Presidential secretariat, Regions Party planning to neutralize government, dissolve parliament, says Lutsenko

The secretariat of the Ukrainian president, along with the Regions Party, "has a plan" to dismiss any three ministers and dissolve the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said on the Fifth television channel, UKRINFORM reported.

He said that according to the law, if the government does not have two thirds of ministers, it would be declared unable to function, while the parliament would be dissolved.

In this connection, Lutsenko suggested that the coalition would take decisions not only on the dismissal of ministers, but also on the appointment of new ones.

On June 23, the parliament passed a resolution on dismissing Yosyp Vinsky as transport and communications minister under a submission from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Regions Party deputy leader Oleksandr Yefremov said that the parliament had also registered six bills on the dismissal of Justice Minister Mykola Onishchuk, Education and Science Minister Ivan Vakarchuk, Culture and Tourism Minister Vasyl Vovkun, Industry Minister Volodymyr Novytsky, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, and Health Minister Vasyl Kniazevych.

Source: Ukrinform

Two crocodiles appeared in Odessa

Local fishermen found 3 metres crocodile in the pond near premises of Lukoil-Odesskiy oil refinery plant OJSC.

Having found exotic inhabitants of the pond, rescuers of the city Emergency Situation Department went there immediately. Some time later divers confirmed that crocodiles appeared in the pond in the northwestern suburb of the city.

Deputy chairman of the city department on emergency situations Victor Oliynyk said to UNIAN that “ some fans of exotic living creatures released crocodiles to the pond. One of the crocodiles is near 3 metres and the second one is one metre and a half. Taking into consideration a danger to lives of fishermen, rescuers established an indicator plate, where it is said about crocodiles and the police post is near the pond.

At the same time rescuers of the Emergency Ministry keep trying to catch dangerous reptiles.

Source: Unian

European Union trade chief rejects Russia accusation on WTO bid

PARIS - The European Union's trade chief rejects Russian accusations that Brussels is to blame for Moscow's failed unilateral bid to join the World Trade Organisation, her spokesman said on Wednesday.

Lutz Guellner, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton, was responding to comments by Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov on Tuesday that the EU and the United States were to blame for Moscow's decision to ditch unilateral talks for a joint bid with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

"No, we reject this claim. We have been facilitating this process. We have been helpful and very supportive of Russia's bid," Guellner said.

Russia, the biggest economy outside the 153-member global trade watchdog, is now negotiating entry with its former Soviet neighbours as part of a proposed new customs union.

The move, announced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, came just days after Russian officials had held talks with U.S. and EU trade representatives.

Ashton and United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk will hold bilateral talks with Russian Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina on the sidelines of an OECD meeting on Thursday in Paris.

Source: Reuters

Author of draft law on the bankruptcy of individuals expects that draft will be discussed at the present parliamentary session

MP Valeriy Pysarenko from the BYT party forecasts that the draft law on the bankruptcy of individuals (No. 4,273), which he drew up, will be discussed by the end of the current parliamentary session.

"I don't have co-authors in this issue, but there are supporters of the idea. I have the feeling that if not at the end of this session, at the start of the next session we will approve the draft," he said at a roundtable on legal instruments for combating the crisis in the consumer crediting market held at Interfax-Ukraine last week.

The MP said that the draft is his personal initiative, and at present he is in communication with the heads of parliament's factions to put the draft up for voting at the current session. Pysarenko said that the Communist faction did not support the draft.

The roundtable participants discussed the requirement in Pysarenko's draft banning individuals from running economic activities for five years after being declared bankrupt.

"Maybe it's not worth banning people from activities that could bring in additional income to their families, but we should seriously think of the responsibilities that citizens will have after they are declared bankrupt," said the board chairman of Kharkiv-based UkrSibbank, Serhiy Naumov.

He said that it would be expedient to tackle the issue with other means, for example, banning such persons from going abroad.

A lawyer of Volkov Koziakov and Partners law firm, Lesia Kovtun, also said that it is inexpedient to restrict the business activities of individuals, as it would be not in line with the constitution, and moreover, the banks would loose potential clients.

