No… No… Not Yet!
Aleksei Iorsh
2013
______________________________
The meeting of President Putin with Ukrainian President Yanukovich in Moscow this week is one of the most significant events of the year, which one can call a reset of bilateral agreements. Putin and Yanukovich agreed to strengthen mutually-beneficial coöperation. Moreover, these intentions aren’t just political rhetoric; they’re concrete plans. The most important evidence of this is a price-cut for Russian natural gas and substantial Russian investment in the Ukrainian economy.
As part of his annual press conference on Thursday, one day after talks with Yanukovich, Putin stated that Russia’s decision to grant the Ukraine a 15 billion USD (495 billion Roubles. 16 billion CAD. 16.9 billion AUD. 11 billion Euros. 9.2 billion UK Pounds) loan and cut natural gas prices by almost one-third had no connection either with the present disturbances in Kiev or with Ukrainian negotiations on an association agreement with the EU. Putin emphasised that Russia decided to support the Ukraine, first, because it was a sister country, a sister nation, saying, “Today we see that the Ukraine is in a difficult economic and political situation. If we really think that it’s a sister nation and a sister country, we should act as close relatives and support the Ukrainian people in this difficult situation. I assure you that this is the main reason for taking this decision”. To describe further plans for expansion and coöperation, he said, “Certainly, the Ukraine is our strategic partner and ally. Unfortunately, during the last two years, we saw a decrease in turnover, and now it’s time for vigorous efforts to create conditions for moving forward. Recently, our government counterparts did a good job in important areas such as energy, space, aviation, and shipbuilding. We could strengthen our legal base, to build up trade and economic relations”.
President Yanukovich noted, “Of course, there are still some bilateral economic problems; however, Moscow and Kiev made notable progress in many aspects, economic and political. The measures that we’ll take in near future will qualitatively improve the situation. In some sectors, we need to make fundamental decisions, and there are new products that we can produce together. It’s profitable for us”. Ukrainian experts agree that Russia saved the Ukraine from default. Both the IMF and the EU promised help, but Kiev’s economic situation didn’t allow it to wait until these Western promises turned into real money. Meanwhile, Moscow didn’t just give promises to Kiev; it came to the rescue. Mikhail Pogrebinsky, Director of the Kiev Centre of Political Studies, commented on the situation, “This gives us a chance to stop a potential approaching default, as we faced payments next year that the Ukraine couldn’t pay with zero gold and currency reserves. That would’ve forced us to sell off everything. Now, there appears a chance to get off the hook, to return our balance of payments to the positive side, and to get out of the dreadful situation that the Ukrainian economy found itself in”.
Meanwhile, political passions still run hot in the Ukraine. The rallies on the Maidan have gone on for almost a month. People on the square were looking forward to the details of the negotiations in Moscow. However, it soon became clear that no one was dragging the Ukraine forcibly into the Customs Union of the Eurasian Economic Community (TS EvrAsES). Thus, the Ukrainian opposition lost its main trump card, which allowed to it blame Yanukovich of betraying the national interest. Sergei Khestanov, managing director of the Alor Group said, “After the Moscow agreements between Putin and Yanukovich, the protracted political crisis should slow down. “Politics is economics in a concentrated form. As the support measures that the Ukrainian and the Russian governments managed to agree upon considerably ameliorated economic problems, one should expect reduced political turmoil in the Ukraine”.
The recent meeting of the two leaders showed one main fact… Russia won’t leave the Ukraine in a difficult economic situation. In fact, Moscow gave its sister country time to chart out a course to economic and political stability. Moreover, the direction is clear. For example, one the agreements signed in Moscow involves creating a joint venture to build 80 An-124 aircraft, which would bring 13 billion USD (430 billion Roubles. 13.9 billion CAD. 14.6 billion AUD. 9.5 billion Euros. 8 billion UK Pounds) in revenue. Besides which, the cut-rate price for Russian natural gas would open opportunities for Ukrainian industry, utilities and energy would help restore economic growth, which allow using the obtained resources for upgrading.
21 December 2013
Tatyana Golovanova
Voice of Russia World Service
Editor’s Note:
The Ukraine was the “jewel in the crown” of the USSR. Twenty years of nationalist mismanagement has turned the Ukraine into an economic basket case. Western thieves bought up large sectors of the economy at fire-sale prices, taking the earnings out of the country, aided in this by treacherous Galician émigré Quislings. As a Cabineteer told me:
In Kiev, in the 90s, extremely-Russophobic Greek Catholics ran the American Embassy… they wouldn’t allow people to speak Russian, which the locals resented, as most didn’t speak “Ukrainian”. After all, the phoney “I hate Russia” rubbish began in Lvov, NOT Kiev. Thank you, Roman Catholics! By the way, at that time, all the Ukie nationalists hated Filaret Denisenko as he spoke the Ukrainian dialect poorly. Now, he’s their hero!
