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Why should UK taxpayers foot the bill for Ukrainian oligarchs’ military adventures?
Bryan MacDonald is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and teacher. He wrote for Irish Independent and Daily Mail. He has also frequently appeared on RTE and Newstalk in Ireland as well as RT.... This week the PM, who is valued at a comparably modest £4 million, pledged £1 billion from UK taxpayers to the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko – worth the considerably higher figure of $1.3 billion. Cameron is considered an aristocrat in Britain but his Ukrainian counterpart is known as an oligarch. Poroshenko has amassed this fortune in a country with an average monthly salary which is 1/15th that of the UK.
However, the Ukrainian president is a mere pauper by comparison with the countries’ richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who has somehow got his hands on $17.8 billion (according to Korrespondent.net, a leading Ukrainian news portal) in the last two decades, or roughly 10 percent of the war-torn state’s entire GDP. Akhmetov, who didn’t make his cash running corner shops, is well known to the UK elite as the owner of the penthouse at 1, Hyde Park, in central London, paying a record £136 million for the privilege and another £60 million to decorate it.
The UK’s richest man, Irish-born Gerald Grosvenor, is no match for Akhmetov, but somehow makes do with a pot worth $11.4 billion. Grosvenor, also known as the 6th Duke of Westminster, certainly could not be described as nouveau riche – his fortune dates back to the 19th century and was largely created by his ancestor Hugh, the first Duke. Other, genuinely entrepreneurial Brits like Richard Branson ($4.6 billion) and James Dyson ($4.4 billion) are in the ha'penny place set side-by-side with the Donbass mogul.
The two Ukrainian oligarchs are not unique in their country, there are plenty of other billionaires knocking around Kiev and, in 2008, it was estimated that the top 50 controlled 85 percent of the nation’s GDP. Indeed, Forbes names nine Ukrainians on its tally of the world’s richest people. Ireland, with a total GDP that is 16 percent higher than Ukraine’s, and with only 10 percent of the population, has a mere 3 native born sons on the list – which gives you some idea of the gap between the elite and the rest in Ukraine. In Europe, we often talk about the ‘one percent’ but in Kiev, it’s more about the 0.000001 percent. ...
Plainly, the UK state, which due to lack of money now has an infant mortality rate above the EU average, cannot afford this largesse and Ukraine’s top 10 oligarchs – which include its president – can. Throwing, say, $100 million each into a fund to assist the war effort in the east might mean buying a smaller yacht or moving to the less fashionable side of Hyde Park, but it would be a key step in showing that they are willing to change their ways in the “new” Ukraine. It would also be considerably more honorable than depriving British people of much-needed cash for crumbling public services. ...
http://rt.com/op-edge/181008-uk-taxpayers-ukraine-oligarchs-military/
However, the Ukrainian president is a mere pauper by comparison with the countries’ richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who has somehow got his hands on $17.8 billion (according to Korrespondent.net, a leading Ukrainian news portal) in the last two decades, or roughly 10 percent of the war-torn state’s entire GDP. Akhmetov, who didn’t make his cash running corner shops, is well known to the UK elite as the owner of the penthouse at 1, Hyde Park, in central London, paying a record £136 million for the privilege and another £60 million to decorate it.
The UK’s richest man, Irish-born Gerald Grosvenor, is no match for Akhmetov, but somehow makes do with a pot worth $11.4 billion. Grosvenor, also known as the 6th Duke of Westminster, certainly could not be described as nouveau riche – his fortune dates back to the 19th century and was largely created by his ancestor Hugh, the first Duke. Other, genuinely entrepreneurial Brits like Richard Branson ($4.6 billion) and James Dyson ($4.4 billion) are in the ha'penny place set side-by-side with the Donbass mogul.
The two Ukrainian oligarchs are not unique in their country, there are plenty of other billionaires knocking around Kiev and, in 2008, it was estimated that the top 50 controlled 85 percent of the nation’s GDP. Indeed, Forbes names nine Ukrainians on its tally of the world’s richest people. Ireland, with a total GDP that is 16 percent higher than Ukraine’s, and with only 10 percent of the population, has a mere 3 native born sons on the list – which gives you some idea of the gap between the elite and the rest in Ukraine. In Europe, we often talk about the ‘one percent’ but in Kiev, it’s more about the 0.000001 percent. ...
Plainly, the UK state, which due to lack of money now has an infant mortality rate above the EU average, cannot afford this largesse and Ukraine’s top 10 oligarchs – which include its president – can. Throwing, say, $100 million each into a fund to assist the war effort in the east might mean buying a smaller yacht or moving to the less fashionable side of Hyde Park, but it would be a key step in showing that they are willing to change their ways in the “new” Ukraine. It would also be considerably more honorable than depriving British people of much-needed cash for crumbling public services. ...
http://rt.com/op-edge/181008-uk-taxpayers-ukraine-oligarchs-military/