PUSTOVOYTENKO SAYS CABINET DEALT WITH CRISIS 'PROFESSIONALLY'... Ukrainian Prime Minister Valeriy Pustovoytenko delivered to the Supreme Council on 13 October a report on his government's activities during the first nine months of this year, Ukrainian Television reported. He said that the cabinet "professionally" overcame "the first wave" of the financial crisis but admitted that "stabilization processes" in Ukraine have not acquired an "irreversible character." Pustovoytenko stressed that the government's main task is to tackle social problems, including the indexation of incomes, increasing the minimum wage, and paying wage arrears. He acknowledged that the government has been unable to prevent the volume of unpaid wages and social benefits from increasing. As of 1 October, the state budget owed 3.2 billion hryvni ($935 million) in back wages. JM

...APPEALS TO PARLIAMENT TO ADOPT REALISTIC 1999 BUDGET. Pustovoytenko also said that the 1999 budget draft may be Ukraine's last chance to overcome "financial instability," Reuters reported. The cabinet is currently working on that document. "The budget must not be based on emotion and simple wishes, but on financial reality," the agency quoted him as saying. He warned that "an unrealistic budget with an unreasonable deficit" may lead to a full-blown financial crisis. The government is expected to draft a budget that provides for a deficit of 0.6 percent of GDP. JM

UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT SURVIVES VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE. Following Pustovoytenko's report, the Supreme Council voted on a motion of no confidence in the government, proposed by the Communist, Socialist, and Hromada caucuses (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 October 1998). The motion, which need 226 votes to pass, was supported by 203 deputies with 108 against and 66 abstentions, Interfax reported on 13 October. Parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko commented that changing the government will not improve the current situation. "Governments change, while people live worse and worse," Ukrainian News quoted him as saying. Pustovoytenko's cabinet is Ukraine's seventh government since the country gained independence in 1991. JM

...BUT REIMPOSE VISAS ON EASTERN COUNTRIES. After a Moldovan Airlines plane carrying more than 100 illegal aliens landed in Prague on 12 October, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman said that the Czech Republic may reinstate visa requirements for Moldovans and some other east European nationals, CTK reported. Moldovan government spokesman Stefan Culea said the refugees are Soviet veterans of war in Afghanistan. Culea said some are Moldovan and the rest mostly Russians and Ukrainians. They requested asylum and were taken to a refugee camp in Moravia. The Czech Interior Ministry said it is preparing a list of countries that may have a visa regime imposed on them in the near future. PB