THIS is what the EU wanted in the Ukraine… to enrich already-bloated “investors”… any questions?
______________________________
On Thursday, the Ukrainian government decided to call off the planned signing of landmark agreements with the EU that could’ve weakened the former Soviet nation’s bonds with Russia. In a decree, the Cabinet said that the need to consolidate economic ties with Russia and members of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Econmic Community (EvrAsES) Customs Union trade bloc motivated their decision. The EU shall meet the stunning reversal with dismay, as it was hoping to steer Kiev toward closer economic integration with Europe.
Earlier in the day, the Rada rejected bills allowing jailed opposition leader Yuliya Timoshenko to seek medical treatment abroad, which EU officials stipulated as a condition for the agreements to go ahead. Timoshenko, an avowed political rival to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence on corruption charges that she insists are politically motivated. The EU expected to sign association agreements and free trade deals with the Ukraine at a summit in Vilnius next week. Instead, on Thursday, the Ukrainian government proposed the creation of a trilateral commission between itself, Russia, and the EU to explore ways to deepen mutual ties. The decree also ordered the resumption of an “active dialogue” with the Moscow-led EvrAsES Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov welcomed the Ukraine’s decision to build up coöperation with Russia, saying, “We clearly welcome the desire of our close partner, the Ukraine, to optimise and develop trade and economic cooperation”. President Vladimir Putin will likely hail Kiev’s volte-face as a foreign policy victory, as he hasn’t hidden his distaste for Ukrainian-EU integration. In recent months, the Ukraine came under sustained pressure from the Kremlin as diplomatic negotiations over its alignment with the EU intensified. As well as the threatening the imposition of a strict new customs regime, Russia also ratcheted up pressure on Kiev, which depends on Russia for its energy supplies, over payments for gas imports. On Thursday, Russian media reported that Putin said that Russia would be willing to take part in a trilateral commission with the EU and Ukraine, as long as the Ukraine halted its current European integration plans.
In recent days, there were signs of growing nervousness amongst the Ukrainian leadership about the impact that the EU agreement could have on all-important economic relations with Russia. On Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov acknowledged that his country had already registered significant losses because of shrinking trade volumes with Russia and other members of an alliance of former Soviet countries, the SNG, noting, “Trade turnover grew significantly in 2012, but in 2013 we lost nearly one-quarter of our trade turnover with SNG markets. Those economic losses are significant for us, and the Ukraine has faced serious [financial] hardships lately”. Azarov said that his government’s top priority for next year was to have Russian trade barriers removed and to bring the rapidly-worsening state of trade with Russia back to normal, stating, “It’s no coincidence that when drafting the budget, the main economic figures for 2014 will depend on whether we are able to create mutual understanding with Russia”. Azarov made the remarks after meeting with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev on the sidelines of an SNG prime ministers’ council in St Petersburg.
President Yanukovich, who was in Austria on a state visit Thursday, said that his country remained open to integration with Europe, hinting that the issue could be revisited at a later stage, saying, “We have a little way left to the peak. We aren’t afraid of difficulties, we’re certain that we should in future go along the path of European integration”. Asked about the likelihood of Timoshenko’s release, Yanukovich said that only the Rada could take any decision on the former prime minister, observing, “This matter spilled out into society and into the international community. On the whole, we should decide Timoshenko’s release within a legal framework”.
On Thursday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Boiko said that the decision to reverse course on EU policy was in the national interest, saying, “The government based itself on exclusively national interests, the interests of protecting employment, increasing the economic stability of the government, and boosting productive potential”. He added that the Ukraine gave up hopes of receiving IMF credits, as Kiev was unwilling to comply with demands to hike prices for household utilities by 40 percent, noting, “The position of our president is that we can’t impose the conditions of this onerous contract, which was signed by the previous government, on the shoulders of our people. So, there won’t be any increase in rates”.
