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UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER CONFIRMS EURO-ATLANTIC COURSE. Yevhen Marchuk said on 28 July that amendments to Ukraine's military doctrine (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 July 2004) do not change the country's course toward Euro-Atlantic integration, Interfax reported. Marchuk said that military doctrines determine policy, on average, for about 10 years. "Life has changed, so corrections and the new version of the military doctrine have been made," he said, adding that there are strategic things like Euro-Atlantic integration and cooperation with NATO, which were not altered. Marchuk also said the new doctrine will not influence the reform of the Ukrainian armed forces. AM

FIVE NEW CANDIDATES JOIN PRESIDENTIAL RACE IN UKRAINE. The Central Election Commission (when?) officially registered Hryhoriy Chernysh, the leader of the Party for the Rehabilitation of the Ukrainian Nation; Vladyslav Kryvobokov, the leader of the Popular Party of Depositors and Social Protection; Mykhaylo Brodsky, the leader of the Yabluko party; Ihor Dushyn, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party; and independent candidate Andriy Chornovil (an assistant professor at Lviv State Medical University), as candidates for the 31 October presidential election, Interfax reported. The number of registered candidates stands at 20. AM

UKRAINIAN LAWMAKER CLAIMS VIOLATIONS OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN RULES. Mykola Tomenko, the head of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee for Freedom of Speech and Information, sent a statement on 28 July to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych informing him of events during the election campaign that do not comply with official regulations of the presidential election campaign and violate freedom of speech, Interfax reported. Tomenko said that Yanukovych's government and regional authorities exert pressure on the media, which is trying to remain independent of the government. He cited the example of the Donetsk-based "Ostriv" newspaper, which 15 publishing houses have refused to print. According to Tomenko, in the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions "there are negotiations" with cable operators to remove Channel 5 from cable networks. Tomenko intends to conduct a session for members of the Central Election Commission regarding the rules of media participation in the election campaign. AM

EU CALLS ON MEDIATORS TO EXERT PRESSURE ON TIRASPOL. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told President Voronin in a telephone conversation on 28 July that the three mediators in the Transdniester conflict (Russia, Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) must exert pressure on Tiraspol and take steps to ensure that it never again take arbitrary measures, Infotag reported. Solana said the EU is seriously concerned about the problem of Moldovan schools in Transdniester being closed and intends to do everything to break the deadlock. MS

...AS CHORNOBYL SURVIVORS ARE DIVIDED OVER HOW TO FIGHT GOVERNMENT PLANS. Meanwhile, Vyacheslav Grishin, president of the Chornobyl Russia Union, has called on members of his organization not to participate in protests against the benefits-reform legislation, gazeta.ru reported on 28 July. According to the news website, Chornobyl survivors stand to lose housing privileges, free access to public transportation, privileges in obtaining land-line telephone hook-ups, and subsidized medicine, among other things. Grishin told the website that Pension Fund head Mikhail Zurabov and State Duma Deputy Andrei Isaev (Unified Russia) are preparing amendments to the benefits legislation that would improve the situation of Chornobyl survivors. "We have a real chance to sit at the negotiating table and see for ourselves if this is so," he said. He also argued that his organization is not a political one and does not want to be used by a political party. These arguments aside, many members of the organization, according to gazeta.ru, consider Grishin a traitor. The head of the Moscow Oblast branch of the union, Valentin Kitaev, said that there can be no compromises, and that members of the union from Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Tula, and Rostov oblasts and representatives from St. Petersburg will participate in a protest in Moscow on 29 July. In Pskov Oblast, the head of the local Chornobyl group, Mikhail Koshurnikov, said his group supports the protest but cannot afford to come to Moscow, regions.ru reported. JAC

AZERBAIJANI ANALYST: HAS UKRAINE DEALT THE DEATH BLOW TO GUUAM? In an article published on 28 July in the online daily zerkalo.az, an analyst identified only as F. Asim suggests that the recent revision of Ukraine's official military doctrine to excise a previous reference to that country's aspiration to membership of NATO and the EU as cornerstones of European security constitutes if not a death blow, then a further nail in the coffin of the GUUAM alignment (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 and 28 July 2004). That group, formally established in the fall of 1997, originally comprised Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, and was known as GUAM (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 December 1997). Uzbekistan acceded to membership in April 1999, making it GUUAM, but announced three years later the "suspension" of its membership (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 April 1999 and 26 June 2002). Conceived as an unequivocally pro-Western counterweight to the CIS, GU(U)AM was intended to promote mutual trade, the export circumventing Russia of Azerbaijan's Caspian hydrocarbons, and possibly also defense cooperation centered on protecting the export pipelines for that oil and gas. Asim interpreted Ukraine's recent decision to use the Odessa-Brody pipeline to export Russian, rather than Azerbaijani oil as a further sign of Ukraine's loss of interest in GU(U)AM. Asim also noted that Moldova too has cooled toward GU(U)AM. GU(U)AM's most recent planned summit, scheduled for June 2004, was postponed indefinitely (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 June 2004). LF

FOUR TURKIC STATES SIGN ANTITERRORISM ACCORD IN KAZAKH CAPITAL. The security services of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey signed an accord in Astana on 28 July to conduct joint antiterrorism operations, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. "Our plan is to proceed from regular information exchange to more specific first-hand investigative activities, including joint operations," said Nartai Dutbaev, chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB). According to a KNB press release, joint efforts will focus on combating terrorism, extremism, organized crime, and illegal migration. "Dialogue at the meeting was very positive," "Kazakhstan Today" quoted Dutbaev as saying. "We achieved mutual understanding on all questions." Representatives of Russia's Federal Security Service and Ukraine's Security Service attended the meeting as observers. The meeting was the seventh of its kind. An eighth meeting is slated to be held in Kyrgyzstan in 2005. DK