mrjonno wrote:How strange Ukraine wants to align itself with the richest trading group in the world not some christian fundie failed state like Russia.
It's obviously a conspiracy
Viktor Yanukovich saw "the writing on the wall". Contrary to absurd claims made in this and the main Ukraine thread, Yanukovich wasn't motivated by a desire to be part of a grand Russian empire-cum-neotheocracy. He was motivated by pragmatism...
Wikipedia...Yanukovych sought to establish closer relations with the European Union (EU) and Russia in order to attract the capital necessary to maintain Ukraine's standard of living without affecting the local population significantly. One of these measures was an association agreement with the European Union which would provide Ukraine with funds contingent to several reforms in almost all aspects of Ukrainian society and break its economic ties with Russia. Yanukovych, at first, considered the contingencies to be fair but ultimately refused to sign the agreement considering it too austere and detrimental to Ukraine.
Simply put, Yanukovich didn't want Ukraine subjected to Greek-style austerity. But after he was ousted, that's what Ukraine is now getting...
With the IMF’s $14 billion arrangement with Ukraine, Yats has effectively moved his country westward, farther away from Moscow and much closer to Athens.
One doesn't need to go trawling through the pages of "loony-left" (or "loony-right") conspiracy-theory websites in order to make such claims. That quote is from an article on the
Forbes website...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2014/03/28/ukraine-welcomes-imf-austerity-regime/More from that article...
How bad can it be?
While the IMF’s board must still agree to the loan, Kiev’s interim government will need to solidify its end of the bargain by committing to certain prior actions to receive the first installment by April. In other words, the quid pro quo of austerity-for-aid is at the heart of Ukraine’s bailout program, and it promises to devastate Ukrainian living standards, according to the take by analyst Vlad Signorelli of Bretton Woods Research in Mt. Tabor, New Jersey.
Among some of the details coming to light are a 47% to 66% increase in personal income tax rates; a 50% increase in monthly gas bills; a 40% increase on gas tariffs for heating companies; and an increase in taxes on agribusiness. In addition, while some at the IMF have speculated the currency’s devaluation against the dollar year-to-date (35+%) is enough to satisfy the fund’s penchant for ‘correcting imbalances,’ others are maintaining the currency needs to get even weaker.
“The preconditions of the IMF’s stand-by agreement appear to have yoked the new government to an austerian death march,” Signorelli said. “At the least, we hope a forthcoming European agreement might facilitate Ukrainian emigration to Western Europe to keep this geopolitical pressure cooker from exploding.”
A handful of American congressman seem willing to turn up the heat.
Most of them are staunchly anti-Russian, including Senators John McCain and Ted Cruz, both Republicans that have visited Ukraine and are strong Yatsenyuk allies in Washington.
Is it any wonder that Yanukovich sought to maintain the
status quo with Russia rather than move closer to the EU?
Anyway, thanks to the Maidan mob, crushing austerity is now what Ukraine is facing under the guiding hand of chocolate czar and
Washington insider Petro Poroshenko.
So it's another win for the moneygrubbing global elites. Victoria Nuland's oh-so-eloquent
"Fuck the EU!" should actually have been: "Fuck the EU
and Ukraine!"
by 
