Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

Young men in fatigues, bulletproof vests and masks patrol one of Kiev’s better hotels, the Dnipro, and they have occupied several floors. Armed with clubs, pistols and even slingshots, they are the militant Ukrainian nationalists of Pravy Sektor, or Right Sector.

On schedule, they march out to the streets, to the encampment known as the Maidan, or Independence Square, where the bloody battle for Kiev was fought. To many they are heroes, but they are an intimidating presence. And their leader, Dmytro Yarosh — who is also the new deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council — has political ambitions, announcing on Friday that he will run for president in May.---

Pavlo Sheremeta, Ukraine’s new minister of economy, said the urgent priority for the new government was cash in the banks. Hard currency reserves are estimated to be only about $12 billion, even with controls on the withdrawal of capital, and large debts are coming due.

The central bank is printing cash for now, as the value of the currency drops, and a team of economists from the International Monetary Fund should be able to come up with a better analysis of the country’s needs next week, Mr. Sheremeta said.

The second priority, he said, is “safety and security in the streets” to try to restore business confidence and attract new investment. “It’s hard to have business activity when you feel insecure,” he said. Crimea, in particular, is about to lose its tourist season. “Events in Crimea worry us in terms of the integrity of the country, but worry us even more in terms of tourist potential,” Mr. Sheremeta said.---

The struggle to right the economy is as much a struggle for sovereignty as the crisis in Crimea. A weak Ukraine is fated to be dominated by outsiders — Moscow wants to ensure those outsiders are Russian, not European or American.

“Stated simply, Ukraine is the economic equivalent of a failed state,” said Robert J. Shapiro, co-founder and chairman of Sonecon, a private firm that advises American and foreign businesses, in a post for The Globalist, an online magazine. Ukraine’s credit rating is worse than Greece’s and large debts will soon come due, with some $15 billion in sovereign bonds maturing this year and another $15 billion in 2015. With a current account deficit equal to 8 percent of its gross domestic product, Ukraine cannot pay off and refinance those debts without large-scale aid — some $35 billion over two years, the new government says.

Ukraine’s vulnerabilities are enormous, partly a result of 23 years of mismanagement since independence from the Soviet Union, when early reforms were quickly jettisoned and the economy was distorted by corruption, favoritism, patronage and outright theft.