EU Officials Slammed for Trying to Bring Ukraine Into EU Fold On the Cheap

© Sputnik / Alexandr Demyanchuk / Go to the mediabankA burning one hryvnia bill on a gas burner
A burning one hryvnia bill on a gas burner - Sputnik International
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Commenting on a Financial Times piece suggesting that Russia's attempts to get Kiev to pay back its $3 bln debt constitutes 'blackmail', a diplomat from Russia's Embassy in Britain responded by pointing out that Kiev's economic crisis is more the result of Brussels' attempts to expand into Ukraine on the cheap, than of any actions on Russia's part.

On Tuesday, Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf wrote a piece where he suggested that Russia's attempts to get Ukraine to pay back its $3 billion debt constituted "blackmail."

With Ukraine trying to get Russia to join other creditors in refinancing and writing off a part of its debt, Wolf suggested that Moscow was subversively using a provision in the International Monetary Fund's rules which says that the organization cannot lend to countries with outstanding loans. Urging the West to 'stand up to Russia' and to protect reformers in Kiev, Wolf proposed that Ukraine's western allies need to find ways to lend Ukraine the money it needs, and to toughen sanctions against Moscow if it continues to 'misbehave.'

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk - Sputnik International
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Responding to the article Friday in FT's Letters section, Alexander Kramarenko, Minister-Councilor at Russia's Embassy in the UK, noted that "with all my respect for Martin Wolf, I cannot agree to his narrative on financial assistance to Ukraine."

In the diplomat's view, Kiev's economic problems, including its apparent inability to repay its debts is, at its core, the result of Brussels bureaucrats' mishandling of EU policies aimed at transforming the country in the aftermath of the Maidan revolution and the signing of the EU association agreement.

Kramarenko recalled that it has long been "clear to independent observers that the cost of bringing Ukraine to EU standards by way of the association agreement (plus a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement) would be huge. [Former] President Viktor Yanukovych, when confronted with this reality, calculated it to be between $20-30 billion a year over a period of eight to 10 years, [with] the implementation of both" meaning that the country would have to "get rid of its entire industrial base dating from Soviet times."

Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko speaks to deputies during a report for the fulfillment of the state budget in parliament, in Kiev, Ukraine, June 16, 2015 - Sputnik International
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Pointing out that EU policymakers have effectively ignored these assessments, Kramarenko noted that "the EU…chose to press ahead with what some call expansionism on the cheap, willing to provide only technical assistance. That is why the entire project has never been subject to a thorough and public debate. Otherwise, the issue of cost would have come up. What is more, Russia was supposed to bear much of the economic burden of [providing Kiev with] a 'soft landing'."

"Against this background," the diplomat notes, "the issue of the Russian government loan looks a pittance, almost as irrelevant as the whole Western strategy of managing [Ukraine] unilaterally, in spite of and against Russia."

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