Till och med amerikansk press har börjat analysera istället att skrika Puuuutler.
Ukrainian Crisis is about Taxes | Amerikan thinker
Citat:
The bloody crisis between the pro-Western two thirds of Ukraine and pro-Russian third of the country is about taxes. The recent $17 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan required Ukraine on May 1st to raise taxes and increase natural gas prices by 50%. With about 58% of the Ukraine’s industry in the eastern zone and workers there making about 50% higher wages, the east is paying the majority of the tax increase. Although residential users will not feel pain from the natural gas price increase until fall, eastern heavy industry is feeling the pain immediately. With the corrupt west raising taxes for the IMF, why is there any surprise the east is rebelling?
About 70% of Ukrainian residents say they consider themselves Ukrainian, but more than 40% of the country primarily speaks Russian. Language differentiation is often used to explain why the eastern third of the country that speaks Russian, favors Russia; and why the non-Russian west favors Europe. But the real divide is about money.
The $7,400 per capita GDP of the Ukraine is less than half of the $18,100 of Russia. But within Ukraine, the third of the population in the east account for approximately 58.1% of the industry. Consequently, the per capita income in the east of $12,900 identifies much closer with Russia, than the other two thirds of the country at $4,900.
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As a condition for granting Ukraine new loans, the IMF required Ukrainian authorities to implement a wide array of austerity measures. On May 1st, Ukraine enacted tax hikes and raised natural gas prices by 50%. Although the pain for residential gas users will not be felt until the weather get cold in the fall, eastern Ukraine heavy industrial users are already suffering from a 5% loss of competitiveness due to higher energy costs.
According to a research by Stratfor Intelligence, an April IMF staff report warned that the bank's loan with Ukraine will have to be restructured if the government loses control of Ukraine's eastern regions. The report highlighted that eastern Ukraine is the country's industrial heartland, where most of Ukraine's largest factories and mines operate. Continued instability could therefore lower Ukraine's industrial exports, and a loss of control over eastern oblasts could mean a significant loss of tax revenues, which would make it virtually impossible for Ukraine to comply with IMF loan covenants.
Japp, fakta är att IMF vill se Ukrainas militär insats och att höjda skatterna på gas slår hårdast mot just öst Ukraina.
