Bandits to the end

Yanukovych and his administration from the very beginning have not been negotiating in good faith with the EU on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and Deep and the Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements which are set to be signed at the end of this month in Vilnius.

The deals were written up, on the table and 'ready to go' in December 2011.

Since then Yanukovych has strung the EU along by obfuscating any attempt to resolve the main stumbling block preventing success - the ending of  selective justice i.e. the politically motivated judicial persecution of political opponents, in particular Yulia Tymoshenko.

With just a few days to go, has still has not delivered.

Just a bad, laws on electoral practice and the functioning of prosecutor's office - key demands of the EU, have not been finalised in parliament despite constant assurances everything would be neatly tied up by now.

Two weeks ago, a most perceptible change in direction occurred - the compass needle indicating Ukraine's vector veered violently from a westward direction to the northern direction.

If Yanuk were determined to clinch the EU deal he would be saying: "Sorry folks, just cannot do anything on the Tymo situation... on everything..everything else, we will do all we can...we really, really want this to deal to fly...

But in the last two weeks there has been none of this. The tone from Yanuk's talking heads have been: "We are being pressurised by Moscow, by Europe, by the opposition. We will be financially squeezed whatever happens. Only our great leader, the wonderful and magnificent Yanukovych is capable of steering us through these hazards to the rosy sunlit future of which we are worthy... In other words, east and west - they are just as bad - out to screw us...the unspoken agenda being :We'll continue our balancing act...bridge between east and west etc.

Two weeks ago a fresh attempt to recover Tymoshenko's "stolen money" was suddenly pulled out of the hat by the ministry of revenues and their British lawyers.

This week it was Tymoshenko's principal defence lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko being harrassed by the prosecutor-general's office, no less, with criminal charges of a 'domestic' nature involving his former wife. [A sledgehammer to crack a nut..]

It is not unreasonable, considering the critical stage of negotiations, this is part of a planned strategy to piss off the EU leaders even more.

We have the sorry spectacle of parliamentary deputies still playing out cards of a long-lost game - that of trying to pass a law enabling sick prisoners to be treated abroad.

Now there are sudden stern demands being made to the EU for financial 'compensators' ..

From PoR's official site:'

"[the EU] mission mistakenly believe that the main problematic issue in the way the Association Agreement with the EU - issues of Yulia Tymoshenko. In Ukraine today, the main problem that we have to solve with our European partners - the question of finding ways of compensation of losses from Ukraine open market for EU goods and the possible actions of Russia ",

Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, Ambassador of Ukraine to the EU, in a letter to the FT today declares, "there is no room for the “wait-and-see” approach. The EU must act, offering concrete types of support to Ukraine. To name a few: full backing of the renewal of Ukraine-IMF co-operation; rendering ambitious macro-financial assistance; the immediate opening of EU markets for the Ukrainian products meeting the relevant standards; adapting EU assistance to the needs of proper implementation of further reforms under the association agreement; disbursing financial resources for modernisation of Ukrainian Gas Transmission System and preventing the politically motivated South Stream gas project; lifting the outdated anti-dumping measures against Ukrainian exports which remain in place since the end of the 20th century." [Pdf here]

Now not only will they not release Tymo...but they want big money too...Money earned by the hard work and toil of European workers.

Months and months of diligent work by hundreds of economists and lawyers went into the writing of the hugely detailed AA and DCFTA documents where all financial aspects were thoroughly dealt with to the satisfaction of all sides.

Now, all of a sudden, its give us the money or else....and don't even mention Tymoshenko.

Lately there have been rumours that the EU would do a deal on the AA even if she remains behind bars.
Yanukovych has, in all probability, already decided to scuttle the EU deal. Have these rumours triggered new demands set before the EU for 'money up front' so Yanukovych can say, even if the EU crumble on Tymoshenko: "You see, they won't give us any money either..they expect us to take an economic hit for their benefit...it's all their fault"?

Yelisieiev in his FT letter mentions 'common values' These people have no values at all...only calculators [see previous blog]..

Bandits to the end..