CONSTITUTION HAILED BY (ALMOST) EVERYONE.

The document adopted June 28 incorporates parliament’s changes and is viewed by both parliament and president as an acceptable compromise. (Segodnya, July 2) Only the Ukrainian Communist party has dissented, calling the legislation "anti-people." It provides for the single-chamber legislature that parliament itself wanted — not the bicameral body favored by Kuchma — and gives parliament a say it did not have before in approving the president’s choice of prime minister. It guarantees the president’s power to issue decrees — though only for three years — and gives the president the right to hire and fire local administrators that Kuchma says he needs to pursue his economic reforms. Ukrainian has the status of sole state language but the right of national minorities to use and be educated in their own languages is guaranteed. The recognition of the right of Ukraine’s only autonomous republic, Crimea, to its own constitution has been greeted with satisfaction by local leaders. (Interfax-Ukraine, July 1)

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