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
UKRAINE SAID TO IMPORT SOLELY CENTRAL ASIAN GAS IN 2007. Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko told journalists in Kyiv on October 6 that Ukraine will not import Russian gas for domestic consumption next year, Ukrainian media reported. Boyko specified that Ukraine in 2007 will receive at least 57.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan through the Swiss-based Russian-Ukrainian joint venture RosUkrEnergo. Two days earlier Boyko announced that Ukraine has signed contracts on buying 42 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas, 7 billion cubic meters of Uzbek gas, and 8.5 billion cubic meters of Kazakh gas in 2007 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 4, 2006). JM
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT APPOINTS TOP NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIAL. President Viktor Yushchenko has appointed Vitaliy Hayduk as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (RNBO), UNIAN reported on October 10. Hayduk, 49, was deputy prime minister for the fuel and energy sector in Viktor Yanukovych's cabinet in 2002-03. Last month Yushchenko issued a decree on the makeup of the RNBO, which is a constitutional body for coordinating and monitoring the activities of executive bodies in the sphere of national security and defense (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 12, 2006). JM
OUR UKRAINE URGES PRESIDENT TO KICK OUT ADVISER. The pro-presidential Our Ukraine party has appealed to President Yushchenko to cancel his recent decree appointing Oleksandr Zinchenko as presidential adviser, UNIAN reported on October 10. "Oleksandr Zinchenko, while holding the post of state secretary [in 2005], disseminated dirty and ungrounded allegations, including with regard to members of our party. In the final analysis, [those allegations] created an artificial crisis in Ukraine, split the Orange [Revolution] camp, delivered a painful blow to the international image of the state, and affected the results of the parliamentary elections in 2006," Our Ukraine said in a statement. Zinchenko stepped down on September 2, 2005, from the post of head of the presidential staff, accusing then National Security and Defense Council Secretary Petro Poroshenko as well as several other presidential aides of corruption. Zinchenko's allegations, which have not been confirmed in court, triggered the dismissal of Yuliya Tymoshenko's cabinet by President Yushchenko. JM