Before leaving for Italy, Yeltsin told journalists that he planned to invite John Paul to visit Russia. But a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church said on 6 February that no meeting between the pontiff and Patriarch Aleksii II can take place until the two Churches settle outstanding disputes, such as Russian concerns about the situation for Orthodox believers in western Ukraine. Zadornov noted that comprehensive tax reform is unlikely to be adopted in 1999 or 2000, when parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled. The profit tax would also be reduced. The newspaper noted that the code would maintain the value-added tax of 20 percent on most goods and maintain or raise excise duties on alcohol and tobacco products, gasoline, and some automobiles.
Russian law prohibits candidates from accepting contributions from foreign donors.
The Duma was scheduled to consider the treaty on 6 February, but Duma CIS Affairs Committee Chairman Georgii Tikhonov of the Popular Power faction told the newspaper that the treaty will not be debated in the lower house of the parliament before March. Unnamed sources in the Duma Foreign Affairs and CIS Affairs Committees told the newspaper that the Foreign Ministry supports postponing ratification until after the Ukrainian parliament has ratified the agreement on dividing the Black Sea Fleet. The Ukrainian parliament ratified the friendship treaty last month but has yet to consider the agreement on the fleet. Air Force Commander Anatolii Kornukov announced on 10 February that a commission investigating the 6 December crash of a military cargo plane in Irkutsk has concluded that engine failure caused the disaster, Interfax reported. Nearly 70 people were killed when the huge An-124 plane crashed into an apartment block shortly after takeoff.