TURKMEN-RUSSIAN GAS COMPANY DOOMED BY UKRAINE’S INSOLVENCY.

Turkmen president Saparmurad Niazov has decreed the liquidation of the Russian-Turkmen joint company Turkmenrosgaz. The company had been created in January 1996 to handle Turkmen gas exports to Ukraine via the Russian pipeline system. Ukraine owes Turkmenistan more than $300 million for gas delivered during this period. (Russian agencies, June 24) The Ukrainian ambassador told an Ashgabat briefing yesterday that Kyiv supports direct Turkmen-Ukrainian accounting and settlement of payments, eliminating intermediaries. (Russian agencies, Ukrinform, June 24-25)

Patriarch Condemns Foreign Missionaries.