[08.08.03]

Events from August 2 to 8, 2003

President George Bush sent a personal letter to President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma in which he highly appreciated and expressed gratitude for Ukraine's contribution to establishment of peace and stability in Iraq.

G. Bush also expressed belief that the deployment in Iraq of the battalion of radiation, biological and chemical defense and subsequent deployment of the Ukrainian brigade in Iraq would become an important contribution to the stabilization processes in that country.

The U.S. President confirmed invariability of the U.S. support for Ukraine on the track of integration into European and Euroatlantic structures.

He welcomed recent steps undertaken by the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland (Leonid Kuchma and Alexander Kwasniewski) aimed at achieving historical reconciliation between the two nations. George Bush believes that this is how the heads of two states "bring closer the formation of a free, peaceful and indivisible Europe".

The White House host also confirmed his readiness to promote the strengthening of Ukraine as a democratic state, which plays an important role on the European continent.

The first group of the Ukrainian peace-keeping contingent set out to Kuwait from the Kiev airport Boryspil on August 7. The whole contingent will be flown to Kuwait by August 10. The Ukrainian peacemakers will adapt themselves to local conditions in Kuwait and one expects they will start their service in Iraq on September 1.

In connections with shortcomings in training Ukrainian peacekeepers logistics chief of the Rear of Ukrainian Armed Forces Viktor Kolotov and armaments chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Stetsenko were fired.

Head of the National Bank of Ukraine Serhyi Tyhypko late in July conducted negotiations with the IMF. At the outcome of the negotiations it was reported that the IMF Board of Directors may consider the resumption of cooperation with Ukraine within the framework of "the advanced stand-by program" in October this year, while earlier it was planned for August 25.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Yanukovich visited Russia (August 1) and Kazakhstan (August 4). Agreements were achieved on grain deliveries to Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the grain would be supplied "under conditions maximally acceptable for Ukraine".

The World Congress of Jehovah's Witnesses is held in Kiev and other cities of Ukraine from August 7 to 10. Some 72,000 delegates have been invited to take part in it.

The CATO Institute and the Canadian Frazer Institute published the economic freedom rating for a number of countries. Ukraine ranked 117th in this rating or the 7th place from the end.

At the same time one must note that the rating was far from including into it all the countries. In particular, out of 12 countries, the CIS members (ex-Soviet republics) the rating encompassed only Russia and Ukraine.

Peace Corps director Guddy Vasces will visit Ukraine on August 7-10.

Gongadze's case

The investigation of the Gongadze's case has taken a new turn. According to a letter, left in a prison by a person under investigation in this case, an initial plan was to kill another journalist rather than Gongadze. However, this journalist, whose name was not cited, to secure himself had hidden a compromising material in a safe place and after that the killers decided to get round on somebody else, namely Gongadze. Later journalist Oleg Jel’cov said that he was the " another journalist".

The opposition media actively disseminates this version. We have to note: if we assume it is truthful - then it is obvious from it that president Kuchma could not master-mind Gongadze's murder and undoubtedly it was a provocation to damage his reputation. Otherwise it is impossible to explain why it was all the same for the killers whom to kill. But then, we have to make a reservation: the version integrity and the letter itself are very doubtful.

Lawyer of Ukraine's ex-prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko Harold Rozental demanded that the U.S. Justice Department give the defense those fragments of the so-called "Melnichenko's tapes", which were ostensibly handed over to the U.S. government. However, as was reported the U.S. prosecutors in their answer to the defense's request denied the fact of the tapes' existence. The prosecutor did not confirm either Mykola Melnichenko's statements about illegal sales of Kolchuga radar systems to Iraq.

The story is very mysterious and it could be explained in a dual way. Either there are tapes, but their publications will cause problems for the U.S. president or the tapes do not exist at all and the persons involved in "the radar scandal" lied. We want to remind that "Melnichenko's tapes" provided materials for numerous accusation of Ukrainian high-ranking officials, first of all, an accusation that Kuchma and others were involved in Gongadze's murder, which to date has been corroborated by anything, but the "tapes".

Ukraine overcomes consequences of a bad harvest

The situation about harvesting grain crops in Ukraine remains very serious. The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center not so long ago lowered its prediction as to grain production down by 12-22% or by 2-5 million tons and now it forecasts that the grain harvest will not total more than 18-20 million tons.

This result, the worst over many decades, is determined by extremely severe weather conditions (frosts were replaced by catastrophic drought, while heavy rains during harvesting substantially prolonged the harvesting period).

By August 5, 2005 only some 8 million tons of grain was harvested (which is almost four times less that by the relevant period last year), the average yield equals only 14.5 hundredweight per hectare.

Nevertheless, the majority of Ukrainian experts express an opinion that there are no serious food threats for Ukraine in the current or the forthcoming years.

Some shortage of food grain will be replenished by import. An import agreement under very favorable conditions of a tied credit for Ukraine was concluded with Russia. Wide-scale purchases of grain will also be made in Kazakhstan.

Purchases of small grain shipments in the U.S. and some European countries are also being considered.

The problem is aggravated by the fact that the Ukrainian government is doing its best to hold prices for bread and other bakery products in check (the task is set to return the prices to the level, which existed before the price jump). This is motivated, first of all, by the necessity of protecting the poorest stratum of the population.

Based on these considerations the regional governors have been given right to regulate prices on grain and other staples.

This measure, as a range of other government actions (in particular, attempts to stiffen control over grain imports and to administratively determine traders importing grain), are sharply criticized by many experts as incompatible with the market requirements.

In one of his last addresses for Ukrainian media U.S. ex-ambassador C.Pascual said that similar actions may complicate the granting to Ukraine of the status of a country with market economy and its accession to the WTO.

No doubt, the criticism of the extraordinary administrative measures of the Ukrainian government in great measure is justified.

Nevertheless, here we deal with very interim extraordinary administrative measures of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian government policy by no means is reduced to it.

On the whole, market approaches (first of all, stimulation of grain imports) play immeasurably much greater role and they lie behind the measures to overcome aftermath of the bad harvest.