasniewski on 6 September said that although the division into spheres of influence on the European continent has disappeared, Europe is still facing the threat of a division into a rich section and a poor section, PAP reported. Kwasniewski was addressing a Poland-East economic forum in Krynica (southern Poland), which is being attended by the presidents of Moldova, Lithuania, and Slovakia, as well as representatives from Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Estonia. "[The threat] particularly applies to countries which after a period of transformations are strenuously trying to close the distance between them and the Western world. To prevent this, we need greater mobilization, greater solidarity, and greater collaboration," Kwasniewski said. JM