Martin Wolf: Resist Russia’s blackmail over Ukraine’s debt
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyk (R) and Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko (L) attend a Parliament session in Kiev on Sept. 17, 2015.
A man murders his parents and then begs for the mercy of the court as a poor orphan. This is a definition of barefaced cheek. We have a new one. On a flimsy pretext, a country seizes some of a neighbour’s territory and foments a civil war in the rest. But it also insists that if a debt incurred by its ruined victim is not paid in full, it will veto the international assistance its actions have made vital. This is how Russia is behaving towards Ukraine. That, too, is barefaced cheek. It is also blackmail. Such behaviour is hardly surprising. It must not succeed.
