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Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs,
delivered some remarks in Received English, after meeting with John
Kerry at the U.S. State Department. We thought we should provide a
translation into Plain Talk. Speaking in the building's main lobby,
Hague said I’ve had very good talks with Secretary Kerry on a wide range of
subjects, but of course the situation in Ukraine has been absolutely top
of the agenda. I think The United States and the United Kingdom see
this in exactly the same way, our fundamental interest is in a free,
democratic Ukraine, with free institutions, so the people of Ukraine can
make their own decisions about their own future.
John and I chuckled over our better
than hoped for success in the Ukraine and we agree that our fundamental
interest is in seeing the Ukraine coopted into the western
political-economic orbit
And We discussed the urgent need for financial support for Ukraine that
is likely to arise. I’ll also have meetings with the International
Monetary Fund here in Washington tomorrow about that. But the
importance of course of Ukraine being able to meet the conditions for
that.
For this to happen we will need to hook
the Ukraine into the orbit as a debtor nation by making clear that it
must meet our conditions if it wants financial assistance (loans).
And it is important for economic reform to take place; for the pervasive
culture of corruption over many years to be tackled effectively; for
the international community to be able to see that there will be
continuity in the determination to tackle these issues; and that
therefore long term international support can be given on a reasonable
basis.
These conditions include "economic reform" by
which i mean a reliable and consistent opening up of the Ukraine to
foreign investment and to legal and institutional protections to foreign
investment (i.e. buying up the country by foreign capitalists).
And of course we encourage the new leaders in the Ukraine to form an
inclusive government, one that can command a new political consensus in
that country.
It goes without saying that the new
government must be able to appear to have a popular mandate and must
effectively suppress or co-opt any opposition to the new scheme of
things...
And we don’t see this, in the US and the UK, we don't see this in a
zero-sum strategic sense. It is very important for Ukraine to be able to
work closely with European nations, and the European Union, in good
economic cooperation, but also of course to be able to cooperate with
Russia on many issues.
... in which the Ukraine is
inextricably and permanently tied into the western neo-liberal orbit but
also of course to be able to cooperate with Russia on many issues, with
some flexibility in allowing Russia to rummage through left over
remainders.
So Secretary Kerry and I have both been talking to Foreign Minister
Lavrov over recent days, and we will continue that contact with Russia
as well as working with the Ukrainians on this ‘extraordinary
transition’, as Secretary Kerry called it earlier, that is now taking
place.
To this end, we will continue
diplomatic follow up on what has been an amazingly successful subversion
and coup of the legitimately elected government.
The independence and territorial integrity of the Ukraine is of course extremely important
We wish to make clear, however, that
allowing Russia to pick through the left overs does not mean that we are
going to split this plump turkey between them and us; we basically
want the whole bird.
And this is why all of us who are giving our best advice to the new
authorities in the Ukraine are saying: form an inclusive government,
involve people from different parts of the Ukraine including form the
east and south of Ukraine. It is important for Ukrainians to be able to
make these decisions together after the terrible divisions of the
recent months. So we, I, also extend our strong support for the
territorial integrity and unity of the Ukraine
And so we are telling the wedge faction
that took over the government, to start putting the show together and,
most importantly, to induce the pro-Russian eastern part of the country
to go along with the geo-political re-orientation of the country and --
for God's sake -- not to break away and join Russia
This is a country that needs financial assistance from many sources,
including from Russia. it's not about pulling it away from Russia it's
about enabling it to make its own choices and it is obviously not in
the interest of Russia for the Ukraine to face economic collapse. And
there's a very difficult economic circumstances there, a very big
deficit as you know big financing requirements the debt falling due. It
isn't in the interests of Russia to pull away from that. And this is
the case that we will make to Russia.
And what we're going to tell Russia is
this: you are just as invested in the Ukraine as we want to be (i.e. to
the tune of 130 billion dollars). The Ukraine is broke, and if it goes
belly up, you stand to loose as much as anyone. So we're willing to
shore up the dikes, but the price of that -- the price of your not
loosing your investment -- is that you've got to hand over the lions
share of the country's riches to us.
~o0o~
Napoleon did not call the English "perfidious" without reason. A more
consummately hypocritical country can hardly be imagined. The English
have this inimitable way of making it sound like they are doing you a
favor by fucking you up the butt…. and, of course, that it is the most
natural thing in the world.
What secretary Hague has blithely omitted to mention is that the
government that was just over thrown was democratically elected in
elections which the international community ranked as free and fair.
To be sure the Ukraine is politically divided between East and West,
just as that Lighthouse of Democracy is divided and deadlocked between North and South. The existence of
political division -- of two broad parties -- does not mean that the
country does not have democratic institutions. So Hague stands in the
lobby and intones for the building of democracy in the Ukraine after
western-supported cadres subverted democracy in the Ukraine.
And to this piety, Hague adds, disparaging sniffling about "corruption"
by which he can only mean that certain oligarchs have gotten the
economic pie sewn up between them. The problem with this corruption, in
Hague's mind, is that it is not our corruption and so the way to get rid of corruption is to allow our oligarchs to cut up the pie.
And this is the price that the Ukraine will have to pay if it wants a
pathetic financial life saver tossed to it. Hague promises, in all
glowy earnestness, to subject the Ukraine to the Greek Cure:
western loans to pay this month's bills in exchange for permanent debt
slavery and parcelling out ("privatizing") the country assets to
European and American fat cats and banks.
Note: the official text of Hagues remarks omitted many of his more
obliquely candid remarks. What he actually said on tape can be seen HERE
