Russia, Ukraine tighten ties with aviation, power-grid deals | Moscow looks to keep ally in fold

The San Diego Union - Tribune; San Diego, Calif.; Feb 13, 2001; Patrick E. Tyler;

Abstract

KIEV, Ukraine -- The presidents of Russia and Ukraine signed a series of agreements yesterday to expand their cooperation in the civilian space and aviation fields in a meeting that reaffirmed the political and industrial ties between the two former Soviet republics.

Though the meeting was long planned, the moment was meaningful for both Vladimir Putin of Russia and Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine. Kuchma faces a rising domestic political revolt over the disappearance of a muckraking journalist and the release of recordings suggesting the president may have been involved in ordering the journalist's abduction.

And Putin has been pursuing strategies to rebuild Russia's military-industrial sector by connecting it with traditional Soviet markets in India, China and the Middle East while also reconnecting and strengthening the industrial network of suppliers, factories and design bureaus disrupted by the Soviet collapse a decade ago.

Moscow hopes that a new commonality in space and aviation with Ukraine might slow the pace of Ukraine's strategic alignment with the United States and NATO, where it has joined a "partnership for peace" program.

Meeting in the southeastern city of Dnepropetrovsk, where Kuchma once ran the country's largest enterprise for constructing Soviet- era nuclear missiles, the two presidents agreed to reconnect their countries' electric power grids in a move that experts said would further integrate the energy markets of Russia and Ukraine.

The two leaders also pledged to develop the Antonov-70 airliner for the commercial market as "the most promising, top-priority program in cooperation between Ukraine and Russia in the field of aircraft construction," a joint statement said.

The United States has taken a keen interest in Putin's recent overtures to step up cooperation with Ukraine's heavy industries, many of which were once dedicated to weapons manufacture.

U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual said recently that he had asked members of Kuchma's government about rumors that Russia and Ukraine were going to jointly manufacture intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Pascual said that Oleksandr Marchuk, secretary of Ukraine's national security council, told him that "it is absolutely not so" that Moscow and Kiev would cooperate in military missile construction as such cooperation would violate "Ukraine's international obligations."

Speaking this month in an interview with a Ukrainian newspaper, Pascual also suggested that Ukraine should not allow Russian investors to dominate the bidding for Ukrainian heavy industries that are sold in privatizations.

On Sunday, as many as 5,000 demonstrators occupied the central square in Kiev chanting "Kuchma out" and calling for early presidential elections over a scandal that has turned much of parliament against the president, alarmed Ukraine's Western supporters and threatened a prolonged political stalemate.

Credit: NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE