You can’t make this up…

Strana.ua reports

US Embassy has voiced its opposition to preferences to Ukrainian coal

The Americans are unhappy about the government measures directed towards the support of the coal industry, which the Ukrainian government plans to enact.

Strana learned that the US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, in which she asked [the government] to “reject the idea of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry regarding the priority of purchasing electrical energy that was created using domestic coal (of the gaseous group) over that which was created using imported (anthracite coal).”

The ambassador puts forward the argument that last year the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine already blocked a similar project as a discriminatory and deterring competition on the market.

It says in the letter:

“We think that this suggested decision would in fact restrict the country’s access to diversified sources of energy, and that’s why it will weaken [her] energy security.” 

It is apparent that [the letter] talks about imports of coal from the US, which has already acquired a name in Ukraine: “Pennsylvania plus.”

In the letter it is, in fact, clearly suggested that “Pennsylvania plus” can, just in case, be cut off.

“Last year we celebrated Ukrainian purchase of coal from the US as a step towards energy security of your country. And the measures, that are currently being looked at, are seen as restricting Ukraine’s access to global markets.”

By the way, in 7 months of the current year, the share of anthracite from the US was 31% out of all coal imports. According to the scheme, “Pennsylvania plus”, [the Americans] have delivered 0.5 billion worth of coal.

It is also said in the letter that [giving] priority to the use of Ukrainian coal could cause the electrical energy to be more expensive, and would force the companies using electrical energy to limit their production of energy. This would lower the attractiveness of the Ukrainian energy market and could abort the privatisation of “Centrenergo”.

The authenticity of the letter was confirmed to us by the president of the Independent Union of Miners, Mikhail Volynets, who also posses an identical copy of the letter.

Interestingly, on 26 October there was a government meeting the topic of which was coal industry. According to Volynets, the protocol decision of this meeting  has emerged, the copy of which is also in possession of Strana.

The document contains the recommendation of the Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman to the Minister of Energy Nasalyk to take immediate measures to correct the situation until the end of this year.

Among the measures, the Ministry of Energy would within a week (which in fact ended last week) prepare a project of an act about the definition of priority of Ukrainian coal for the production of electrical energy.

The president of the Union of workers of the coal industry, Victor Turmanov who was presented at the meeting on 26 October confirmed to Strana they were promised money for modernisation of the shafts.

“We have asked for 4.8 billion hryvnia for the next year. In the projected budget there is only 650 million for liquidation of the shafts (the reform plans to close unpromising shafts) and 1.6 billion for everything else” 

According to his words if the money is received, in seven months we can expect increase in production from 11 thousand tons per day to 30 thousand tons.

“It will not happen sooner because we need to buy machines and go through modernisation.”

According to Turmanov the purchase of domestic coal is more lucrative because the imported coal is more expensive (currently the price is 110 dollars for a ton, and the price will only grow). But in order to switch to gaseous coal of the “G”mark, which is being mined in Ukraine, from the imported anthracite, the boilers would have to be refitted.

The situation at shafts is very tense. People did not receive their salary for several months.

***

Source

Earlier this blog reported Ukraine plans to buy 72% of her imported coal from Russia in 2019.

I am quoting Olga Pishchulina of the Razumkov Centre:

“At the beginning of cardinal economic transformation in Ukraine considerable scientific-technical and educational capital was saved up. But the crisis phenomena that has permanently accompanied Ukraine since 1991 and the inconsistency of those economic transformations that take place in the country have led to not really positive consequences. We are witnessing depreciation of human capital. Its value falls. Not only weak social groups, but also strong representatives of the middle class and representatives of small and medium business suffered in the course of economic transformations,”

…

“Ukraine is losing its intellectual capital, there is a deterioration in the state of health and the quality of education,”

Reprinted from Stalker Zone

I have devised a simple test…

Evropské Hodnoty (“European Values”) is a Czech think tank that, among other things, fights against “Russian disinformation”, and makes sure that the populace has opinions favourable to the unbreakable Transatlantic partnership. But there are sinners out there, like yours truly, who do not accept the whole package of correct beliefs. Or rather stray away completely from the right creed.

