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
WORLD'S FIRST FLOATING POWER STATION TO BE BUILT. Officials of the state-owned Rosenergoatom consortium signed an agreement on June 14 with the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk to build the world's first floating nuclear power plant to provide energy to remote areas, Western news agencies reported. It is expected to cost $336 million and be completed in 2010. Sergei Obozov, who is acting head of Rosenergoatom, said that Russia may in the future set up as many as six power stations at sea, with plans already in the works for the regions of Chukotka, Kamchatka, Krasnoyarsk, and Sakha (formerly known as Yakutia). Sergei Kiriyenko, who heads the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, stressed that the plants will be safe, saying that "there will be no floating Chernobyl.... [The plant] will be as reliable as the world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifle." Some Western experts believe, however, that a floating nuclear power plant would be inherently dangerous because it could sink or be involved in an accident when being towed from one site to another. PM
WILL UKRAINE SEE CREATION OF A RULING COALITION NEXT WEEK? Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions held consultations on June 14 regarding the creation of a "broad coalition," the "Ukrayinska pravda" website (http://www.pravda.com.ua) reported, quoting lawmaker Yevhen Kushnyarov from the Party of Regions. "We have come to the understanding that it is necessary to relegate mutual grievances to the background and formulate what unites us," Kushnyarov said. According to Kushnyarov, the Party of Regions and Our Ukraine differ on Ukraine's cooperation with NATO and participation in the Single Economic Space with Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, as well as on the status of the Russian language and the issue of federalism in Ukraine. "If the talks continue in this format and with this intensity, we will sign a coalition accord by the end of Monday [June 19]," Kushnyarov predicted. Earlier this week, Our Ukraine admitted that its coalition talks with the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) had reached an impasse, and appealed to all parliamentary forces to begin negotiations on the formation of a broader coalition (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 14, 2006). The ByuT and the SPU have formally not dropped out of the coalition talks, but they previously announced that they will not join a coalition with participation of the Party of Regions. JM
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS SESSION ONCE AGAIN. The parliamentary caucuses of Our Ukraine and the Party of Regions on June 15 voted in unison to postpone the session until June 20, by which time they expect to clarify which forces may form a ruling coalition in Ukraine, Ukrainian media reported. Earlier the same day, lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to approve a list of parliamentary committees that are to be set up in the Verkhovna Rada elected on March 26. JM