Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said the rumor that he intends to run for a third presidential term is “absolute rubbish.” This is hov the chief executive commented on statements from Yuliya Tymoshenko and Yabluko Bloc leaders claiming that pro-presidential forces are going to join forces in the parliament and push through a Constitutional amendment which would allow the incumbent a third term. Addressing a regional media seminar in Kyiv on March 14, the president also said he intended to send a message to the newly-elected Verkhovna Rada before it forms its governing bodies, Interfax-Ukraine reports. He said he would offer parliament a Conceptual Strategic Principles of Ukraine’s Socioeconomic Development for 2002-2011: The European Choice. According to the chief executive, this document will contain “as a basic principle” an appeal to form a viable and stable parliamentary majority which, together with the head of state and Cabinet of Ministers, must assume responsibility for what is happening in the country. Solving human social problem should be the main principle of cooperation between the three branches of government, he believes. Pres. Kuchma is convinced that a stable and viable majority will be formed in the parliament.
In addition, the president said, the message will deal with the results of this country’s economic development in 2001: “There is every reason to claim that 2001 is the year when Ukraine finally opted for the investment-type model of development.”
Answering other questions of journalists, the president also noted that he considers the opinion of the State Committee for Religions about the registration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate as final and called on all to refrain from speculating on interfaith peace in this country.
As reported earlier, the Prosecutor General’s Office has protested the 1992 decision of the Cabinet of Ministers Committee on Religious Affairs to register the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP). The Prosecutor General’s Office lodged this protest with the committee on the basis of a parliamentary query in which 65 deputies suggested that a lawsuit be brought against UOC KP leaders for misappropriating the funds and property of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (as the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, awarded parish churches and other property taken from banned denominations in the Stalin period, it was renamed after independence – Ed.). In a May 13 interview with Interfax- Ukraine, Mykola Malomuzh, deputy chairman of the State Committee on Religions, said that the committee had discussed and turned down the Prosecutor General’s Office protest. Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Bahanets, who had signed the protest, said in turn that the state committee’s decision could be appealed in court.
