Georgy Bovt, venäläinen riippumaton journalisti, kirjoittaa The Moscow Timesissa
Only a Ruthless Leader Can Save Ukraine Now
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opini...hless-leader-can-save-ukraine-now/502595.html
Lyhyesti tiivistettynä:
- Ukraina on niin riippuvainen Venäjän kaupasta, että Putin voi halutessaan tuhota Ukrainan taloudellisesti. Ukraina voi menettää 33 miljardia dollaria/19% BKT:stään
pahimmassa tapauksessa
- IMF:n matokuuri vaatii sellaista vyönkiristystä ukrainalaisilta, että vain "Augusto Pinochet" - tyylinen häikäilemätön johtaja pystyisi ne viemään läpi
Ote alla:
Kiev must augment its coffers by $35 billion simply to pay down its current obligations over the next two years. That does not include the $4.5 billion Gazprom is demanding for past gas deliveries, but that Kiev is refusing to pay in a dispute over pricing policy. Those negotiations have stalled and probably will not resume until fall, when the gas reserves that Ukraine prudently pumped into underground storage facilities finally run out.
The International Monetary Fund and other international donors have promised Kiev almost $32 billion in aid to stave off default, but have actually delivered only a tiny portion of that sum.
However, that assistance is conditional upon Kiev implementing economic austerity measures that could prove politically untenable for Poroshenko. Ukrainians already pay 50 percent more for gas, with the result that fewer can pay their gas bill at all. The government plans to freeze minimum salaries to state employees and to slash their ranks by at least 10 percent.
The Ukrainian economy is already weakened by 20 years of its corrupt leaders' incessant looting. Back in 1992, the Ukrainian economy was roughly the size of Poland's. Now, Poland's is twice as large. The shadow economy now accounts for up 40 percent to 45 percent of the Ukrainian economy and Transparency International has ranked the country 144th out of 177 on its corruption index.
The Association Agreement may help Ukraine's economy by creating a free trade zone and opening the Ukrainian market to European imports, but where will locals find the money to buy those goods?
Moscow has stressed that, because the flow of European goods into Ukraine will threaten the Russian market, it must move to protect its own interests. In theory, Moscow could avoid declaring a full-scale trade war by simply "filtering out" European goods as they pass through Russian customs with the bogus claim that their EU certification does not meet Russian standards.
But Moscow long ago made it clear that it prefers the strong-arm approach to a more nuanced policy. A trade war is inevitable, and Ukraine stands to suffer significant losses as a result. According to estimates made by the Committee for Civil Initiatives — a think tank headed by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin — Ukraine could lose $33 billion, or 19 percent of its gross domestic product annually as a result of signing the economic part of the Association Agreement and the resultant loss of trade with Russia and other Customs Union countries. That figure includes a possible decline in export earnings and investment, and the reduced ability of Ukrainian citizens to work in Russia and send money home.
Ukraine will also suffer from the higher price of gas, lower earnings for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, a decline in tourism and so on. In all, analysts estimate that a radical rupture with Russia could cost Ukraine up to $100 billion.
Cynically speaking, if Moscow's goal is to finish off the Ukrainian state, it can forego sending in troops and simply wait until the country collapses under the weight of its enormous economic losses. Only an iron-handed approach could save the Ukrainian economy under such circumstances. However, it is unlikely that the current authorities in Kiev are capable of implementing stringent economic measures like those once employed by former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet.