The Ukraine? Putin's welcome to it!

The spat between Russia and the Ukraine continues to absorb the media and bore the rest of us

 

Russia is welcome to the Ukraine. It is so utterly corrupt that it makes Nigeria look restrained. It is estimated that 80cents in every dollar is purloined from the public purse. The former President lived in a breath-taking mansion along with a huge collection of classic cars, antiques and other valuables. He is said to have trousered $70 million, no doubt ably assisted by the City through ‘tax-efficient offshore vehicles’, as money laundering the loot is now called.

 

It is dirt poor, with a GDP ranking of #52; it is poorer than Egypt, Pakistan and Kazakhstan. It produces steel and grain and not much else. It is a Third- World country. It would fit neatly into the Russian scheme of things.

 

Whilst he is at it, Vladimir Vladimirovich, Tsar of all the Ethnic Russians, might like to take back  Romania and Bulgaria, two more Third Worlders,  and include them in  his new Great Eurasian Economic Zone.

 

How they qualified for membership of the EU is a mystery, as is the motive of the EU in courting the Ukraine; it has nothing to offer in return.

 

The basic criteria for joining are stable institutions, the rule of law, human rights, and protection of minorities, and a market economy.  Both countries would be hard put to meet at least three of these.

 

Bulgaria has a GDPppp world ranking at 93, with 20% of the population below the poverty line. It is noted for public corruption and  organised crime. Romania is even poorer, coming in at 99 for GDPppp and 22% under the poverty line. Both have very suspect judicial systems, although a British subject is liable to be dragged off to either under the European Arrest Warrant which can be issued by a ‘judicial official’ for something that is not a crime under English law without any evidence connecting that person to the crime or that any crime has been committed at all.

 

As for human rights and protection of minorities, just ask the Roma.

 

And whilst he is about it, Putin might care to take Hungary, where neo-Nazism appears to be perfectly acceptable with the Jew- and Gypsy-hating Jobbik Party gaining heavily in the polls and skinhead neo-Nazis march around bearing the flag of the notorious Arrow Guard that helped with the Holocaust in Hungary (which we tend to overlook was on Germany’s side during WW2).

 

EU eastwards expansion is incomprehensible. Unless, of course, the real ambition is to recreate The Holy Roman Empire,  the First Reich.