{"id":246945,"date":"2016-05-31T13:37:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T13:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=246945"},"modified":"2016-05-31T13:38:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T13:38:28","slug":"ukraines-strange-defence-to-russias-3-billion-debt-claim-the-duran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/ukraines-strange-defence-to-russias-3-billion-debt-claim-the-duran\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine&#8217;s Strange Defence, to Russia&#8217;s $3 Billion Debt Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In parallel with Ukraine\u2019s extraordinary decision to bar Mikhail Gorbachev from travelling to Ukraine, Ukraine has filed what is legally speaking an equally extraordinary Defence to the Claim Russia has brought against Ukraine in London\u2019s High Court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Russia brought its claim because Ukraine refuses to repay $3 billion it borrowed from Russia in 2013.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Since the loan took the form of a purchase by Russia of a $3 billion eurobond the court with jurisdiction to decide the case is the High Court in London.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Russia issued the claim on 17th February 2016.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It has taken a while for Ukraine to file its Defence.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As is usual in court cases Russia granted Ukraine at least one extension of time to enable it to do so.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The reason given for the delay was apparently the change of government in Kiev following the forced resignation of Ukraine\u2019s previous Prime Minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the event the Defence Ukraine has filed is one that has no precedent in legal proceedings of this sort.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ukraine claims it should be relieved of paying the debt because Russia\u2019s alleged military aggression against Ukraine means Ukraine should be under no obligation to pay it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The first thing to say about this Defence is that it essentially admits the debt.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ukraine is no longer saying the debt itself does not exist because it was a collusive arrangement \u2013 a bribe if you will \u2013 paid by Russia to Ukraine\u2019s former President Yanukovich.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Nor is Ukraine claiming the debt should not be repaid because it is intrinsically onerous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">These defences, if they were ever considered, essentially collapsed the moment the IMF recognised the debt as valid and said it was public debt \u2013 ie. debt owed by Ukraine to Russia as a sovereign state \u2013 not debt akin to that which Ukraine also owes to its private (mainly Western) creditors.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Since the debt has been recognised as valid by the IMF Ukraine is no longer able to dispute it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more: <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theduran.com\/ukraines-strange-defence-russias-3-billion-debt-claim\/\">Ukraine&#8217;s Strange Defence, to Russia&#8217;s $3 Billion Debt Claim<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In parallel with Ukraine\u2019s extraordinary decision to bar Mikhail Gorbachev from travelling to Ukraine, Ukraine has filed what is legally speaking an equally extraordinary Defence to the Claim Russia has brought against Ukraine in London\u2019s High Court. Russia brought its claim because Ukraine refuses to repay $3 billion it borrowed from Russia in 2013.\u00a0 Since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-246945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-politics","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246945","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=246945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}