FLIGHT FROM AVIATION ORGANIZATION.

Countries are beginning to take flight from the Interstate Aviation Conference (MAK), the CIS regulatory agency for civil aviation. Moldova did so yesterday, in a move bound to encourage others. Armenia and Ukraine look set to follow suit. These countries have chosen to join the European Conference of Civil Aviation and its specialized bodies, which regulate that sector in accordance with the standards of the European Union (EU) and assist non-EU countries in introducing those standards.

The General Director of Moldova’s State Administration for Civil Aviation, Victor Topa, predicted yesterday that most CIS countries will, sooner rather than later and in their own commercial interest, adopt the European Union’s standards of flight control and security. CIS standards administered by MAK are distinctly lower, Topa observed, and the CIS countries interested in European integration “can not afford to follow two different sets of standards.” MAK was founded in December 1991 at the birth of the CIS. Countries abandoning MAK may retain a pro forma status as observers (Flux, Basapress, Infotag, May 11).

ALTERNATIVE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ON COURSE.