In 2016, European Values did a survey together with STEM, a Czech polling agency, which mapped the attitudes of Czechs towards subjects concerning Russian foreign policy. There were questions concerning Syria, which I will not cover here. However, I will tell you my opinion about particularly those questions concerning Ukraine, and Czech NATO membership.

38% of respondents think the Ukrainian crisis was caused by USA and NATO.

I think the Ukrainian crisis was a result of internal unhappiness of the oligarchs with the Yanukovych regime. However, without the blessing of the US State Department, I am unsure they would go ahead with supporting the Maidan. The Maidan and the post-Maidan government has enjoyed unwavering support of United States. So yes, I agree with the above statement, at least where the US is concerned.

30.6% of respondents believe fascist forces have a key influence upon the Ukrainian government.

When you have a government, which names streets after Bandera and Shukhevych, which institutes “Slava Ukrayini! Heroyim slava!”, a slogan modelled on “Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!”, as an army slogan, isn’t that government influenced by fascism? Isn’t it engaged in rehabilitation of fascism? Also, as I noted in my recent post, Ukraine is a country where expressions of fascism are excused and tolerated.

19.6% of respondents think organised Russian forces do not operate in Ukraine.

I also do not believe in Russia’s military non-involvement in Ukraine. But greater involvement would mean Ukrainian forces would not be so bold as they are now.

48.3% of Czechs would choose a position between East and West, and 39.4% would choose neutrality over NATO.

I do not think the Czech Republic has any natural enemies, and our NATO membership is an embarrassment in front of partners and allies. The Czech Republic has a joke of an army, with 12 APCs and antiquated fighters. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims the Czech Republic is committed to paying 2% of GDP that it is due but at present, the country simply does not. It is clear that this article of the budget is viewed as not important.

Austria is neutral and is doing fine…

55.6% of the public does not agree NATO should build its infrastructure on the territory of the Czech Republic.

We don’t need to be targets of Russian military.

SPLC has a report on their website about criminal proceedings over violence at rallies against the group “Rise Above Movement”…

This segment of the report is of particular interest to this website:

RAM has been making entreaties overseas, including in Italy, Germany and Eastern Europe. The FBI said Rundo, Miselis and Daley met with European white supremacy extremist groups, “including a group known as White Rex.”

FBI Special Agent Scott Bierwirth, in the criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday, noted that Right Brand Clothing’s Instagram page contained a photo of RAM members meeting with Olena Semenyaka, a leading figure within the fascist, neo-Nazi scene in Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, Semenyaka is an important voice within the Militant Zone and National Corps organizations and the Pan-European Reconquista movement, all of which have ties to the notorious Azov Battalion.

Bierwirth said Azov Battalion, now a piece of the Ukrainian National Guard, is known for neo-Nazi symbolism and ideology and has participated in training and radicalizing U.S.-based white supremacist organizations.

There you have it folks… Is Ukraine a centre for international Hitlerophilia?

Strana.ua reports…

Conscription campaign in Kiev is on the verge of collapse, as of beginning of November less than 40% were conscripted, said the head military commissar of Kiev, Sergey Klyavlin, reports press agency of the Kiev City State Administration.

“As of 5 November, we drafted into Military Forces of Ukraine 39.5% of conscripts according to plan. The turnout of draftees, who should have turned up to draft stations is critically low. In spring we almost did not have any failures, and now we are on the verge of collapse.”

According to the military commissar, the turnout is currently 8%.

“Citizens of Kiev have continued not turning up to draft stations. We are searching for them with the help of the National police, and we bring them to draft stations, where we determine whether they are fit for military service.”

He said the reason for low turnout is common negative attitude towards service in Military forces, drop in the wave of patriotic sentiment, spread of negative information about service in the army by the media, and overall low trust in military registration and enlistment offices.

