Many were insulted by a letter from the International Monetary Fund to Ukraine’s presidential administration critical of the president’s bill on the High Anticorruption Court. Ukrainian VIPs proved to be touchy. Considering how they take offense at critical newspaper articles, imagine what they think when clerks, whom they find inferior, start writing to them directly. This insult brought forth two claims. First, corruption is not a problem in the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe. Second, we don’t even need the IMF. Those who seriously advance the first claim should see a shrink. The second claim, strenuously exploited by those close to power and the opposition, is much older and more menacing.
OP-ED
Serhiy Fursa: Can Ukraine survive without the IMF?
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko talk to journalists on Jan. 24.
