On Wednesday, the European Union put the last bureaucratic signatures permitting the citizens of Ukraine to go on tourist trips without getting visas. At that time, Poroshenko happily giggled. Previously, he called visa-free tourism to the EU a "national idea" of the Ukrainians.
Now, he said that a "final divorce" was completed with Russia. The new regime of border crossings will come into force overnight into June 11. Tourists from Ukraine don’t get the right to work or study in the EU, and their stay there is limited, 90 days within six months. Just enough to illegally pick strawberries on Polish plantations.
Well, today's visas are really an archaic thing. But the Ukrainian visa-free regime is the only thing Kiev has achieved after the coup d'etat organized by Nazis in February 2014. Other "achievements" are only negative. And if you look at the price of this visa-free regime, there will be no giggles. You would be horrified. I’ll remind that the coup d'etat grew out of so-called Euromaidan, and was carried out under the slogans of fighting corruption. They said that Yanukovych was terribly corrupt, and that he needed the system of corruption, and that's why he didn’t want to cooperate with Europe.
The slogan of fighting against corruption, I must say, is popular always and everywhere universally. Those who put it forward, as a rule, expect to come to power themselves, and not democratically, but as a result of street unrest and illegal overthrow of power. That’s how it happened in North Africa during the Arab Spring, that’s how it happened in Ukraine. It worked.
But when the fighters against corruption won, the country would plunge into chaos, with corruption flourishing more than ever. Ukraine is a typical example. So, if with Yanukovych, payoffs were 25%, now, with Poroshenko, kickbacks when receiving state contracts reach as much as 50%, and sometimes 75%. Following the results of 2016, the Accounting Court of Auditors of the European Union officially recognized Ukraine as the most corrupt country in Europe. There, bribes are a common thing and are accepted everywhere. Everyone can be bribed.
Prosecutors and judges, officials of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, border guards and military. And in the Verkhovnaya Rada, they carry around bags with illicit cash. Raider seizures, armed and according to fraudulent schemes, are the norm of life. Dirty money is earned on everything.
The Eurovision contest of this year in Ukraine, which was prepared and held in chaos and confusion, is an example. The European performance cost the Ukrainian treasury 30 million euros, while better Eurovision music shows, for example, held in Sweden or Estonia, cost three times less. And this is despite the fact that the level of prices there is much higher than in Ukraine. Guess where this difference went? Those same 75%.
After the coup d’etat, under the slogans of fighting corruption, Ukraine became the world champion in the expansion speed of theft, degradation of the state and society, collapse of industry, and impoverishment of people. Over three years, the growth of utility payments has increased more than tenfold.
At the end of 2013, they amounted to 175 hryvna per person, but by the end of 2016, 1978 hryvna, that is, almost two thousand. But the revolutionaries, raised to power by the foam of the coup, quickly became rich. Everyone remembers how Arseny Yatsenuk, who was the prime minister, didn’t hesitate to noisily celebrate "his first billion." From bad to worse.
In autumn, the forcibly published declarations of ministers and deputies shocked not only the poor people of Ukraine, but also all continents from Europe to America. Many have huge amounts of cash at home, luxury real estate, including even cathedrals, elite cars, collections of unique art objects, expensive watches, wines, weapons, and antiques.
Describing all this, recent anti-corruption revolutionaries lose not only shame and moderation, but even sense of humor. Thus, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Avakov, judging by his own declaration, is a lucky owner of a collection of paintings and 8,000 books dating from the 18th century, coins from the 15th century, collections of wine labels, four fur coats, collection of weapons, and branded bags. Funny. But these things are nothing compared to a lot of racket ownership interest in Ukrainian companies that pay tribute to the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Avakov also has a company in Italy and two in Cyprus. Offshore oligarch-president Poroshenko is the coolest one. Continuing to increase his fortune, he underpays taxes to Ukraine and is getting richer on the civil war. So, when Poroshenko giggles behind the backs of European officials, one can understand why. Although it can be funny for others, too. For example, recently, Poroshenko’s plant Leninskaya Kuznya miraculously won a tender for the repair of a diesel engine on the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the frigate "Getman Sagaidachniy."
And last Friday, it became known that immediately after the repair, the engine broke down at sea. Now, the people are laughing. Though seriously, it's not funny. After all, the so-called anti-corruption coup d'etat brought only suffering. And it can’t be compensated by any visa-free regime. Not only did the country collapse, Crimea left permanently, and, it seems, Donbass as well, 8.5 million people in total, but also in the remaining territory, the death rate radically exceeds the birth rate, and mass emigration, legal and illegal, only aggravates the demographic problem.
How many of these pitiful Ukrainians are here in Russia? We see them all. According to official data of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, four million of their citizens permanently reside in Russia. Approximately the same amount of Ukrainian migrant workers reside in the West. The visa-free regime that made Poroshenko giggle so much turns his citizens into slaves for the European Union. After all, there they are outcasts without any social guarantees, without legal contracts, and even without legal accommodation. It is humiliating and pitiful.
At the same time, in 2016, exports from Ukraine were three times lower than in 2012. This year, the largest manufacturing facilities continued to be stopped in the country, and one can say that the process of deindustrialization is being successfully completed. If we estimate the losses of Ukraine after the coup in general, then the former Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov says that the damage amounted to $143 billion. This is much more than all the loans received from the IMF, which they will still have to pay back with interest. But what kind of money can measure human grief?
10,000 people killed during the civil war and tens of thousands wounded, forever morally traumatized children, old men who died too early, people who abandoned their destroyed houses. How and with what can this be measured? How to measure the level of lies, lawlessness, and fear in today's Ukraine? And the level of Poroshenko's insanity, who with his signature blocks the most popular search system in the country, Yandex, the most popular social networks, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, and hundreds of information resources and computer programs?
