KUCHMA AGAINST CIS MILITARY BLOC.

In a Kiev press interview, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma said that in the absence of and external threat, there was no need to create a CIS military bloc. Kuchma characterized criticism of this position as "legally unfounded." Ukraine, he stressed, has been established by its parliament as a neutral and non-bloc country. (6)

Kuchma was evidently responding to attacks from Moscow on Kiev’s clear opposition to Boris Yeltsin’s August 9 and September 14 calls for the establishment of a CIS military bloc, and to Ukraine’s resistance to Russian security initiatives which was manifest at the CIS foreign ministers’ meeting earlier this month.

Kozyrev, Udovenko Review Differences, Find One New Consensus Issue.