By Ricky Twisdale, Russia Insider, Jan 26, 2016
Two years ago a Western-backed coup by the violent mobs of Kiev’s Independence Square overthrew Ukraine’s constitution, along with its democratically elected president – as flawed as he may have been.
But what Victor Yanukovich was not was politically suicidal. He was not about to sign an one-way economic agreement with the EU which would entail multiple billions of dollars of losses to the country’s economy without any offer of support from the West. Not when he was then up for re-election in a little over a year.
As Putin told the Valdai conference later, this represents a fundamental difference between Russian and (contemporary) Western culture – in Russia, when you invite someone somewhere (especially a lady), you are expected to pay. In the West, you issue an invitation and everyone is expected to pay for himself. Thus, the EU saw nothing wrong in inviting Ukraine to “associate” with it to the cost of multiple billions of dollars while expecting it to “go Dutch,” i.e. bear the entire cost itself.
Yet, this was ultimately merely a ruse, since the West proved more than willing to bend over backwards to aid Ukraine – but only after Yanukovich was deposed and their stooges Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk and their supporting extremist moronic thugs installed.
The promoters of “European democracy” ultimately proved unwilling to wait one year for a democratic election to remove Yanukovich, instead opting for violence. Perhaps because they knew that without the whipped up outrage of the moment,they had no guarantee their hand-picked stooges (“Yats is the guy” – Victoria Nuland) would attain control of Ukraine through the ballot box – though Yanukovich was already unpopular enough even in his native Donetsk, that his re-election seemed far-fetched.
Now, one of Ukraine’s oligarchs is speaking out. Sputink reports that Yuri Kosyuk, a Ukrainian agriculture kingpin, says the agreement gives Ukraine nothing, while all trade benefit goes to the EU:
Europe talks of the Free Trade Area with Ukraine, and at the same time a load of exceptions and limitations are put on the export of Ukrainian goods. Because of this, the free trade area is only one-way, into Ukraine
Kosyuk said that he couldn’t be successful in his industry, poultry production, by exporting to Russia because Russia’s poultry production is booming and it already is producing more than it consumes. On the other hand, the EU association agreement imposes quotas on Ukrainian imports of poultry of only 16,000 tons per year, or 1.3% of total Ukrainian production. Kosyuk continued:
There will be no economic growth, it is a lie. I think that the economy will decline this year. We see the attitudes in business, why would there be growth? There are several economic drivers. The internal consumer, when consuming, can move the economy upwards. But the internal consumer is becoming poorer and has less and less money. The second driver is external markets, but they have remained the way they have been. The third driver is foreign investment. But foreign investment will not come to Ukraine in the short term.
But none of the Maidan supporters knew or cared of the details back in 2014, when they willingly destroyed their country. They only knew of their own fantasies of instant Schengen-zone access, high-salary jobs in Western Europe, and fast-track EU membership. None of these dreams, despite Western promises, appear near fruition.
Ukraine has indeed joined Europe. But not as “Europeans.” Instead, Ukrainians have acheived the eviable status Africa threw off a half century ago – a European colony. With luck, in another 50 years they will have equalled post-colonial Nigeria, a country Ukraine now stands 38 places below in GDP (IMF).
