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BUTYRKA ESCAPEES STILL AT LARGE, MAY HAVE LEFT RUSSIA. Justice Ministry officials said on 12 September that the three prisoners who escaped from Moscow's Butyrka prison on 5 September are still at large and may now be beyond the borders of Russia, Interfax reported. Among the places where they may be, officials said, are "Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Baltic countries, and even Poland." PG
UZBEKISTAN, UKRAINE REGISTER INCREASE IN BILATERAL TRADE. Trade turnover between GUUAM member states Uzbekistan and Ukraine increased by 32 percent during the first eight months of 2001 to reach over $200 million, Ukraine's ambassador in Tashkent, Anatolii Kasyanov, was quoted as telling Caspian News Agency on 12 September. (Visiting Tashkent last week, Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov said trade between his city and Uzbekistan amounted to only $113 million -- see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 September 2001). Kasyanov said Ukraine delivers to Uzbekistan products from its metallurgical, chemical and electronics industries, tires and medications, and imports natural gas, cotton fiber, textiles, copper, zinc, and agricultural produce from Uzbekistan. LF
UKRAINE'S NATIONAL BANK CANCELS U.S. DOLLAR TRADING. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on 12 September canceled the sales of U.S. dollars to banks in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the U.S., Interfax reported. The agency reported that Ukrainians sold U.S. dollars at currency-exchange booths that day at rates fluctuating between 4-5 hryvni per dollar, but the booths offered the U.S. currency for sale at rates not falling below 5.35 hryvni per dollar. In another move intended to stabilize Ukrainian currency markets, the NBU limited the day-to-day fluctuation of the price of a foreign currency in Ukrainian banks to a maximum of 5 percent. JM
UKRAINIAN RADICAL NATIONALISTS SEE ATTACKS ON U.S. AS 'MORAL SATISFACTION.' While most Ukrainian parties and politicians condemned the 11 September terrorist attacks on the U.S., the radical nationalist Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) said these attack are a source of "moral satisfaction" for "millions." According to the UNA-UNSO, the attacks can be seen as revenge for the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan and air raids on Vietnam, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Yugoslavia. "The boomerang of history has begun to come back," Interfax quoted from a UNA-UNSO statement. The UNA-UNSO noted that any global destabilization in the wake of the attacks will add to Ukraine's power in the future. JM
WIFE APPEALS FOR INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST'S DEATH. Myroslava Gongadze, the wife of slain journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, has appealed for an international investigation into the death of her husband, Interfax reported on 12 September. "As long as such an independent investigation is not ordered and carried out, and the charges against you are not refuted, I will consider you to be guilty of the destruction of my husband," Myroslava Gongadze said in an open letter to Ukrainian President Kuchma. JM