Earlier Strana.ua reported that 80% of draftees are dodging the army.

Svidomites want Donbass back but without the people…

Mark Hordyenko is a “civic activist” from Odessa, leader of “Rada Hromadskoyi Bezpeky”, an organisation, whose major achievement appears to be collecting aid for Ukrainian soldiers fighting against Donbass people.

Here he is on 2 May 2014 on Kulikovo Pole:

And below is his recent Facebook rant, which seems to have been removed by the admins, or by Hordyenko himself. Below the screen shot is my translation…

Donbass is a cancerous tumour.

It always this way.

Crime, drinking miners, cult of the street and physical force.

When they tell us, that we need to return Donbass, give them a right to vote, pay billions of dollars for reconstruction, I understand this will not be a victory for Ukraine, it will be intoxication with the pitiful “Donbass does not sent empty wagons.”* Their whole world, poetry and dreams of the future are in this slogan.

They are cancer, and they hate us.

Should we liberate Donbass from the Russians? Yes we should.

But we cannot liberate the “people of Donbass” from themselves, so we have to stop saying the nonsense that they are also citizens of Ukraine. They are collaborators and traitors of Ukraine, and [they were] long before 2014.

Of course it is important to separate wheat from the chaff.

And defeated or liberated, they will hate us even more…

My suggestion

If ever, the territory of DNR and LNR comes under our control. 20 of military-civic administration is instituted. Elections are banned. Akhmetov, and not Ukrainian budget will finance the needs of the region.

If we are to agree to the Minsk variety, -Ukraine will be taken over by Putin through “hear Donbass out.”

I can hear [Donbass] out but I can’t understand, accept, forgive. Only through repentance and penitence…

And in 20 years, they might be forgiven, if they wouldn’t be forgotten.

The former president of Georgia, and former governor of Odessa, Mikheil Saakashvili published this curious text on his Facebook page…

It was accompanied by this video, which I gave subtitles to…

Starting next month , Ukrainians will pay for gas and heating 24% more. They are trying to convince you that it is inevitable, otherwise Ukraine would not receive an IMF credit, and would not be able to pay her debts, and would need to announce a default.

I will tell you now, my dear Ukrainians, things that will not be very nice but I have to say them. Yes indeed, in the opposite case, Ukraine would default -because YOUR budget is being shamelessly stolen by everyone, who isn’t lazy to do it. Yes indeed, the price hike under such total robbery was inevitable. Moreover, another price hike is awaiting you and with it lowering of your already low quality of life. And this everything because you have accepted that the country is run by thieves and bandits -all those innumerable, jowly Poroshenkos, Hroysmans, Avakovs -and you are doing nothing to change it.

Do you think they are stealing from some abstract budget, they are stealing from some abstract state companies, and all this doesn’t have any relation to your family budget? But you are forgetting that the budget is financed by your money -taxpayers’ money. And when money is being stolen in such a way that there appear holes in the budget, there is only one way to shut these holes -at your expense.

If Russian oligarch Fuks wants to steal from Ukrainians, the thieves that you allow to run your country will allow him to do it (under the condition that he shares, of course) -and meanwhile your tickets for Kiev metro become more expensive. If Putin’s godfather Medvedchuk thinks he needs to again milk Ukrainians, SBU begins to to suppress all importers of liquified natural gas except for companies belonging to Medvedchuk, the gas price increases -and Ukrainians docilely pay. If it seems to this large pack of hungry parasites that runs Ukraine that they need money for a new Lexus, new yacht, or one more villa in Marbella -they will without shame use YOUR budget as their wallet. They will take what they need out of there -and then they will increase your gas and heating bills. And you again allow them to do this.

So if you are not against being constantly shaved (like sheep) -then why wouldn’t they use it to their advantage? That’s how hucksters, whom you (yes you!) allow to run your country think. And you will be shaved again and again.

