!!!!!! MC: Washington cannot implement meaningful sanctions as it would do with poor countries, maybe in Africa or Latin America, or maybe in Southeast Asia in the case of Myanmar. They can’t do it with Russia or China, because it simply does not work. We have to bear in mind that the Western economies are very fragile, because on one the hand they depend on imports of energy. The West, taken together, the US, Canada and so on, their reserves of oil and natural gas are very small in relation to those of the Middle East and other energy-producing economies like Russia. RT: Kiev could get over $20 billion worth of help from the US and the IMF soon, but what would that mean for Ukraine’s economy in the long run? MC: The impacts on Ukraine’s economy right now are potentially devastating because the IMF is going to come in with very drastic reforms. Those reforms we know what they look like. There will be privatizations of state assets but also bankruptcy of private sector enterprises, possibly even breaking up some of the larger business conglomerates which are owned by the so-called oligarchs. The IMF reforms will be devastating. They will have conditions in regard to curtailment of expenditures on social programs, curtailment of education. The reforms will trigger the collapse of the Ukrainian currency leading to inflation, increases to the cost of living. And bear in mind, this is the country which has already been impoverished as a result of IMF reforms going back to 1994 when the price of bread went up overnight 300 percent, and the price of transportation went up 900 percent. So we have an economy that is already crippled. Its agriculture has a tremendous potential but with these manipulations the likelihood is that assets as well as money will end up in the hands of Western companies. RT: And ultimately, do you think Kiev’s government will be able to just avoid working with Russia altogether, and only do business with EU nations and the US. MC: I think the answer to that question has to do with the nature of that government. That is not a real government. That government was installed following a coup d’etat led by extreme right groups and it also integrates within the government two neo-Nazi parties, Svoboda and the Right Sector which is now becoming a political party. And key portfolios are held by members of these neo-Nazi groups. So the question is, is it a real government or is it a proxy government which is obeying orders of Western creditors and Washington? Is it the government that can establish international relations with the international community or with Russia? I suspect it cannot. It is a government in crisis. We have to wait until the elections of May 25, if those elections are held, to see what would be the ultimate outcome, but I’m not particularly optimistic in that regard, because that government which is not a real government does not have the support for the people of Ukraine. It was brought into office as a result of riots and the storming of the parliament and it is supported by the West and that is fairly well understood. And I think what the Ukrainian people now need is a government which is sovereign and which can make choices to restore the bilateral relations with Russia and the EU, but not under the fist of conditionalities which are imposed by Washington and the IMF.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:40:23 +0000
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