Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 04 Mar 2014 08:02 AM PST
Combo made of file pictures shows businessman Igor Kolomoisky (left) and Serhiy Taruta, Ukrainian businessman.
The self-proclaimed government in Kiev has appointed two of Ukraine’s richest men to govern large industrial regions in the defiant east. One of the reasons for the Maidan protest was the influence the rich have on politics in the country.
The appointments of new governors of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk Regions are among 18 made on Sunday by Kiev, which is struggling to consolidate power after the coup which ousted President Yanukovich last month.
The newly-appointed Dnepropetrovsk governor is a Jewish man named Igor Kolomoysky, Ukraine’s third-wealthiest man, with an estimated fortune of $2.4 billion. He co-owns the informal commercial group Privat, which includes Ukraine’s largest bank Privatbank, which Kolomoysky heads, as well as assets in the oil, ferroalloys and food industries, agriculture and transport.
A former ally of Yulia Tymoshenko, Kolomoysky reportedly had a falling out with her and refused to finance her election campaign in 2010, which the ex-prime minister subsequently lost to Yanukovich. Kolomoysky was reported to be a principal sponsor of the UDAR party, which is one of the three fueling the street campaign to oust Yanukovich. Kolomoysky has a dual Ukrainian-Israeli citizenship and controls his business empire from Switzerland.
The new governor of Donetsk Region is also a Jewish man named, Sergey Taruta, who is estimated to worth around $2 billion, putting him among the top-10 wealthiest people in Ukraine. He heads ISD, one of the biggest mining and smelting companies in the world, and also own Donetsk-based Metallurg Football Club. In addition, the current Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk, is also Jewish. One may say that this is a Israeli takeover of Ukraine.
Not a stranger to politics, he used to sponsor Viktor Yushchenko, who came to power in Ukraine after the Orange Revolution of 2004. Among his personal habits is a reputed love for luxurious jewelry and ostentatious gold statues, reports RT’s Peter Oliver.
The appointments will have “a positive effect on the regional aspect,” believes Vladimir Groisman, who was appointed vice-president for regional development in the self-installed government.
“They are well-known and wealthy people. They had a choice – they could by a plane ticket or fly their own plane and go to another country and wait for the developments there. Or they could take responsibility. I respect their choice,” he said.
Among the accusations mounted on Yanukovich by protesting crowds in Kiev was the charge that he used his presidential power to take over assets of Ukrainian businessmen and make an illegal fortune for himself and his allies. Some Ukraine observers suggested that the oligarchs, threatened by presidential greed, financed the Maidan protests, seeing them as leverage on the government.
After his ouster, photos from Yanukovich’s opulent residence of gilded furniture and a private zoo in suburban Kiev made headlines worldwide. There is little doubt that many of those who sought to topple him for being corruptly enriched would eye the appointment of affluent businessmen to offices of power with a deal of suspicion.
The feeling is palpable in many comments in Ukrainian media.
“That’s good news. I’m tired of those businessmen in power,” said one sarcastic commenter at the site of the Ukrainskaya Pravda a leading online news service.
“It’s OK. The oligarchs have been controlling the regions anyway. I think they will provide order, because only they have the authority, unlike some middle-rank appointees,” soothes another one.
“Are they handing out fiefs? I’m sick of it. Is that what the people died for at the Maidan?” another commenter says.

There is also the regional aspect, which Groisman mentioned. The better-developed industrial east of Ukraine depends on business ties with Russia and would be hurt badly by the EU association agreement, which the new government wants to sign as soon as possible. Mistrust towards Kiev is growing in the east, with several regions already declaring they would not be taking orders from the capital.
The defiant regions seek greater autonomy from the central authorities. Having the right to elect their own governors as opposed to have them appointed in Kiev, is one of the demands regularly voiced at the protest rallies in eastern and southern Ukraine.
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Posted: 04 Mar 2014 06:50 AM PST

A Russian official says potential sanctions by Washington against Moscow would lead to the “crash” of the US financial system and end its global financial domination.
Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev said on Tuesday that Russia will reduce its economic dependency on the United States if Washington decides to impose sanctions against Moscow over the issue of Ukraine.
“We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves,” Glazyev said, adding that Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions.
“An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system.”
The comments came a day after US President Barack Obama threatened Russia with sanctions.
If Russia continues its deployment of troops in Ukraine’s Crimea, the United States will take a “series of steps – economic, diplomatic – that will isolate Russia and will have a negative impact on Russia’s economy and its status in the world,” Obama stated.
In an interview with a US news network a day earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry also warned Russian President Vladimir Putin over the deployment of Russian troops to Crimea, saying Russia could be ousted from the G8 developed nations if it continues on present path.
Kerry also threatened that Washington could target Russia’s state-run financial institutions and freeze assets of top-ranking Russian officials involved in the Crimea crisis.
Moscow’s military deployment to Crimea comes after Russia’s parliament gave the green-light to president Putin to use military forces to protect its interests in the Black Sea territory.
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Posted: 04 Mar 2014 06:22 AM PST


