By Vestnik Kavkaza
In the past hours, in Paris, a meeting of the foreign ministers' Normandy Quartet has been taking place. "The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine discuss the problems the implementation of agreements reached at the meeting of the "Quartet Norman" in Minsk. Ukrainian Minister Pavel Klimkin going to raise the issue at the meeting on entering of UN peacekeepers at Ukraine. But in Moscow view of such proposals is critical.
The supply of gas remains another obstacle between Russia and Ukraine. "Naftogaz of Ukraine" does not consider it possible to make an additional advance payment for the supply of Russian gas until it receives reasonable assurance of the continued compliance of the contract on the part of Gazprom, a report of Naftogaz states. "The main source of imported gas for Ukraine today is Europe. Therefore, the perfect fulfillment of our obligations to transport gas to the EU is our continued strategy," says the head of Naftogaz, Andrew Kobolev.
Meanwhile, the head of the Center for Strategic Development of the CIS countries of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, director of the Institute of Strategic Planning and Forecasting, Professor Alexander Gusev, thinks that "Ukraine has lost Europe."
"Ukraine today is not an independent state. The main moderator of all these processes in Ukraine is the United States. The White House and Wall Street have their fingers on the pulse. Ukraine has lost Europe. She lost the understanding of the Europeans. Only seven countries out of 28 have ratified the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. They decided that all 28 countries have to ratify this agreement, and it enters into force. But this did not happen. Moreover, the EU countries, including Poland and Germany, have tightened quotas on products and production, as well as quotas for Ukrainians to visit these countries. And the pioneers of this process are Poland and Germany," said Gusev.
The question relating to the economic part of the Association Agreement with the EU, according to experts, is very difficult. "Drawing in a country like Ukraine, whose national debt is approaching $140 billion, the Europeans are not ready for it... Ukraine has been in a recession for a long time. The country is bankrupt, a country that cannot pay its obligations. Foreign exchange
reserves decreased to 7.5 billion dollars, they have fallen three-fold in comparison with 2013 year. The debt to the IMF alone is 15 billion euros. And they have to repay it before the end of 2015. Plus, interest of 1.5 billion. Total: 16,500,000,000," calculated Gusev.
According to him, "the money that the International Monetary Fund lends will be used primarily to repay the loan that the IMF gave Ukraine a few years ago. What Poroshenko, Yatseniuk and Turchynov are hoping for in this regard is not clear. But we treat Ukraine with love with understanding. It is not the people of Ukraine that are fighting, the Kiev authorities are. And the people of Ukraine are a brotherly, friendly people to us."
