With the kind permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, InfoUkes Inc. has been given rights to electronically re-print these articles on our web site. Visit the RFE/RL Ukrainian Service page for more information. Also visit the RFE/RL home page for news stories on other Eastern European and FSU countries.
Return to Main RFE News Page
InfoUkes Home Page
BELARUSIAN LEGISLATURE POSTPONES REVIEW OF CONTROVERSIAL RELIGION LAW. The Chamber of Representatives on 26 June postponed until the fall the second reading of a bill on religion that has provoked vociferous criticism from the country's Protestant and nontraditional religious communities (see "RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report," 25 June 2002), Belapan reported. JM
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SEES ARMY REFORM AS KEY TASK ON PATH TOWARD NATO... President Leonid Kuchma said on 26 June that "improving the structure and functions of Ukraine's armed forces and other military formations is a primary step in the implementation of a stage-by-stage process of deepening Ukraine's cooperation with NATO, which is to end with Ukraine joining the alliance," UNIAN reported. JM
...AND HONORS KYIV PATRIARCH WITH ORDER. The same day, President Kuchma decorated Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate), with the Yaroslav Mudry Order of the 4th Degree, UNIAN reported. Patriarch Filaret said at the ceremony that his church supports Ukrainian statehood and does everything in its power to avoid religious confrontation in Ukraine. He bestowed an icon on Kuchma. JM
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT DELEGATES LAWMAKERS TO OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY. Parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has authorized the makeup of a Verkhovna Rada permanent delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, UNIAN reported on 26 June. The delegation is composed of Oleh Bilorus from the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc; Mykola Zlochevskyy from the Social Democratic Party-united; Oleksandr Masenko from the Communist Party; Ihor Ostash and Oleksandr Tretyakov from Our Ukraine; and Yuliy Ioffe, Mykola Kruhlov, and Serhiy Shevchuk from United Ukraine. JM
MONUMENT TO POPE UNVEILED IN LVIV. Some 10,000 people attended the unveiling ceremony of a monument to Pope John Paul II in Lviv on 25 June, Interfax reported on 26 June. JM
HOOKED ON THE INTERNET. "For my generation -- 30-year-olds -- the Internet has a global influence. The hero of my film told us about how after he got a computer at the age of 25, he could no longer lead a normal life. He said: 'I cannot go to the toilet. I cannot go out to my parent's house. I sit here all the time and my need for the Internet grows all the stronger, so that I economize on bread so that I can buy some new hardware for my computer.' He was a completely regular fellow...when we filmed him, we got the sense that he was in principle not fully in control of himself or his own emotions. He simply wasn't living. The second situation that we discovered occurred in a real family. I had known them a long time, and all was well: a 25-year-old husband and wife around the same age, a child about 1 year old. The situation was absolutely normal and friendly. But then at one point the husband said: 'I have found a virtual wife. Forgive me, dear, but I need to go to her.' He left them, went somewhere to either Kyiv or Moscow. Then he nevertheless returned, saying that no, it was simply a mistake, and for humane reasons she took him back. But after a month, he said, 'I have found still another virtual wife, but this time everything will be perfect' and left again. The problem is that this person was absolutely normal. I knew him for a long time, but he started to feel all of a sudden like some kind of Don Juan. As I began to dig further, I found that this was not the only case, but this is a fairly normal occurrence."