The International Monetary Fund has approved a US$17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche arrived on Wednesday.
It’s essential to identify the conditions attached to this Mafia-style “loan”. Nothing remotely similar to reviving the Ukrainian economy is in play. The scheme is inextricably linked to the IMF’’s notorious, one-size-fits-all “structural adjustment” policy, known to hundreds of millions from Latin America and Southeast Asia to Southern Europe.
The regime changers in Kiev have duly complied, launching the inevitable austerity package – from tax hikes and frozen pensions to a stiff, over 50% rise on the price of natural gas heating Ukrainian homes. The “Ukrainian people” won’t be able to pay their utility bills this coming winter. More … https://web.archive.org/web/20150919055843/http://www.rt.com/op-edge/157308-ukrainian-crisis-imf-loans/
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times Online, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia
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