When I was a president, I had dealings with the IMF. They care about a balanced budget, no matter how it will be achieved. If the patient drinks heavily, and he has a hole in the budget because of that, does not interest the IMF, how will the balanced budget appear, whether he will drink less, or his children will eat less. The second option is actually better because it is easier to implement.

It is the same with the state -the IMF can’t stop officials from stealing (or more precisely, it can ban it but cannot control the execution of this ban), therefore Ukrainians ought to eat less but pay more for gas and heating. Everything is that simple. Therefore, the first thing I did when I became president, I uprooted corruption, I ended the theft of the budged, and then I congratulated the IMF for their cooperation, and said that from now on, we don’t need their money (because we started to use our money better) and their “valuable” advice (because it is cannibalistic).

Therefore my dear Ukrainians, you alone are guilty for being milked by various trash. I know it is unpleasant to hear, I don’t find pleasure in telling you that. My heart bleeds when I these criminals bullying such a great nation. I, twice elected president by the people of Georgia, acknowledged as one of the best reformers in the World, was not ashamed to run on roofs and to live in a tend with a bucket instead of a toilet, so that they stop robbing you. If more people supported me back then, we would win. But many of you remained on the sides, and thought this doesn’t concern you.

You know, some people say problems in Ukraine should be solved by Ukrainians, not Georgians. I am fully in agreement with this. Until, you Ukrainians do not decide to stop criminals from robbing the country and the people -nothing will happen. You are being ruled by cowardly bastards, who will momentarily flee from the country, the moment you say “Enough!” But you are too patient. You are being governed by people who see “patient” as a synonym of “sufferer”. They consider your good will to be a weakness.

How much money do they have to steal from you, from your children, from your poor people. How many Lexus’ there needs to be bought instead of thermographic cameras for your soldiers, so that you stop suffering this? You are being taken for idiots, and you are being fed propaganda big boards with empty words about language, faith, and army (which is also being stolen from), which are being set up for money that has been stolen from you. And you continue being silent and are suffering this.

Maybe you are hoping that soon there will be elections and everything will change. Nothing will change unfortunately. Russian (ethnic, citizen?) Trukhanov will continue to rob the people of Odessa, and the management of Naftogaz will receive bonuses worth several millions because the incomes of Naftogaz have increased (why wouldn’t they increase, when you were made to pay more for gas?). Nothing will change if you tick the box next to another surname on the ballot. NOTH-ING. The new “tsar” will also think that he caught the bird of joy by the balls, that Ukraine is his to pillage for the next five years, local lords will bring bags with kickbacks to the same building, only for a different person, and members of parliament, who have joined new parties, will continue discussing in the hallways how best to bend you over.

Everything can change only if only you grow tired of playing the lottery that can’t be won at elections. You have to hold all your “servants” firmly by the balls, and you have rip them off from anyone the minute he thought to steal something from you. The new president decides to steal something in several months after election? Vote him out in a referendum*, do not allow him to steal for another 4 years and 10 months. When the Prosecutor Generals’ Office or the SBU extort businesses, instead of fighting against crime and corruption, kick the asses of the bosses of these organisations, sack them at a referendum and make them face justice. The mayor and the council of thieves are trading with public land in your town? Throw them out of power yourselves on a local referendum, cancel their criminal decisions, instead of blocking roads as the people of Zatoka are doing now. According to Ukrainian constitution, the only source of government’s power are you, the Ukrainian people.

This everything is realistically easy to achieve. But this will happen only when you say enough to tolerating this. When this happens, I, Ukrainian of Georgian origins, will happily help you with everything I can. But how long you will suffer this, depends on you alone.

And while you are think whether you ought to suffer a little bit more, please watch the video (above) about what your tolerance of this has already caused. Ukraine was overtaken by even Moldova in GDP per capita. Now Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe, without adding “after Moldova.” There is a new goal ahead -poorer than the countries of Africa. Fellows, please wake up earlier.

*I just recall that last time people demanded referendum in Odessa, they were burned alive by goons brought to the city by oligarchs.