It’s all come home to roost. My take is that Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk Oblasts are likely to split off, along with portions of (if not all) of Ternopol Oblast. In such a case, Podkarpatska Rus will likely secede from the Westerners and join Slovakia in federal union, as it was a part of Czechoslovakia in the Interwar Period. The rest of the Ukraine will join the EvrAsES and say, “Good riddance to bad rubbish!” The Uniate hardheads aren’t worth shedding the blood of a single Orthodox soldier or cop. Let them go… they’ll find that “independence” is often an empty thing… grand slogans don’t fill one’s stomach nor do great words heat a house in the grip of winter. Let them have a bellyful of “independence”. Sometimes, you get EXACTLY what you wished for… and found it not to your liking. I won’t say, “I told you so…”
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Patriarch Kirill Awards Flamboyant Crooner Iosif Kobzon Top Award
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Duma, Eastern Orthodox Church, Frank Sinatra, History of the Eastern Orthodox Church in North America, Iosif Kobzon, Joseph Kobzon, Kirill I of Moscow, Kobzon, Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate, Music, musicians, Orthodox, Orthodox Church in America, Orthodoxy, Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch Kirill I, political commentary, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, RF Gosduma, Russia, Russian, Russian culture, Russian music, Russian Orthodox Church, Seventeen Moments of Spring (Soviet telefilm), Soviet music, Soviet Union, State Duma, United States, USA, USSR
******
Order of Glory and Honour, the second-highest award of the Patriarchate of Moscow and all the Russias
******
The theme from the famous series Seventeen Moments of Spring… perhaps, his most famous song
________________________________
On Wednesday, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias presented crooner Iosif Kobzon, Russia’s answer to Frank Sinatra, with a top award for his public service, adding to the flamboyant now-lawmaker’s already glittering array of decorations. Patriarch Kirill awarded Kobzon, whom the Americans denied a visa in the past for alleged links to organised crime figures, the Order of Glory and Honour (Second Degree) for his work in “developing national culture and the moral and patriotic education of his contemporaries”. Kobzon, who turned 76 in September, was a hit singer in the days of the USSR, but officially ended his touring career in 1997 after being becoming an RF Gosduma deputy. He has dozens of awards and honours, both from Russia and from other former Soviet republics, largely for his contributions to culture and music.
18 December 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131218/185687572/Russian-Orthodox-Church-Gives-Flamboyant-Crooner-Top-Award.html
Editor’s Note:
The REAL reason that the Americans denied Iosif Davydovich a visa was that he pissed off the American Jewish lobby (for what, one doesn’t know… Kobzon’s a Jew himself!) and that he refused to cut off his childhood friends (Frank Sinatra did the same, getting the same nasty treatment from the usual lot of bluenoses). Besides which, he was (and is) an unrepentant Leftist who hates American-style crapitalism. Of course, since everyone knows that the Amerikantsy are childish, self-centred, violent, and vindictive, it doesn’t surprise one to find out that they refused him a visa in 1995 and 2012 for refusing to kiss their ass at high noon. Note well that HH LOVES giving awards to LEFTISTS… he doesn’t give awards to rightwing slimers. It doesn’t matter how many Pro-Life placards you wave, HH knows that the Republicans and their ilk in other countries are evil, and that their policies are anti-Christian and inhuman, so, he refuses to recognise them (we should do likewise, I say). I’d say that we should follow HH… NOT Potapov, Whiteford, Kishkovsky, Paffhausen, and Reardon. After all, one of these things is NOT like the other…
Everybody knows that Iosif Davydovich is a truly decent person and a mensch in the highest sense of the term (he came up in the hardscrabble Donbass and he hasn’t forgotten his roots). Russians give him big-time respect for putting his money where his mouth is… he’s spent tons of his personal money to help the poor and unfortunate, including aiding many orphanages throughout the country. He doesn’t stick his money in the Cayman Islands… hmm… whom do you respect? Do you respect Iosif Davydovich or do you respect Wet Willy Romney (they’re mutually-exclusive)? I say, give me Iosif Davydovich… what about you?
BMD