Take Your Mitts Off My Carrier

By Janice Castro

DURING A VISIT LAST WEEK TO BEIJING, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT LEONID KRAVCHUK was trying to peddle the 67,000-ton aircraft carrier Varyag, nearing completion in the Ukrainian port of Nikolayev. Selling the carrier may be difficult, though. The Russians, not the Ukrainians, paid for construction of the 922-ft.-long vessel, and can be expected to assert ownership.