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  1. #11
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    If one looks at the announcements today out of Kiev---they did include a protection for the lower working class and poor, it looks like they are cutting 10% of the bloated government which was the old Soviet overhang anyway, and are wanting to have the oligarchs' be taxed (no argument of out them was heard) to support the rest of the population and they are rising natural gas prices which were the cheapest in the east bloc together with raising gasoline prices also the cheapest in the east.

    Then it appears they are shifting their natural gas purchases towards the EU via the Slovakian gas line that is being set up and they are while saying publicly they will be paying over $400 for gas they are still holding to the legal treaty rate of $285 and are threatening to take Russia to court for the 1.4B in military equipment Russia took effectively locking up Russia in an ongoing court case they will in fact lose in the end.

    On top of that they are raising the water and electrical rates to the Crimea, and by having dropped out of the CIS they can hit Russia shipments to the Crimea which go through the Ukraine twice once at the Russian border and again at the Crimea border with custom charges. On the top of that Ukrainian banks hold over 20B in Crimea assets ie mortgages, business loans etc that the Crimea will have to work out if they would to reregister all their companies and properties inside Russia otherwise they cannot sell a thing to any outside investor due to the inherent risks of not knowing who owns what which has been the problem with the Georgian and Moldaivan enclaves.

    The EU dropping of customs on Ukrainian products hits mid to end of April saving another 600M USD on their exports and will draw exports once headed to Russia towards the EU--by the way Russia has been blockading their exports now for a number of weeks ie meat and wheat for "safety" reasons--started before the Crimea.

    And they have formed a money chasing team to track down the embezzled monies of the former President and company which should recoup another 200-300M.

    So I am not so worried about the financial immediate future ---it is the ongoing proRussian provocations and the underlying assumption by Putin and Co. that they have a right in rewriting the Ukrainian constitution which they have voiced a number of times in the last two weeks.

    While Russian claims to hold to the 21 Feb agreements they in fact never signed them.
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 03-27-2014 at 05:55 PM.

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