21 November 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131121/184845623/Ukraine-Rejects-Laws-to-Free-Tymoshenko-Jeopardises-EU-Deal.html
Editor’s Note:
As I commented in an earlier post, it seems that the “approach” to the EU was a political ploy by Yanukovich. Now, he can say, “See… the Germans wanted to treat you the same way that they treated the Greeks. Remember how the Germans treated us the last time that they were here! They haven’t changed, have they? They wanted to make sure of their fatcat profits on the backs of Ukrainian babas and workers. I wouldn’t stand for such robbery! They wanted to raise your rent! They wanted to shut your factory! They wanted to take all the money for themselves and for their collaborationist cronies! I stand for the little man… vote for me!” Trust me; such a spiel will have tread and cred on the East Bank.
The only faction that was gung-ho for the EU were the Galician Uniates. The Ukraine would do well to either give the area back to Poland (but Poland doesn’t want such a headache) or make it an independent buffer statelet between the Russian bloc and the EU (Carpatho-Russia… Zakarpatskaya Oblast… would be separate, probably in federal union with Slovakia). We can send all the Ukrainian nationalist nutters there, where they can be extreme nutcases to their hearts’ content. Russia, Poland, Slovakia, and the Ukraine would all breathe sighs of collective relief (along with the Carpatho-Russians, who’d be free of Galician bullying). Galicia would be the “sick man of Europe”, but the EU would prop it up so as not to lose face.
In the end, the West’s greed undid it. It made it clear that the Ukraine would have to raise prices and rates… and to shutter factories made redundant by Western Corporate “outsourcing“. It also arrogantly demanded the right to dictate internal policy… ergo, they failed. A simpleton could see that. No other country wants to be treated the way the Germans treated the Greeks. The Germans never change… their Prussian arrogance, domineering, and smug sense of superiority always do them in… ALWAYS. Of course, the Austrians and Bavarians aren’t like that at all, but the Prussians set the tone for foreign appreciation of Germany and Germans. It’s a national trait, massively-ingrained… it caused the EU defeat. Was Kiev “a bridge too far?” It does seem so…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
BREAKING NEWS… The Ukraine Jilts EU, Woos Russian-Led Eurasian Union Instead
Tags: EU, European Union, Kiev, Kremlin, political commentary, politics, Russia, Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, Viktor Yanukovych, Vladimir Putin
THIS is what the EU wanted in the Ukraine… to enrich already-bloated “investors”… any questions?
______________________________
On Thursday, the Ukrainian government decided to call off the planned signing of landmark agreements with the EU that could’ve weakened the former Soviet nation’s bonds with Russia. In a decree, the Cabinet said that the need to consolidate economic ties with Russia and members of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Econmic Community (EvrAsES) Customs Union trade bloc motivated their decision. The EU shall meet the stunning reversal with dismay, as it was hoping to steer Kiev toward closer economic integration with Europe.
Earlier in the day, the Rada rejected bills allowing jailed opposition leader Yuliya Timoshenko to seek medical treatment abroad, which EU officials stipulated as a condition for the agreements to go ahead. Timoshenko, an avowed political rival to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence on corruption charges that she insists are politically motivated. The EU expected to sign association agreements and free trade deals with the Ukraine at a summit in Vilnius next week. Instead, on Thursday, the Ukrainian government proposed the creation of a trilateral commission between itself, Russia, and the EU to explore ways to deepen mutual ties. The decree also ordered the resumption of an “active dialogue” with the Moscow-led EvrAsES Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov welcomed the Ukraine’s decision to build up coöperation with Russia, saying, “We clearly welcome the desire of our close partner, the Ukraine, to optimise and develop trade and economic cooperation”. President Vladimir Putin will likely hail Kiev’s volte-face as a foreign policy victory, as he hasn’t hidden his distaste for Ukrainian-EU integration. In recent months, the Ukraine came under sustained pressure from the Kremlin as diplomatic negotiations over its alignment with the EU intensified. As well as the threatening the imposition of a strict new customs regime, Russia also ratcheted up pressure on Kiev, which depends on Russia for its energy supplies, over payments for gas imports. On Thursday, Russian media reported that Putin said that Russia would be willing to take part in a trilateral commission with the EU and Ukraine, as long as the Ukraine halted its current European integration plans.
