UKRAINE AND TRANSNATIONAL ELITE

This is a translation from columnist Takis Fotopoulos’s fortnightly column in the mass circulation Athens daily:

“The events of the last few days in Ukraine are not so sudden as they seem, since the conflict was not unexpected and the ground for it was well prepared by the transnational elite in which the US elite is hegemonic because of its military power - although it has a relationship of interdependence with the ruling elites in the EU and Japan, because of their economic power. The Russian elite, despite having been asked to join the ‘Group of 7’ as an extra—mainly because of the size of its market and the remnants of the ex almighty military power it used to command-- is listened to only when its interests overlap with those of the other ‘7’ (e.g. in the war against ‘terrorism’). On the other hand, the Chinese elite is not even an extra in the Group, despite seemingly rapid Chinese growth recently which, however, looks suspiciously like a bubble - similar to the past economic ‘miracles’ in Latin America - as it almost exclusively relies on foreign capital and the world market.

This balance of power could well explain not only the present conflict in Ukraine, but also its possible outcome. The ‘new’ Ukrainian elite, which took over after the secession of the country from the USSR in the last decade, came –like all the other ‘new’ elites in the ex ‘actually existing socialist’ countries--from the ruling party bureaucracy, most of whose members, within the framework of massive privatisations and the opening up to the market economy, were converted from bureaucrat- bosses of public enterprises to private owner-bosses of the new private enterprises.

The consequences of the opening up to the market economy were similar in Ukraine to those in the other countries of the ex soviet bloc: the complete dismantling of the productive structure, the rapid decline of production and income, growing dependence on foreign markets. Thus, between 1990 and 2000, per capita income dropped by 42% and the population fell from 51.6 million to 48.2 million, while the once most advanced manufacturing centre of the USSR has reached the point at which its army can no longer afford to buy spare parts from local firms!

Also, Ukraine’s national income (GDP), despite its recent fast growth, has not yet reached the pre-independence levels, standing today at just 60% of the 1991 level. It is not therefore surprising that Ukraine is one of the very few countries enjoying the negative ‘privilege’ of a declining life expectancy."

*This is a translation of an article that was first published in the fortnight column of Takis Fotopoulos in the mass circulation Athens daily Eleftherotypiá on 27/11/2004

and can be read in full here, Inclusive Democracy