Bayer, Monsanto and Ukraine

Stepping back a decade to 2005, it was P-CED founder Terry Hallman in his Maidan article' Really Betraying a Revolution' who warned of US neoliberal intentions in Ukraine and the risk that those in poverty would turn to violence:

"What economic hit men will surely try to do is persuade Ukraine to give up lucrative state assets to private buyers – and thus lose most of that revenue base – in exchange for the “privilege” of borrowing billions of dollars and going into debt to Western governments, particularly the US. That’s the deal, and that is what and all is going on with most of this noise against Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at this point in time. God forbid that she have the courage to do the right things for Ukraine. It is simply not done in many countries, including the US, which will likely be one of the main sources of vitriol against her in coming weeks and months unless her government relents on strong, progressive social policy and gives in to demands to give up lucrative state enterprises.

Someone is surely interested in the “betrayal of a revolution.” But, there is no credible evidence that it is Yulia Tymoshenko and her government, whereas there are more than enough grounds for suspicion towards outside troublemakers and profiteers, from both sides of the world."

The man who warned Bill Clinton years earlier about the risk of global uprisings was right again, though he died in 2011. He'd taken considerable risk to speak out about corruption in childcare, with his 'Death Camps, For Children' articles for Maidan.

In 2014, IMF loans opened the door for Monsanto and their aquisition of land which until then had been not for sale:

As Frederic Mosseau of the Oakland Institute put it in 2014:

"Announcing a 3.5 billion dollars aid programme on May 22, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim lauded the Ukrainian authorities for developing a comprehensive programme of reforms, and their commitment to carry it out with support from the World Bank Group. He failed to mention the neo-liberal conditions imposed by the Bank to lend money, including that the government limit its own power by removing restrictions that hinder competition and limiting the role of state control in economic activities. "

Now Bayer, in the "biggest offer ever" of $66bn is poised for a Monsanto takeover.  

The 2005 article focussed on Anders Aslund, director of the Carnegie International Endowment for Peace,

'Mr. Aslund comes across as an economic hit man.  I recently became a bit concerned about his grasp and representation of simple factual evidence in reading another article from him in Kyiv Post, “Aslund discusses Ukraine’s economy.”  Therein, he states at the start that “the Orange Revolution was not about economics…It was all about freedom, democracy, against corruption and for a Western choice, a European choice.” It’s only a matter of opinion, at best, as to whether the revolution was about economics: the whole point of freedom and democracy, as far as I could see and hear, assumed economic improvement as a result of freedom and democracy. If everyone in Ukraine had a nice home, a nice car, plenty of food, good income, good health care, there would have been no need for revolution – nor would there likely have been one. Too many people were being crushed by the old regime, their voices and opinions were rarely if ever listened to by an utterly corrupt government, and the only conceivable solution was freedom and democracy as an essential first step to change things. The “Western choice” was not about idealistic ideology, it was very pragmatic looking to superior economic standards common across Europe and the West. To say the revolution was not about economics is patently absurd.'

On the ground in Ukraine, with his 2007 proposal for a 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine, Terry had called on USAID and the Senate FRC their support with what today would be recognised as Fourth Sector business. Joe Biden headed the Senate FRC, in overall charge of USAID funding at the time.: 

"What Ms. Fore is describing has been central to P-CED’s main message, advocacy and activity for a decade. That, and helping establish an alternative form of capitalism, where profits and/or aid money are put to use in investment vehicles with the singular purpose of helping the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. The paper on which that is based is in Clinton’s library, dated September 16, 1996, author yours’ truly. That is reflected in P-CED’s home page and history section. In fact, you might notice a number of ideas and writings there that have now made their way into the mainstream of economics and aid thinking, how to make business and aid work smarter and more effectively in relieving poverty and the misery and risks that result. Bill Gates – as hard-edged a capitalist as has ever existed – reiterated the same things in Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago (ref below.) It sounds as though Ms. Fore’s remarks very much reflect this sort of thinking. Now it’s time to move forward and get it done."

Not only did USAID want nothing to do with the plight of Ukraine's institutionalised children, they would subsequently embrace some of Ukraine's most predatory oligarchs in a social enterprise development project in partnership with The  British Council . 

As the NY Times reported. when Biden lectured Ukraine's Rada on corruption, his credibility was undermined by his son's position:

'WASHINGTON — When Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. traveled to Kiev , Ukraine, on Sunday for a series of meetings with the country’s leaders, one of the issues on his agenda was to encourage a more aggressive fight against Ukraine’s rampant corruption and stronger efforts to rein in the power of its oligarchs.

But the credibility of the vice president’s anticorruption message may have been undermined by the association of his son, Hunter Biden, with one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was Ukraine’s ecology minister under former President Viktor F. Yanukovych before he was forced into exile.'

When Maidan activists called on the EU for support in 2014 on the eve of violent conflict, they included the 'Marshall Plan'. Not under the TTIP, in a million years, I realise with hindsght

'Support political reforms and economic development: When the new government is in place, support Ukraine financially to get on a path of sustainable economic revival. A kind of "Marshall Plan“, can bring long-term economic benefits to Ukraine and save it from otherwise imminent long-term default.'