In recent days, there were signs of growing nervousness amongst the Ukrainian leadership about the impact that the EU agreement could have on all-important economic relations with Russia. On Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov acknowledged that his country had already registered significant losses because of shrinking trade volumes with Russia and other members of an alliance of former Soviet countries, the SNG, noting, “Trade turnover grew significantly in 2012, but in 2013 we lost nearly one-quarter of our trade turnover with SNG markets. Those economic losses are significant for us, and the Ukraine has faced serious [financial] hardships lately”. Azarov said that his government’s top priority for next year was to have Russian trade barriers removed and to bring the rapidly-worsening state of trade with Russia back to normal, stating, “It’s no coincidence that when drafting the budget, the main economic figures for 2014 will depend on whether we are able to create mutual understanding with Russia”. Azarov made the remarks after meeting with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev on the sidelines of an SNG prime ministers’ council in St Petersburg.
President Yanukovich, who was in Austria on a state visit Thursday, said that his country remained open to integration with Europe, hinting that the issue could be revisited at a later stage, saying, “We have a little way left to the peak. We aren’t afraid of difficulties, we’re certain that we should in future go along the path of European integration”. Asked about the likelihood of Timoshenko’s release, Yanukovich said that only the Rada could take any decision on the former prime minister, observing, “This matter spilled out into society and into the international community. On the whole, we should decide Timoshenko’s release within a legal framework”.
On Thursday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Boiko said that the decision to reverse course on EU policy was in the national interest, saying, “The government based itself on exclusively national interests, the interests of protecting employment, increasing the economic stability of the government, and boosting productive potential”. He added that the Ukraine gave up hopes of receiving IMF credits, as Kiev was unwilling to comply with demands to hike prices for household utilities by 40 percent, noting, “The position of our president is that we can’t impose the conditions of this onerous contract, which was signed by the previous government, on the shoulders of our people. So, there won’t be any increase in rates”.
21 November 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131121/184845623/Ukraine-Rejects-Laws-to-Free-Tymoshenko-Jeopardises-EU-Deal.html
Editor’s Note:
As I commented in an earlier post, it seems that the “approach” to the EU was a political ploy by Yanukovich. Now, he can say, “See… the Germans wanted to treat you the same way that they treated the Greeks. Remember how the Germans treated us the last time that they were here! They haven’t changed, have they? They wanted to make sure of their fatcat profits on the backs of Ukrainian babas and workers. I wouldn’t stand for such robbery! They wanted to raise your rent! They wanted to shut your factory! They wanted to take all the money for themselves and for their collaborationist cronies! I stand for the little man… vote for me!” Trust me; such a spiel will have tread and cred on the East Bank.
The only faction that was gung-ho for the EU were the Galician Uniates. The Ukraine would do well to either give the area back to Poland (but Poland doesn’t want such a headache) or make it an independent buffer statelet between the Russian bloc and the EU (Carpatho-Russia… Zakarpatskaya Oblast… would be separate, probably in federal union with Slovakia). We can send all the Ukrainian nationalist nutters there, where they can be extreme nutcases to their hearts’ content. Russia, Poland, Slovakia, and the Ukraine would all breathe sighs of collective relief (along with the Carpatho-Russians, who’d be free of Galician bullying). Galicia would be the “sick man of Europe”, but the EU would prop it up so as not to lose face.
In the end, the West’s greed undid it. It made it clear that the Ukraine would have to raise prices and rates… and to shutter factories made redundant by Western Corporate “outsourcing“. It also arrogantly demanded the right to dictate internal policy… ergo, they failed. A simpleton could see that. No other country wants to be treated the way the Germans treated the Greeks. The Germans never change… their Prussian arrogance, domineering, and smug sense of superiority always do them in… ALWAYS. Of course, the Austrians and Bavarians aren’t like that at all, but the Prussians set the tone for foreign appreciation of Germany and Germans. It’s a national trait, massively-ingrained… it caused the EU defeat. Was Kiev “a bridge too far?” It does seem so…
BMD