The book, which is expected to be sold at a 400 percent markup according to the publication, has already become an underground top hit after it was leaked to a Ukrainian online book-sharing site, where it is currently the seventh most-downloaded book of all time. In the book, Azarov explains the underlying reasons for Ukraine's dire economic state today.
"[2013] was a very difficult year for the Ukrainian economy," Azarov writes in the chapter The Maidan and the Coup. "The main destabilizing factors were the shrinking of exports, the decrease in price for our goods, high natural gas prices and a large volume of payments on external and internal debt. The situation was exacerbated by the rigid monetary position of our National Bank."
"2014 is an example of [why the EU association was not an option]. Of course, one can devaluate the hryvnia, provoke breakneck inflation, raise tariffs and prices, cut all budget expenditures, get IMF loans in exchange," Azarov wrote. "But the retribution for these decisions will be an economic crisis, a decrease in the population's standard of living, and as a side effect, a sharp increase in the debt burden."
The book, which has already become a bestseller in Russia, outselling even autobiographies of prominent Russian politicians, is expected to become available for sale in Ukraine in mid-March.
