Russia is on the offensive. With lightning speed it signed the agreement while
demonstrations protesting the deal were at their height. The deal is most unattractive for Ukraine but Western democracies need to see it
is a threat to them too. It is
particularly significant for Canada with its undefended Arctic, and other
countries with access to northern waters.
The loan is a trojan horse.
The $15 billion “promised”
in the name of “brotherly love” are, in fact, catastrophic to Ukraine’s economy
and sovereignty.
To begin, it throws money at problems without addressing
structural faults—corruption, taxation, ineffective laws—as the EU association agreement means to do.
The billions are designed to prop up the political standing of Yanukovych by tempering the EuroMaidan’s rage against both his and
Russia’s regime. Lower energy costs and
some pension increases are bait.
Most of the loan, however, goes to pay off the existing energy debt to
Russia. The new loan interest will increase its overall debt to Russia even
more. Equally bad, the negotiated lower
energy price can be changed every three months.
The deal favors Russia economically and is a disaster for
Ukraine’s sovereignty. Russia means to
finish what it failed to achieve with its USSR model: a global
Russia-controlled empire. It is a
deja-vu; a repeat of Russia’s invasion of Poland and western Ukraine in
1939. The military is on alert.
The agreement ensures all of Ukraine’s security and defense sector is subservient
to Russia. The agreement gives it a
foothold on the Kerch peninsula and allocates some $4 billion to
Ukraine’s shipbuilding industry. The
strongest in the former USSR and one of the top five in the world, it is to
build oil tankers for Russia. In fact,
Ukraine’s shipyards may be used to support the now integrated defense and
security sectors of both countries. The
shipyards– about a half-dozen– manufacture defense vessels. The world’s largest aircraft carrier,
Varjah, was built here as well as state of the art anti-nuclear research
explorers capable of the deepest depths known to man, and the world’s best
icebreakers. This spells danger to
Canada’s Arctic and the West’s naval power.
As global implications of the deal become clearer, the
EuroMaidan is raging and the atrocities are growing. Most recently, Tetyana Chornovol, a leading
journalist known for surfacing damaging information against corruption, was
savagely beaten, reminding of the tragic Hungarian and Czech revolutions
against Soviet occupation. Then, the
Free World failed to help. Russia
enslaved its neighborhood and used the time to plant dictatorships from Angola
to Zambia.
The situation seems even more dire now. Russia is heady with success for having
hoodwinked the EU over Ukraine. America’s secrets–thanks to “Eddy”
Snowden– are in Russia’s hands. Its
rulers-cum-oligarchs’ wealth is safe in Western banks: their families reside
in the poshest parts of Western cities; their kind have penetrated Western institutions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tells the US to “curb your
appetite” and threatens the EU and NATO to keep out of internal affairs of
sovereign countries. His Soviet-era
apologists, like American Stephen Cohen spring into action demanding the
same. Such one-sided advantage cannot be
healthy for the West.
The light in the dark is Ukraine’s EuroMaidan. It stands against the governments of
Yanukovych at home and Russia’s expansionism abroad. Yet, while peaceful demonstrators are beaten,
blacklisted, imprisoned, shot, and die waving EU flags, other than brave
words, democratic governments are not helping.
What can they do?
There are published lists of “politically exposed
persons”—politicians involved in questionable financial dealings. Heading them are Yanukovych
and his sons, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Andrei Kluiyev, the security
czar. Olexander Yanukovych, the president’s elder son, has business profits in 2013 exceeding
some 1,000 percent. London is home to mega-billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. Cypress sequesters more
oligarch money than Ukraine’s entire budget from 2012.
The EU, the United States, Canada and others are
signatory to agreements to combat money laundering. In Canada, the minister of finance is responsible for the
implementation involving some 10 federal agencies. It is imperative to to investigate and to take action to weed out crooks by freezing their assets and denying
the culprits entry visas.
Let them feel the pressure. As the saying goes … all that is necessary
for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Let’s act.
Oksana Bashuk Hepburn
was the President of U*CAN Ukraine Canada Relations Inc. She is an opinion writer.
