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ILLARIONOV BLAMES GOVERNMENT POLICY FOR RUSSIA'S LOW RATE OF GROWTH. Presidential economics adviser Andrei Illarionov said on 13 November that Russia has one of the lowest rates of GDP growth in the Commonwealth of Independence States, Interfax reported. He attributed that trend to government policies. Russian growth, Illarionov said, reflects higher prices for natural resources rather than good economic planning, in sharp contrast to Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said the same day that the government has approved a new draft bankruptcy law that will bring Russian legislation into line with international standards and promote growth, the news service said. PG

PUTIN REPORTS DEMOLITION OF LAST NUCLEAR ROCKET WITHDRAWN FROM UKRAINE. The press service of President Putin reported on 13 November that Russia has destroyed the last nuclear rocket withdrawn from Ukraine as required by the 14 January 1994 accord among the presidents of Russia, the United States, and Ukraine, Interfax reported. PG

MONUMENT ERECTED TO PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT HEAD... Prince Georgii Lvov, who headed the first Provisional Government in 1917, was the subject of a conference in Tula Oblast on local government, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 13 November. A book first published in Paris in the 1930s was reissued for the occasion and a monument erected in Lvov's home village of Popovka. PG

UKRAINE TO PURCHASE MAJORITY STAKE IN ARMENIAN CHEMICAL GIANT. Representatives of Ukraine's Inter-Kontakt recently visited Yerevan to discuss the possibility of acquiring for 6.6 billion drams (some $12 million) a 51 percent stake in the Nairit chemical plant that produces chloroprene rubber, according to Arminfo on 13 November as cited by Groong. Inter-Kontakt has expressed its readiness to invest some $22 million in the plant in order to increase annual output from 10,000 tons to 25,000-30,000 tons. Nairit's debts for the first six months of 2001 alone amount to over $7 million. LF

KUCHMA SIGNS CONTROVERSIAL LAND CODE... Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has signed the Land Code adopted last month in a stormy debate (see "RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report," 30 October 2001), Interfax reported on 13 November. The code makes farmland the property of agricultural workers as of the beginning of 2002. The code allows limited land sales between 2005 and 2010 and free trade in farmland after 2010. Ukraine's Communists, who oppose private land ownership, have announced their intention to challenge the code's legality in the Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, presidential administration deputy chief Pavlo Haydutskyy said Kuchma will soon ask the parliament to speed up the adoption of some 30 bills necessary to implement the Land Code. Haydutskyy suggested that Kuchma may introduce some provisions of the Land Code by decree if the parliament fails to pass the appropriate laws. JM

...DISMISSES AIR DEFENSE COMMANDER. President Kuchma has dismissed Air Defense Commander Volodymyr Tkachov, Interfax reported on 13 November. Tkachov offered his resignation last month in connection with the accidental downing of a Russian passenger plane by a Ukrainian missile. JM