{"id":117171,"date":"2014-05-08T14:07:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T14:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=117171"},"modified":"2014-05-08T14:07:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T14:07:23","slug":"ukraine-gets-mafia-type-loan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/ukraine-gets-mafia-type-loan\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine gets its Mafia-type Loan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pepe Escobar<\/strong><\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund has approved a US$17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche arrived on Wednesday.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s essential to identify the conditions attached to this Mafia-style \u201cloan\u201d. Nothing remotely similar to reviving the Ukrainian economy is in play. The scheme is inextricably linked to the IMF\u2019s notorious, one-size-fits-all \u201cstructural adjustment\u201d policy, known to hundreds of millions from Latin America and Southeast Asia to Southern Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n

The regime changers in Kiev have duly complied, launching the inevitable austerity package \u2014 from tax hikes and frozen pensions to a stiff, over 50 percent rise on the price of natural gas heating Ukrainian homes. The \u201cUkrainian people\u201d won\u2019t be able to pay their utility bills this coming winter.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the massive loan is not for the benefit of \u201cthe Ukrainian people.\u201d Kiev is essentially bankrupt. Creditors range from Western banks to Gazprom \u2014 which is owed no less than $2.7 billion. The \u201cloan\u201d will pay back these creditors; not to mention that $5 billion of the total is earmarked for payments of \u2014 what else \u2014 previous IMF loans. It goes without saying that a lot of the funds will be duly pocketed \u2014 Afghanistan-style \u2014 by the current bunch of oligarchs aligned with the \u201cYats\u201d government in Kiev.<\/p>\n

The IMF has already warned that Ukraine is in recession and may need an extension of the $17 billion loan. IMF newspeak qualifies it as \u201ca significant recalibration of the program.\u201d This will happen, according to the IMF, if Kiev loses control of Eastern and Southern Ukraine \u2014 something already in progress.<\/p>\n

Eastern Ukraine is the country\u2019s industrial heartland \u2014 with the highest GDP per capita and home of key factories and mines, mostly in the Donetsk region, which happens to be largely mobilized against the neo-fascist\/neo-nazi-aligned regime changers in Kiev. If the current conflagration persists, this means both industrial exports and tax revenues will go down.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the IMF prescription for the oligarch bunch \u2014 some of them actively financing Right Sector militias: As long as you\u2019re facing a popular rebellion in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, relax; you will get additional IMF cash further on down the road. Talk about a crash course in disaster capitalism.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

We want you to invade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Obama administration\u2019s juvenile delinquent school of diplomacy remains\u00a0on track<\/a>: the plan is to entice Moscow to \u201cinvade.\u201d \u00a0(2)<\/p>\n

Benefits would be immense. Washington would destroy once and for all the emerging strategic partnership between the EU, especially Germany, and Russia, part of a more organic interaction between Europe and Asia; keep Europe perennially under America\u2019s thumb; and boost Robocop NATO after its Afghan humiliation.<\/p>\n

Well, they are not juvenile delinquents for nothing. Yet this brilliant plan forgets a key component: enough competent troops willing to apply Kiev\u2019s designs. The regime changers dissolved the Berkut federal riot police. Big mistake \u2014 because they are pros; they are unemployed; and now, holding a monster grudge, amply supporting Ukrainians in favor of federalization.<\/p>\n

What the Ministry of Truth script imposed on all Western corporate media insists on labeling \u201cpro-Russian separatists\u201d are in fact Ukrainian federalists. They don\u2019t want to split. They don\u2019t want to join the Russian Federation. What they want is a federalized Ukraine with strong, autonomous provinces.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Pipelineistan\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington is actively praying that the confrontation between the EU and Russia on the gas front spirals out of control. Natural gas will amount to 25 percent of the EU\u2019s needs up to 2050. Since 2011 Russia is the number one supplier, ahead of Norway and Algeria.<\/p>\n

The bureaucrat-infested European Commission (EC) is now concentrating its attacks on Gazprom on the South Stream pipeline \u2014 whose construction starts in June. The EC insists that the agreements already struck between Russia and seven EU countries infringe the laws of the EU (how come they didn\u2019t find that out earlier?). The EC would like South Stream to become a \u201cEuropean,\u201d not a Gazprom project.<\/p>\n

Well, that depends on a lot of serious diplomacy and the internal politics of various EU member states. For instance, Estonia and Lithuania depend 100 percent on Gazprom. Some countries, such as Italy, import over 80 percent of their energy; others, such as the UK, only 40 percent.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like the EC suddenly woke up from its usual torpor and decided that South Stream is a political football. G\u00c3\u00bcnther Oettinger, the EU\u2019s energy commissioner, has been blaring the horn of EU competition laws called \u201cthe third energy package\u201d \u2014 which would essentially require Gazprom to open South Stream to other suppliers. Moscow filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO).<\/p>\n

Rigorous application of recently unearthed EU law is one thing. Facts on the ground are another. South Stream may cost up to 16 billion euros \u2014 but it will be built, even if financed by Russia\u2019s state budget.<\/p>\n

Moreover Gazprom, in 2014 alone, has already signed extra deals with German, Italian, Austrian and Swiss partners. Italy\u2019s ENI and France\u2019s EDF are partners from the start. Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria are deeply involved in South Stream. No wonder none of them are in favor of more sanctions on Russia.<\/p>\n

As for any substantial move by the EU to find new supply sources, that\u2019s a process that should take years \u2014 and should involve the best possible alternative source, Iran, assuming a nuclear deal with the P5+1 is struck this year. Another possible source, Kazakhstan, exports less than it could, and that will remain the case because of infrastructure problems.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re back to the Ukrainian tragedy. Moscow won\u2019t \u201cinvade.\u201d What for? The IMF\u2019s structural adjustment will devastate Ukraine more than a war; most Ukrainians may even end up begging Russia for help. Berlin won\u2019t antagonize Moscow. So Washington\u2019s rhetoric of \u201cisolating\u201d Russia is just revealed for what it is: juvenile delinquency.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left for the Empire of Chaos is to pray for chaos to keep spreading across Ukraine, thus sapping Moscow\u2019s energy. And all this because the Washington establishment is absolutely terrified of an emerging power in Eurasia. Not one, but two \u2014 Russia and China. Worse: strategically aligned. Worse still: bent on integrating Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n

So feel free to picture a bunch of Washington angry old men hissing like juvenile delinquents: \u201cI don\u2019t like you. I don\u2019t want to talk to you. I want you to die.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pepe Escobar<\/strong>\u00a0is the roving correspondent for Asia Times<\/a>\/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pepe Escobar The International Monetary Fund has approved a US$17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche arrived on Wednesday. It\u2019s essential to identify the conditions attached to this Mafia-style \u201cloan\u201d. Nothing remotely similar to reviving the Ukrainian economy is in play. The scheme is inextricably linked to the IMF\u2019s notorious, one-size-fits-all \u201cstructural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-117171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}