RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  26 January 2000

LEBED FOE DENIED REFUGEE STATUS. A Budapest municipal court
on 25 January refused to grant former Krasnoyarsk Aluminium
head Anatolii Bykov refugee status, as he had requested.
Hungarian Judge Zsuzsa Sandor told Hungarian state radio that
while Bykov claimed that he was persecuted by Krasnoyarsk
Krai Governor Aleksandr Lebed, "we failed to turn up evidence
that there was any link between Bykov's problems in Russia
and the [criminal] proceedings taken against him by Russian
authorities," according to AP. Sandor added that the
precondition for extradition of Bykov back to Russia would be
the granting by Russian authorities of a guarantee not to
bring a death sentence against Bykov if convicted. Bykov is
suspected of money laundering and conspiracy to commit a
murder. JAC

SLOVAK DEPUTY PREMIER WANTS QUICKER EU NEGOTIATIONS. Slovak
Deputy Prime Minister Pavol Hamzik said on 25 January that
the EU's decision to begin negotiations with the second group
of candidate countries on only five chapters dealing with
accession does not correspond with the conclusions of the
recent EU summit in Helsinki, TASR reported. He said
restricting the initial discussions to only five chapters
will slow down the accession process and prevent Slovakia
from catching up with its neighbors--the Czech Republic,
Hungary, and Poland. He said his country should not be placed
on the same level as Romania or Bulgaria because "we are
farther ahead in integration." Hamzik also said Slovakia's 20
percent unemployment rate will have a serious impact on EU-
entry negotiations. If unemployment reaches 23 percent, he
said the National Labor Office "is finished and the whole
system collapses." VG

HUNGARIAN SOCIALISTS ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. Hungarian
Socialist Party (MSZP) chairman Laszlo Kovacs on 25 January
said his party will ask the Independent Smallholders' Party
to nominate a presidential candidate who can enhance the
unity of the nation and strengthen the country's
international reputation. He asked the senior coalition party
FIDESZ to support such a candidate, adding that the
opposition MSZP will not necessarily field a candidate of its
own if the coalition candidate meets the requirements of the
constitutional role of the president. MSZ

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