Economical opinion

Kiev continues to suck last juices out of withering regions

Default on Russian debt closes to Kiev opportunity to borrow from private investors

If Ukraine officially announces the refusal to pay Russia $3 billion debt, the IMF may remain the only source of external borrowing for the country. ‘If Moscow receives a formal confirmation that it is a sovereign debt that Ukraine refuses to pay, then theoretically Kiev should encounter problems in the foreign loan market. On the one hand, the IMF has lifted the ban on the continued funding of the country in the event of default on sovereign debt; on the other hand, it has still retained the priority of official creditors’ claims to those of private ones’ At the same time, despite the upcoming de facto default, Kiev plans to continue borrowing in the international market in 2016, hoping for financial assistance from various sources, besides the IMF. ‘At the end of the last week on the official website of the Verkhovnaya Rada there was published the draft budget 2016 which stipulates that next year the Government of Ukraine would borrow only 203 billion UAH, or...

Economical opinion 28.12.15 12:53

DPR Foreign Ministry: enough concessions to Kiev

Russia should declare a full economic embargo against Ukraine, if it wants to return $3 billion loan. It was said by the DPR Foreign Minister Alexander Kofman. According to him, it is the only effective mechanism to make Ukraine pay back its debt. ‘You should stop calling the Ukrainian side “respected partners”, supply them with gas and coal; you should declare an economic embargo against them until they pay back. It is the most reasonable and quickest way to return debts. As long as you continue to flirt, to be tolerant, to make concessions and so on, Russia’s losses in the foreign policy are significant, and not only in Ukraine’ The Russian political analyst Sergey Mikheev explained that it is Russian oligarchs interested in the business in Ukraine who interfere with the implementation of such a scenario. ‘Unfortunately, within the Russian establishment there are people who do not want to do that. Because, in particular, they have their own business...

Economical opinion 20.12.15 20:00

Next, possibly final, stage of liberating Russia from the West

Finally it has started. Vladimir Putin has launched the next and quite possibly the final stage of liberating Russia from the West. The Russian President has sent to the State Duma one of the most dangerous laws the modern Russia has ever known. Russia is throwing away the last deadwood and picking up speed in gaining the leading position. Putin’s new laws are intended to fully compensate for the losses of the Russian Federation due to a falling dollar and other Western sanctions. The essence of this legislative initiative strangely reminds of a story of a group of borrowers who refused to pay on loans taken in foreign banks, due to the fact that these banks were a part of the economic...

Economical opinion 25.01.16 20:28

Having collapsed to the bottom Ukraine will stay there for decades

According to Ruslan Bortnik, the director of the Ukrainian Institute of Analysis and Management of Politics, the economic and political crisis which already exists in Ukraine will turn into a depression that can last for decades. ‘There will happen something that Western politicians have warned us about, namely that when we stop falling, we will reach the bottom and get stuck there. In such a state of the economic and political depression we can stay there for decades. The budget for 2016 was prepared without consultation with the society, sectoral players or associations representing certain economic interests. Let's be honest, the budget, as well as the tax code, were not even...

Economical opinion 29.12.15 19:24

From 1 January residents of Kiev are promised bread rationing

On the first day of January Ukraine will enter not only a new year but also the free trade zone with the EU. The Kiev city administration is now deciding how to use the experience of the Soviet past on the way to a brighter future. However Ukraine tried to get away from the Soviet habits hated by it, they keep coming back. It has turned out to be much easier to rewrite history and break monuments to Lenin into small pieces that learn how to live in a capitalist world. After all, the market economics is a harsh thing and not easy for everyone to chew on. Especially in its Ukrainian version in which some can be left without bread quite literally. Sure thing, speaking about the country as a...

Economical opinion 29.12.15 19:48

Ukrainian crazy “through looking glass” in Crimea

According to the press service of the Ukrainian President, Poroshenko said that for the Russian leader Vladimir Putin the Crimea is a territory to be populated with natives of Siberia. ‘For Putin, the Crimea is a territory which should be inhabited by natives of Siberia who are urgently being transported there now. For me, the Crimea is a Ukrainian land. And the Crimeans are Ukrainians. I will do everything to ensure the return of the Crimea, through judicial decisions and the political and diplomatic path developed as a result of the strategy and use of international legal mechanisms we worked on, in particular, in Paris. There are no alternatives to this path’ Poroshenko...

Economical opinion 07.12.15 19:56