Word: kiev
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Gloom descended as leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States ended their summit meeting in Kiev last week without managing to defuse a situation that threatens the already fragile structure of the nascent organization: the growing rancor between Russia and Ukraine...
Their relations deteriorated two weeks ago when Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk announced that he was halting the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons to Russia. Kiev had pledged to hand over all such weapons by July, but so far, only around half of the roughly 2,500 tactical weapons have been shipped. In Moscow, Boris Yeltsin retaliated by creating his own defense ministry, the essential precursor to a separate Russian army. Ukraine then refused to take any part in a unified command structure. A proposal to set up a group of military observers to help resolve ethnic conflicts was rejected...
...Soviet invasion. Now he is urging patience on the part of everyone -- Ukrainians, Russians and outsiders. "An enlightened and balanced championship of both Russian and Ukrainian interests," he says, "is the only weapon against Zhirinovsky and the extreme nationalists." Translation: if Yeltsin yields too much, too fast to Kiev, he will be swept away by a coalition of demagogues bent on exploiting the hardships of the citizenry and die-hard believers in the old union. To be peaceful, a divorce between Kiev and Moscow will have to be gradual...
Harkin enters the ballroom to the cheers ofunion members and the flashes of pocket cameras,shakes hands, waves, sits down to dinner. Theunion leader goes to the podium and starts theintroduction just as the Chicken Kiev is beingserved. This is bad timing, because Harkin willstart speaking to the clinking of silverware,people will stop eating out of politeness, and thechicken and potatoes will grow cold and be leftuneaten...
...local time catches up. Trains headed for Russia depart one hour behind Moscow's clock and are expected to make up the difference upon crossing the border -- presumably by burning up the rails. Airliners traveling to Ukraine are reported to be arriving an hour before air-traffic controllers in Kiev expect them. There is little hope for relief until all the republics switch to daylight saving time next March...