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...AS MEDIA SPECULATE ON PERCEIVED MOSCOW-WARSAW RIVALRY. An NTV newscaster said in the context of the Kwasniewski-Putin conversation on 12 August that "the score is 3:3 and it is time to finish," going on to suggest that both sides should drop what he called a "tit-for-tat" approach. The grani.ru website claimed the same day that President Putin has harbored negative feelings about Poland and Kwasniewski since last winter, when the Polish president actively encouraged Ukraine's Orange Revolution. "Putin during those days played the role of a jester, constantly congratulating the defeated Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych on his 'glorious victory,'" grani.ru argued, adding that Putin has not forgotten the humiliation and uses any opportunity to avenge himself on Poland. Putin neglected to mention Poles among the victors over Nazism during a recent ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, grani.ru noted. VY

LUZHKOV PLANS YOUTH-ORIENTED TV NETWORK. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov has decided to create a youth-oriented cable-television network, "Kommersant-Daily" reported on 15 August. A working group within the city government has been developing plans for the station since late June. By the end of October, they are supposed to have a detailed plan ready so that the Young Moscow network can begin broadcasting in January 2006. The network would include entertainment and music programming as well as news. According to "Kommersant-Daily," the network is part of a broad "youth campaign" conceived by Luzhkov following the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. The mayor recently allocated 3 million rubles ($106,000) from the city budget to establish Civic Transition, a patriotic movement for students (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 August 2005). "Kommersant-Daily" said it has obtained a draft program on working with young people that the Moscow government will discuss in September. "The participation of young students in the colored revolutions of Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan attests to the fact that lack of attention to youth and the student population on the part of the authorities was used by destructive forces with the goal of disrupting the public peace and order," the paper quotes the program as saying. LB

GEORGIAN, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTS PROPOSE DEMOCRACY SUMMIT. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko arrived in Tbilisi on 12 August for an unofficial three-day visit, Georgian media reported. Visiting the resort region of Borzhomi the same day, Yushchenko and his Georgian host and counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili signed a declaration advocating the creation of a "commonwealth of democracies of the Baltic, Black Sea, and Caspian regions" with the aim of putting an end to human rights violations and unresolved conflicts across the region and ushering in "a new era of democracy, security, stability, and peace throughout Europe, from the Atlantic to the Caspian." The two presidents told journalists they hope the new body can be formally inaugurated at a conference in Ukraine later this fall to which the United States, Russia, and EU member states would be invited as guests. Some Russian newspapers, including "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 15 August, construed the two presidents' proposal as an attempt to undermine the Commonwealth of Independent States. But Yushchenko stressed on 12 August that both Ukraine and Georgia seek to establish "a dialogue and honest relations" with Russia, however difficult that might prove to be, Caucasus Press reported. LF

KYIV SLAMS REPORTED RUSSIAN EROTIC-FILM PROJECT AS 'PROVOCATION.' Ukrainian Deputy State Secretary Markiyan Lubkivskyy told journalists in Kyiv on 12 August that the production of a Russian film about a hypothetical love affair between Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is a "provocation," RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and dpa reported. According to Russian media, Russian parliamentarian Aleksei Mitrofanov, a member for the Liberal Democrat Party of Russia, is financing the project and wrote most of the script for the film "Yuliya." It is reportedly not clear whether the film, once completed, will be erotic or pornographic in nature. "I think that this shooting, or the film, in no way pertains to our relations with the Russian Federation," Lubkivskyy said. "The idea to shoot such a film is a clear provocation." JM