Russian-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom has threatened to disrupt gas supplies to Europe following warnings by John Kerry and others that harsh economic sanctions could be imposed on Moscow, as the Ukraine crisis threatens to spiral into a trade war.
“Simmering political tensions in Ukraine, that are aggravated by inadequate economic conditions, may cause disruptions of gas supplies to Europe,” the company announced today.
Although the monopoly said it would attempt to reduce export risks, Gazprom’s chief financial officer Andrei Kruglov cautioned that Ukraine had failed to fulfil its debt obligations. This followed Gazprom spokesperson Sergai Kupriyanov’s warning on Saturday that Ukraine would see its account with Gazprom canceled as a result of an overdue tab of $1.5 billion dollars.
Although the warning of a gas disruption to Europe is not being characterized as political payback, it would be naive to think otherwise. The Financial Times describes Gazprom’s monopoly as a “formidable weapon to deploy against Ukraine,” noting that, “conflict with Russia would imperil one of the transit routes for gas to Europe” and lead to higher prices.
Despite being partly privatized, since 2005 the Russian government has held a controlling share in Gazprom. Moscow is currently embroiled in a standoff with Ukraine and Europe over its military occupation of Crimea, a situation British Foreign Secretary William Hague today described as the “biggest crisis” to face Europe in the 21st century.
Gazprom’s announcement follows vehement threats made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to “isolate Russia economically,” crash the rouble and impose other crippling sanctions.
Behind the alarming military maneuvers that have raised tensions since the overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected government, a more complex deep state agenda is being played out in the context of energy.
The recent improvement in fracking technologies has opened up eastern Europe to major oil companies such as Chevron, who have been very active in western Ukraine, Poland and Romania over the last two years, signing agreements to commence drilling operations in these countries
“The development of gas fields in these regions poses a direct competitive threat to the near-monopoly currently held by the Russian national oil company, Gazprom,” writes Charles Hugh Smith. “This sets up a scramble for energy, where western Ukraine, Poland, Romania and the EU have powerful financial incentives to develop energy sources outside of Russian control, while Russia has an incentive to secure energy resources and assets in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.”
Gazprom (ie Moscow) fears that US-based multinational gas and oil firms will displace their monopoly by drilling new wells and selling to Germany and other Gazprom customers at cheaper prices.
“The extent to which US-based multinational oil and gas firms are directly displacing Russian enterprises in supplying the EU is remarkable. Chevron and Exxon are very prominent in the emerging offshore and shale plays,” writes Smith’s source.
“I think the imminent threat of Ukrainian shale gas development is a factor in forcing Putin’s hand over the EU trade deal. Putin’s regional Great Power ambitions are backed entirely by strong arm hydrocarbon diplomacy. Putin’s domestic political position equally rests on stable and elevated hydrocarbon prices to fund the state budget.”
While there are undoubtedly a number of different military objectives being pursued on both sides of the conflict, an important facet that has been largely ignored is the west’s bid to eviscerate Russia’s ability to set natural gas prices and in turn reduce NATO’s dependence on Gazprom in pursuit of the wider agenda to geopolitically isolate Moscow.
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Posted: 04 Mar 2014 06:12 AM PST

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has called for new talks with North Korea on allowing families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War to exchange letters and hold video conferences.
Park urged her cabinet on Tuesday to push for talks with North Korea on letter exchanges and video reunions for separated families.
“Many families do not have time to wait any more,” said Park, adding that more than 6,000 people every year should be allowed to meet with relatives from the other side.
The South Korean presidential office said the annual figure would allow all separated families to see their loved ones at least once before they die.
Last week, South Korea made a formal proposal to North Korea to hold family reunions on regular basis, but Pyongyang has not responded to the offer.
Millions of Koreans who were split by war have been waiting to reunite since the Korean War ended in a ceasefire in 1953. No peace deal has been signed since then, meaning that North and South Korea remain technically at war.
The two Koreas have held 19 family reunions since the first event in 1985. The latest one took place between February 20 and 25 at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort, during which more than 800 family members met.
Some 22,000 Koreans have had the chance to briefly meet with relatives. Some 18,000 of those Koreans have met relatives in person and the remaining have seen each other by video.
Neither North Korea nor South Korea has ever allowed a second chance for their citizens to meet their relatives across the border. Both countries forbid ordinary citizens from visiting each other and even exchanging phone calls, letters and emails.
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Posted: 04 Mar 2014 03:44 AM PST

Weather continues to cause trouble in the United States, as yet another powerful snowstorm is blanketing the mid-Atlantic region and the East Coast on Monday.
Much like previous storms, the latest is cancelling flights, clogging up roads, and knocking out power from Maryland and Washington, DC, to states as far south as Arkansas and Texas.
In DC, as much as 10 inches of snow is expected to drop in some areas, causing the federal government to close its doors for the day alongside schools. According to Reuters, Congress delayed votes as a result of the weather, though the Supreme Court was still expected to hear its scheduled arguments.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the surrounding DC area until 6 p.m. Monday. In Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia, governors have each declared a state of emergency.
“From the nation’s capital up through Baltimore and into Wilmington will get 6 to 10 inches and close to a foot in some places, especially across central Maryland,” Carl Erickson, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., told Bloomberg News. “In New York, we officially have them in the 1-to-3-inch range.”
“The polar jet stream is really pushing down hard on the area so the storm system can’t push itself far north,” added New York-based weather service meteorologist Joey Picca to the publication. “It is really being shunted to the south and we are just going to get clipped.”
Those traveling through the skies, though, will have to contend with another wave of delays and cancellations. According to the airline tracking service FlightAware, more than 2,400 flights have been cancelled nationwide as of 11 a.m. Monday morning. Nearly 4,600 other flights have been delayed.
In the meantime, Amtrak is running fewer trains on a modified schedule, while New Jersey transit officials have cautioned commuters to expect delays and cancellations throughout Monday.
Since forecasters expect falling snow to turn into freezing rain, any accumulation of ice also presents the possibility that power lines could go down. Already, Bloomberg reported that more than 102,000 homes and businesses were without electricity as of 8 a.m. Of that total, roughly 80 percent of the customers affected were in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
According to a local Fox affiliate in Washington, DC, even the storm’s conclusion will brings little relief, as temperatures are expected to plunge for a number of days following the snowfall.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 10:54