I'm getting the impression that the US are not liking Merkel's involvement with Klitschko/UDAR, at least it's
this article from several days ago that suggests it may be the case. The US diplomat and ambassador to Ukraine are seriously considering the idea of allowing Tyagnybok anywhere
near the government, which I think is not particularly surprising and doesn't suggest that they care about what a fascist with significant influence could bring.
I don't remember
where I read it but I do remember reading that Ukraine needs $35 billion to keep itself afloat over the next 2 years or something along the lines of that.
In the end, more than the fair fight of ukrainians for democracy, this is a war of blocks and of world influence between Russia, the UE and the US.
You're right, Vlad. Ukraine is in pre-bankrupcy. In fact, it already was. This year, 2014, Ukraine has to pay €13 billion (in "european" we'd say "€13 000 milions"). Russia was supposed to "lend" €15 billion this year, to "ensure" the payments. Standard & Poors have already explained that, without this russian capital injection, the economic collapse is guaranteed. Specially because of all this situation, obviously, now Russia is hesitating in giving that money.
On the other hand, the US - and the EU - (disguised in the IFM clothes) has already stated, as I said, that they have a bailout ready if Ukraine requires it... But, Olli Rehn and Christine Lagarde have already explained that Ukraine will only see these fresh dollars if the country commits to introduce "structural economic reforms" [Olli Rehn/Merkel to the PIIGS, anyone?]. Plus, the US Departement has already asked for Ukraine to get a "technocratic government of national unity" (like Monti in Italy, like Papademos in Greece, like this 3-party-"consensus" in Portugal... like the "national unities" in South America in the 1960/70's...). With the strategic importance of Ukraine and with what's been done to other countries in similar situations in the past, the only possible translation is: "give us your actives and we'll keep you connected to the credit machine.
As a portuguese journalist described, Ukraine is just leaving jail to enter into an equualy tough and tight probation.
Chris Floyd made the following analogy (I'm having trouble finding the original in english, so I'm translating back to english from the portuguese translation):
Try to imagine that thousands of supporters of the Tea Party, for example, had declared the elected government of Barack Obama too corrupt and illegitimate to continue, putting up an armed camp in the middle of Washington, occupying for months the Treasury Building and the Justice Department, while meeting with Chinese and Russian leaders, who then began to require that a "transitional government" to establish itself in the White House. What would be the reaction of the government? There is no doubt that it would make Yanukovich's actions look like a catechism picnic.
I'm afraid that, on the other hand, we're not just watching a US/EU/Russia war, not only the fight of ukrainians for the right to a cleaner and more democratic regime, but also to the beginning of a civil war.
It never was a secret that Ukraine was born of fragments of an older Ukraine and pieces of extinct countries and communities. The neonazi and extreme-right movements in Ukraine (and, in a certain way, in other Eastern Europe countries) don't exist or didn't come up from nothing, there's an historical-sociological reason behind it. And Ukraine might be on the verge of a war between an East side of a population with mostly russian speakers, and a Western side where the ukrainian is the predominant language.
In fact, the Svoboda Party (means "Freedom", to hide its opposite real agenda), the extreme-right party had very good electoral results over the past years. The Svoboda history descends from Nazi organizations that collaborated with Hitler's troops, including being integrated in the SS, murdering jews, communists and polish. Then, it changed its name to National Socialist Party, while using a stylization of the swastika. Today it exists as the Svoboda.
The Svoboda, in the last general elections made a parliamentary coalition of opposition with the UDAR (the same Klitschko's party who's been financed by Germany's and Merkel's CDU/CSU) and the Tymoshenko's Party, in order to overthrow the government that existed.
Plus, in the last elections, the Svoboda had brilliant results in the Western side of the country, while, the more you go to the East, it had disastrous results. For instance, in the provinces closer to Russian and in the Crimea Autonomous Region (another headache for Ukraine in terms of territorial cohesion) it had 1-2%. In the center, it had 5-15%. But in the regions closer to Poland, Hungary and the more you go to the west, there are regions where the Svoboda obtained 30, 32 or 38%.
And in these regions where the Svoboda won the elections, the first thing it did was, not only to forbid the russian as second official language, but they also stormed the headquarters of the parties voting in the majority of the Ukrainian population that speaks Russian and banned its activity.
We may be towards a case where civilization is a thin veneer, just like in Yugoslavia. The difference is that, this time, people live in a territory filled with nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, the US, the EU and Russia are playing to the cold wars with each other.
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