By "Vestnik Kavkaza"
This year, the EU plans to provide Kiev with financial aid worth 2.1 billion euros in order to facilitate reforms in the country, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn said at a meeting with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. The parties discussed the implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine and reforms in the country, ITAR-TASS reports.Poroshenko described the visit of the European Commissioner as "evidence of the support that the European Commission is providing for reform efforts of the Ukrainian authorities and as evidence of solidarity between Europe and the Ukrainian people at one of the most difficult times in our history."However, experts are wary of talking about the unconditional support rendered by all European countries to Kiev. Thus, the deputy director of the CIS Institute, Vladimir Zharikhin, believes that talking about a general attitude in Europe is like talking about the average temperature in a hospital: "There are countries which remained the same, and after they joined the European Union it has gotten worse. Such countries, in fact, are not leaders, they are being led. They have the opportunity, so to speak, to carry out irresponsible policues and make irresponsible statements, because in fact they have no influence on the actual decision-making. On the other hand, there is a group of responsible countries which are traditionally recognized as the great European powers. They also have different positions, but of course, France and Germany, as the major euro shareholders, realize the strangeness of the situation. A situation in which world energy prices are falling, but the currency of the country which is an exporter of energy is somehow growing, while the currencies of countries which import energy are declining, although it should be the other way around... The euro is losing against the dollar because of the unsettled situation in Ukraine. And this leads to the fact that euro owners, owners of assets in euros and thus all European capitalists, are losing money and do not like it." According to Zharikhin, French, German and Ukrainian oligrachs are interested in stabilizing the situation in Ukraine. An expert of the International Institute of Humanitarian and Political Studies, Vladimir Bruter, noted that the surrender of Debaltsevo did not lead to any drastic conflicts in Kiev. "The behavior of Poroshenko in the framework of Kiev's domestic political squabbles shows that his position has become weaker. To use a chess analogy, he is currently defending himself on the tenth horizontal line and not on the ninth. All of his figures, in fact, are already off the chess board, nobody cares about what he thinks anymore."However, according to Bruter, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk cannot be the leader of Ukraine: "He will not be accepted as such, because the leaders of Western Ukraine are not perceived well, neither in Kiev, nor in Central Ukraine. It will be a great danger if Ukraine is headed by a Greek-Catholic. The public majority is not ready for it yet."What does Europe think about the situation in Ukraine?The deputy director of the CIS Institute, Vladimir Zharihin, talks about the attitude of European countries towards events in Ukraine. The coup d'état in Kiev which took place on February 22, 2014 marks the beginning of the history of "a new Ukraine".The general attitude in Europe is like the average temperature in a hospital. There are different countries with different views and positions. There are countries which remained the same and after they joined the European Union it has gotten worse. Such countries, in fact, are not leaders, they are being lead. They have the opportunity, so to speak, to conduct irresponsible politics and make irresponsible statements, because in fact they have no influence on the actual decision-making. And therefore they target Moscow, they support Ukraine, all kinds of... and so on and so forth.On the other hand, there is a group of responsible countries which are traditionally recognized as the great European powers. They also have different positions, but of course, France and Germany, as the major euro shareholders, realize the strangeness of the situation. A situation in which world energy prices are falling, but the currency of the country which is an exporter of energy is somehow growing, while the currencies of countries which import energy are declining, although it should be the other way around. But because in Europe, apart from, well, maybe Greece, to a certain extent there is also the Ukrainian factor, the euro is losing against the dollar because of the unsettled situation in Ukraine. And this leads to the fact that euro owners, owners of assets in euros and thus all European capitalists are losing money and do not like it. And in their speeches their representatives, certainly the representatives of France and Germany, are interested at least temporarily in stabilizing the situation, at least with the help of military actions provided by articles 1, 2 and 3, understanding that it is impossible to enforce the 11th article or, for example, the 9th article, which provides for a long-term stabilization of the situation in Ukraine. I believe that, including even the Ukrainian oligarchs, they find it necessary to stabilize the situation. That's why there is all this talk that Right Sector will not obey, etc. He said out loud: "We will not obey. We will continue to fight." Everyone heard this, but then they quietly said the next day, as became known from the Internet: "Well, we will honor this agreement," that's what they said. Why? Because they all depend on Ukrainian oligarchs, whose assets are diminishing with each day. And they know it. They are losing money as we speak. They also need a break now.So I think that after all, considering all the factors, it will be difficult for the Ukrainian side, for Kiev, to violate the terms of the February agreement. All the great powers too, as well as a significant number of Ukrainian oligarchs, are more interested in it than they were at the time of the September agreements.This year, the EU plans to provide Kiev with financial aid worth 2.1 billion euros in order to facilitate reforms in the country, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn said at a meeting with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. The parties discussed the implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine and reforms in the country, ITAR-TASS reports.Poroshenko described the visit of the European Commissioner as "evidence of the support that the European Commission is providing for reform efforts of the Ukrainian authorities and as evidence of solidarity between Europe and the Ukrainian people at one of the most difficult times in our history."