She also said that the draft should regulate crediting issues in full, starting from the moment of the registration of credits to the moment when individuals become borrowers and later are declared bankrupt.

"Creditors should understand all of the risks linked with the issue of credits, thoroughly check borrowers and not try to put them on a financial hook to bleed them dry later," said Roman Khrustenko, a lawyer and managing partner of the Ol&Rust Law Firm.

In turn, director general of Fortum Debt Management Company, Yevhen Prokopenko, said that it is necessary to stipulate in the law the responsibility of creditors to maintain the greatest transparency in the explanation of conditions for receiving of credits and create a mechanism by which borrowers can make responsible decisions regarding the taking of credits.

In addition, he said that it is necessary to foresee the long-term prospects for credit relations and bankruptcy procedures to settle relations between creditors and borrowers in the future, and foresee the preventive explanation work with potential debtors.

As reported, the draft law amending some Ukrainian laws regarding the bankruptcy of individuals was registered in the parliament in March 2009.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine

Yushchenko calls for lowering of political influence on gas transit issue

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has stated that the government needs a clear and understandable transit policy, built on market relations in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Wednesday, his press service has reported.

Yushchenko once again said that Ukraine is still a stable transporter, but it needs to use market economy principles in this sector, and have a clear plan for its transit policy.

"Transit policy for us is a fundamental national interest… We wish Europe had enough will to solve the transit policies issue according to the principles of market economic. [This would] minimize the influence of politics on this issue," the president said.

Yushchenko said that the Russian gas transit tariffs in Ukraine are the lowest in Europe, but Ukraine still has to pay enormous gas supply fees.

He added that gas transit policy should not be viewed as a bilateral issue, because it is one of the components of the European market.

Yushchenko also said that some Russian officials find it hard to accept that Ukraine is an independent state. Therefore, they use all possible ways to discredit Ukraine in the global arena.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine

Ukraine to expel Russian security agents from base

A senior security official says Ukraine will expel Russian security agents from the tense Black Sea naval base that Russia is renting from Ukraine.

National security agency head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said that 19 Russian agents stationed at the Crimean port of Sevastopol will have to leave the country in December. In remarks confirmed by his press service Wednesday, he said the agents are engaged in counterintelligence activity and that Ukraine is capable of guaranteeing security at the base on its own.

The move is part of a struggle between Ukraine and Russia over the Sevastopol base where Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been stationed since czarist times.

Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and says it will evict the Russian forces when the current lease runs out in 2017.

Source: Associated Press

Poll: More punitive measures should be used against officials in order to fight corruption

Ukrainians believe that to fight corruption, more punitive measures, including dismissing officials from their posts and applying harsher sentences, should be used.

This is according to the results of a poll conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Fund, which were announced by the head of the fund, Iryna Bekeshkyna, at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to Bekeshkyna, the Ukrainian people have become used over the last few years to the expansion of corruption and consider it a common event (83% of respondents). Some 82% of those interviewed said that state officials are primarily responsible for corruption. Some 79% of respondents said they were sure that stricter penalties against officials for corruption would cut the level of graft in the country.

At the same time, Bekeshkyna noted that the number of those who believe it necessary to offer bribes to solve the majority of issues with the authorities has fallen compared to 2003 (72% of respondents in 2003 to 54% in 2009).

The results of the poll showed that 28% of respondents have been forced to give bribes recently. Ukrainians give bribes most often in medical institutions (17%), educational establishments (7%), to traffic police officers (6%) and the police (2%).

Harsher punitive measures are seen by the Ukrainians as the main weapon against corruption. In particular, some 56% of respondents said officials guilty of corruption should be prohibited from working in state jobs. Some 50% of respondents said it was necessary to impose stricter penalties on corrupt officials.

The poll was conducted in March 2009 by the Democratic Initiatives Fund and the Ukrainian Sociology Service. A total of 1,800 respondents were interviewed for the poll in all the regions of Ukraine and in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine