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UKRAINIAN PREMIER TO VISIT MOSCOW. Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk told journalists in Kyiv on August 8 that newly appointed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych will visit Moscow this month to meet with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Fradkov, at a session of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Speaking later the same day on television, Tarasyuk said Yanukovych's talks in Moscow, among other topics, will include the price of gas imported by Ukraine from Russia. Tarasyuk also revealed that Yanukovych is planning to visit Brussels in mid-September to discuss Ukraine-NATO cooperation. JM
UKRAINIAN PEOPLE'S PARTY SEES NEW GOVERNMENT AS REVENGE... The Ukrainian People's Party (UNP) has called on all "patriotic" and "state-supporting" forces to unite in the face of what the party perceives as a danger arising from the recent installation of Prime Minister Yanukovych's government, UNIAN reported on August 8. "The government formed by the Verkhovna Rada is an overt act of revenge by those political forces that were removed from power by the Orange Maydan," the UNP said in a statement. "The declaration of national unity, which was drafted with allegedly good intentions, has no legal status and is only a declarative document that was utilized by the anti-Ukrainian forces led by Yanukovych, the Communists, and the Socialists to come to power." The UNP stressed that it sees "an urgent need to form a national-democratic front in order to defend the state and achievements of national democracy." JM
...WHILE LEFTIST PARTY BRANDS IT AS 'BETRAYAL OF ORTHODOX-SLAVIC CIVILIZATION.' Nataliya Vitrenko, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, told journalists in Kyiv on August 8 that the declaration of national unity signed last week has obliged its signatories to implement the pro-NATO and pro-Western political course of President Viktor Yushchenko, UNIAN reported. Vitrenko said the signed document is tantamount to "an act of betrayal of the Orthodox-Slavic civilization." According to Vitrenko, even though the declaration of national unity is an unconstitutional document, it has "tied the hands" of the Party of Regions, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party, which now must do what President Yushchenko wants them to do. Vitrenko added that by signing this document, the Party of Regions, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party have betrayed their electorates. JM