However, experts are wary of talking about the unconditional support rendered by all European countries to Kiev. Thus, the deputy director of the CIS Institute, Vladimir Zharikhin, believes that talking about a general attitude in Europe is like talking about the average temperature in a hospital: "There are countries which remained the same, and after they joined the European Union it has gotten worse. Such countries, in fact, are not leaders, they are being led. They have the opportunity, so to speak, to carry out irresponsible policues and make irresponsible statements, because in fact they have no influence on the actual decision-making. On the other hand, there is a group of responsible countries which are traditionally recognized as the great European powers. They also have different positions, but of course, France and Germany, as the major euro shareholders, realize the strangeness of the situation. A situation in which world energy prices are falling, but the currency of the country which is an exporter of energy is somehow growing, while the currencies of countries which import energy are declining, although it should be the other way around... The euro is losing against the dollar because of the unsettled situation in Ukraine. And this leads to the fact that euro owners, owners of assets in euros and thus all European capitalists, are losing money and do not like it." According to Zharikhin, French, German and Ukrainian oligrachs are interested in stabilizing the situation in Ukraine. An expert of the International Institute of Humanitarian and Political Studies, Vladimir Bruter, noted that the surrender of Debaltsevo did not lead to any drastic conflicts in Kiev. "The behavior of Poroshenko in the framework of Kiev's domestic political squabbles shows that his position has become weaker. To use a chess analogy, he is currently defending himself on the tenth horizontal line and not on the ninth. All of his figures, in fact, are already off the chess board, nobody cares about what he thinks anymore."
However, according to Bruter, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk cannot be the leader of Ukraine: "He will not be accepted as such, because the leaders of Western Ukraine are not perceived well, neither in Kiev, nor in Central Ukraine. It will be a great danger if Ukraine is headed by a Greek-Catholic. The public majority is not ready for it yet."
What does Europe think about the situation in Ukraine?
The deputy director of the CIS Institute, Vladimir Zharihin, talks about the attitude of European countries towards events in Ukraine. The coup d'état in Kiev which took place on February 22, 2014 marks the beginning of the history of "a new Ukraine".
The general attitude in Europe is like the average temperature in a hospital. There are different countries with different views and positions. There are countries which remained the same and after they joined the European Union it has gotten worse. Such countries, in fact, are not leaders, they are being lead. They have the opportunity, so to speak, to conduct irresponsible politics and make irresponsible statements, because in fact they have no influence on the actual decision-making. And therefore they target Moscow, they support Ukraine, all kinds of... and so on and so forth.
On the other hand, there is a group of responsible countries which are traditionally recognized as the great European powers. They also have different positions, but of course, France and Germany, as the major euro shareholders, realize the strangeness of the situation. A situation in which world energy prices are falling, but the currency of the country which is an exporter of energy is somehow growing, while the currencies of countries which import energy are declining, although it should be the other way around. But because in Europe, apart from, well, maybe Greece, to a certain extent there is also the Ukrainian factor, the euro is losing against the dollar because of the unsettled situation in Ukraine. And this leads to the fact that euro owners, owners of assets in euros and thus all European capitalists are losing money and do not like it. And in their speeches their representatives, certainly the representatives of France and Germany, are interested at least temporarily in stabilizing the situation, at least with the help of military actions provided by articles 1, 2 and 3, understanding that it is impossible to enforce the 11th article or, for example, the 9th article, which provides for a long-term stabilization of the situation in Ukraine. I believe that, including even the Ukrainian oligarchs, they find it necessary to stabilize the situation. That's why there is all this talk that Right Sector will not obey, etc. He said out loud: "We will not obey. We will continue to fight." Everyone heard this, but then they quietly said the next day, as became known from the Internet: "Well, we will honor this agreement," that's what they said. Why? Because they all depend on Ukrainian oligarchs, whose assets are diminishing with each day. And they know it. They are losing money as we speak. They also need a break now.
So I think that after all, considering all the factors, it will be difficult for the Ukrainian side, for Kiev, to violate the terms of the February agreement. All the great powers too, as well as a significant number of Ukrainian oligarchs, are more interested in it than they were at the time of the September agreements.
