UKRAINE: WILL TOP PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE ASK RUSSIAN ANALOGUE TO QUESTION RYBKIN?

KIEV, MARCH 4, RIA NOVOSTI - Ukrainian Prosecutor General's office may request its Russian analogue to question Ivan Rybkin as the Russian presidential hopeful is emphatically unwilling to come up as witness on an investigation launched on the grounds of his own press statements. The information reached Novosti through Oksana Sokolova, office press spokesperson.

Mr. Rybkin spent this entire day in Kiev, and was three times called to the office, in oral form, for questioning. He flatly refused to accept a summons, said Miss Sokolova.

The Prosecutor General's experts refuse to put an abrupt end to a kidnap investigation launched proceeding from the stubborn witness' own account of the controversy.

As he was addressing a news conference in Kiev today, Ivan Rybkin said he ought to consult the Russian Prosecutor General's experts before making whatever statements to their Ukrainian counterparts.

Rybkin appeared on the police list of missing persons, early February. It was a sheer misunderstanding as he had been staying all the time with friends in Kiev, it was announced, February 10. Ivan Rybkin said something quite different some days later-he had been forcefully kept in Ukraine under drugs for a few days. His statement made Ukraine's Security Service launch criminal proceedings.

Ivan Rybkin safely returned to Moscow from Kiev tonight.