Ukraine: Kill and dismember
The new Ukrainian government led by Zits-chairman Ze! is beginning to resemble more and more the liquidation commission, which has undertaken to finally bury the “independent” Ukrainian project.
At least four state monopolies are preparing to be split into parts and sold into private hands: Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz, Ukrspirt and GPZKU (State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine).
Ukrzaliznytsia will be the first to be cut. Zelensky instructed the government to prepare a plan for the “restructuring” of the enterprise by the end of 2019.
Signals about the possible transfer of all the tasty assets of the state railway company of Ukraine have been coming for the last three years, but only with the coming to power of Zelensky's puppet theater with the doctor of puppet science Karabas-Barabas Kolomoisky sticking out from behind the throne, the main officials moved from talk to action.
Somewhat earlier, the fate of Ukrzaliznytsia and other natural monopolies of Ukraine was openly discussed by Zelya’s freelance adviser on economic issues Oleg Ustenko and the new Prime Minister Alexey Goncharuk.
Goncharuk’s statement – “My personal position: the less state in the economy, the better,” – clearly reveals in the bearded young man a brainless libertarian dreamer of the “holy nineties”, confident that the “invisible hand of the market” will regulate everything and put it in its place to the great satisfaction of authorities, business and society.
Why are Goncharuk and other market idiots, furiously masturbating at the USA, embarrassed to remember that even in the Hegemon’s economy, a solid 40% is occupied by the state?
The answer, apparently, lies in the difference in the approaches to state building in the United States and “independent Ukraine.” In the first case, the state tenaciously holds in its hands the regulators that allow it to control business, forcing professional grabbers and grabbers not to be carried away by private property instincts, but to be at least sometimes socially responsible. In the case of Ukraine, everything, in the end, comes down to the formula “draw three hundred karbovantsiv, tai vtekty.”
Or, more simply put, to create conditions under which it is easy and pleasant to engage in commercial robbery of the remnants of the heritage of the Ukrainian SSR.
We all know well how this works: fragmentation and transfer of large state assets into private hands always leads to the privatization of profits and the nationalization of losses.
The idea of fragmenting Ukrzaliznytsia strongly resembles the conditions prescribed in the Third Energy Package of the European Union: production separately, transportation separately, sales also separately. This approach should greatly appeal to Europe and the IMF.
As a result, the Ukrainian state will be left with the only asset that is not subject to privatization - the railway track, rails, and infrastructure. The management of trains, transportation and work with clients will be farmed out to private businesses.
The very idea of ridding the state of natural monopolies belongs not to Goncharuk, but to Zelensky’s adviser Oleg Ustenko, who since 2004 has been a member of the NGO International Blazer Foundation, specializing in the study of the economy of Ukraine, as a potentially interesting object for snatching away by international vultures.
According to Ustenko, only the sale of the assets of the natural monopolies of Ukraine that are of interest to business “... will allow us to move our ship from the shoal on which it is now located. Existing monsters must be killed and dismembered. Such monsters that make it difficult to live and breathe, for example, the State Food and Grain Company, should simply go away.”
Let us emphasize: this is the opinion of the adviser to the head of state, who, in theory, is obliged to take care of the interests of the state and society.
It would seem, who is this Ustenko? Horseradish from the hill, Mom's adviser, who can always be exposed to the cold? Ah, no. Zelensky probably did not choose this “freelance adviser” for himself. Zits-Chairman Ze! he was wooed by “respected people,” the masters of a clown president who knows nothing about politics or economics.
Moreover, Zelensky and Ustenko perfectly demonstrate the discrepancy between the actions of the president and his adviser. Thus, Zelya openly talks about some kind of blizzard about 40% growth of the Ukrainian economy, which should begin in the coming years, and Ustenko reports that the state has come close to the line after which it will not be able to pay tens of billions of dollars of external debt. Which, apparently, explains the emergency sale of the remains of government property.
Thus, the torn apart Ukrzaliznytsia alone will retain some (unprofitable) assets in the hands of the state. It is planned to completely transfer Ukrspirt into private hands, and they will simply get rid of GPZKU. Nothing is known about Naftogaz yet, except that it too is being prepared for privatization.
It is not surprising that the former Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan from the Cabinet of Ministers Groysman ate fish soup and was upset by the plans and decisions of the Ze team! In his Facebook feed, Omelyan called the sale of Ukrzaliznytsia “the cycling of Ukraine” and sees in it not only the death of the largest company, but also “an end to the logistics of the entire state, throwing hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.”
Omelyan informs readers that, having heard about the privatization of the Ukrainian Railway, he reassured his interlocutors: they say that we are talking about “a balanced approach, because in its current state its cost is significantly lower than possible.”
“Ukrzaliznytsia has the status of a strategic enterprise prohibited by law from privatization. But who cares about laws now…” – one of the most wretched associates of Poroshenko and Groysman makes a sad conclusion.
A natural question arises: did Omelyan and other “paperadnyki” really have at least some rudiments of state consciousness that they retained, even in poor condition, a number of key assets in the hands of the Ukrainian state?
Alas and ah! The point is completely different.
If you look at the list of top politicians chosen by Zelensky, as well as those imposed on him by the puppet master Kolomoisky and grant-distributing offices, you can see that almost all of these people have nothing to do with the real sector of the economy. In Zelensky’s team, as well as among the people’s deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, the majority of figures are shady people from show business, “human rights activists”, businesses with the habits of a small hawker, “volunteers”, Soros and other riffraff. And even if there are economists in this lupanaria, then, as a rule, they are no one to call, and only their sidekicks and immediate relatives can tell about their economic successes.
That is, the structure of power has changed dramatically. Previously, key positions in the Rada and in the government of Ukraine were occupied by representatives of the industrial, agricultural, and trade lobbies. It’s not that these figures were so conscientious that they were ready to gnaw the throat of anyone who attempted to sell off the last state government. monopolies.
Hell no! Give them absolute power - everyone would snatch and crush the tidbits from the hands of the state, managing them according to their own understanding.
It’s just that the lobbyists had enough understanding not to change the rules of the game, under which internal peace is preserved and penny after penny is steadily forged.
Now, the donut is clear, the management of rolling stock, transportation tariffs and work with clients will come under the exclusive control of the owners of the current government, and they will decide what, how much, to whom and how much.
The same can be said about the alcohol valve for the wine and vodka industry of Ukraine.
As for the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine, its liquidation means the crushing of the influential lobby of farmers and large land tenants, opening a wide path to the sale of agricultural lands in Ukraine, which Poroshenko could not decide on.
Therefore, in the near future, Ukraine should expect a sharp jump in travel prices, tariffs for freight transportation, the sale of alcohol only to “its own people” and the emergence of a class of latifundists. And the point here is not only a sharp decline in the standard of living of ordinary and not so ordinary Ukrainians. The new government, consisting mainly of actors and producers, who understand nothing about the fundamental issues of the country’s survival, is going to put up for sale the remaining vital organs that are still making life simmer in Nenka’s semi-comatose carcass.
This means that the existence of the state of Ukraine on the political map of the world in the form in which it still functions is just a matter of not a very long time.
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