I've said the reason Pyatt and Nuland and the rest of the American gang facilitated the Maidan coup was to get at the farmland. That's a bit of an exaggeration but not by much.
Along with pushing against Russia, getting a piece of the oligarch's loot and, dream of dreams, turning Crimea into the headquarters of the U.S. Black Sea Fleat, it is just a piece of the picture, which is now coming into focus: the economic shock therapy that was applied to the Russian part of the Soviet Union will now strip Ukraine of its assets. And then perhaps move on to Poland and definitely liberate the assets of Germany.
If you follow these things, one of the interesting tidbits of the Nord Stream 2 sabotage is the fact that Jeffrey Sachs, one of the Harvard Boys who wreaked Havoc on the Russian economy in the 1990's is at the forefront of those calling for an honest investigation of who blew-up the pipeline. Go figure.
But I'm getting ahead of the story. Right now it is the land that matters, matters so much that the International Monetary Fund has made selling land to foreigners one of the conditions for the multi-billion-dollar loans that Ukraine has been receiving since the Maidan coup.
First up, from The Oakland Institute, the headline story, August 6, 2021:
Although Ukraine has large swaths of the most fertile farmland in the world, the wealth of its agriculture sector has long remained largely out of reach of the country’s farmers. In the country known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” agriculture has been dominated by oligarchs and multinational corporations since the privatization of state-owned land following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. For the past thirty years, no government has been able to meaningfully challenge that status quo.
Will this change, now that a controversial law to create a land market entered into effect on July 1, 2021?
Whereas proponents claim(link is external) that a land market is necessary to attract the foreign investment that Ukrainian agriculture needs to achieve its full economic potential, many(link is external) Ukrainians(link is external) believe(link is external) that agriculture in Ukraine will only become more corrupt and controlled by powerful interests as a result of the new land reform law(link is external).
The law, “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Conditions of Turnover of Agricultural Land” (Law 552-IX), is a crucial plank of the liberalizing agenda championed by President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Western international institutions that support his government. It was passed by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s unicameral legislature, in March 2020 as a condition for the financially imperiled government to receive a US$5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Troubled History of Land Ownership in Ukraine
When Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, all land was the property of the state, with farmers working on state and collective farms. In the 1990s, guided and supported by the IMF and other international institutions, the government privatized(link is external) much of Ukraine’s farmland, and distributed certificates that individual workers could use to obtain ownership of a discrete plot of land. However, amid a nationwide economic collapse, many resold(link is external) their certificates, beginning a process that resulted(link is external) in the growing concentration of land in the hands of a new oligarchic class.In order to stop this process, the government instituted(link is external) a moratorium in 2001, which halted further privatizations of state-owned land, and prevented almost all transfers of private land, with a few exceptions, such as inheritance. Although the moratorium was meant to be temporary, it was extended multiple times due to the failure of the Verkhovna Rada and multiple presidential administrations to pass and implement legal reforms that would allow for the creation of a more equitable land tenure system.
41 million hectares, or about 96 percent(link is external) of agricultural land in Ukraine, were subject to the moratorium. Around 68 percent(link is external), or 28 million hectares, of that land is privately owned (although not all is demarcated into specific plots), with about seven million(link is external) small landowners in the country.
While the moratorium prevented further purchases of land, farmland could still be leased(link is external), and many small landowners leased their land to both domestic and foreign corporations. The state also auctioned(link is external) off leases for extensive amounts of the land it owns. President Zelensky’s government has claimed(link is external) that at least five million of over ten million hectares of state-owned land was illegally privatized under previous administrations.
While reliable data on who is leasing Ukrainian farmland is hard to find (many leases are not registered), the Land Matrix database lists large-scale land deals totaling 3.4 million hectares by both Ukrainian and foreign companies; other(link is external) estimates(link is external) place the amount of land leased by the largest corporations operating in Ukraine at over six million hectares. The largest(link is external) farmland holder is Kernel, owned by a Ukrainian citizen but registered in Luxembourg, with about 570,500 hectares; followed by UkrLandFarming (570,000 hectares), US private equity firm NCH Capital (430,000 hectares), MHP (370,000 hectares), and Astarta (250,000 hectares). Other major players include Saudi conglomerate Continental Farmers Group(link is external) with 195,000 hectares (a majority shareholder(link is external) is the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company, owned by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia), and French agricultural company AgroGeneration(link is external) with 120,000 hectares.
Opening of the Land Market
Law 552-IX(link is external) ended the moratorium and allowed individuals to purchase up to 100 hectares of land starting July 1, 2021. Both individuals and legal entities (i.e. companies) will be allowed to purchase up to 10,000 hectares starting January 1, 2024. Banks will be able to seize land for nonpayment of a loan, but will have to auction off the land for agricultural use within two years. Individuals or entities that currently lease a piece of land are supposed to receive priority (“pre-emption rights”) when the land is up for purchase. A longstanding prohibition on foreign individuals and companies buying land in Ukraine will continue, although they retain the ability to lease land.....
....MUCH MORE
And from Ukrinform via Farmlandgrab, March 2, 2023:
More than 150,000 land agreements signed in Ukraine
A total of 153,659 land agreements have been signed in Ukraine since the land market was launched.
The relevant statement was made by the Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“In general, as of today, a total of 153,659 land agreements, covering 344,061 hectares, have been signed since the land market was launched,” the report states.
In terms of the total area of lands in relation to which the agreements were signed, the following regions took the lead: Kharkiv (40.8 thousand hectares), Dnipropetrovsk (31.5 thousand hectares), Poltava (28.5 thousand hectares), Kirovohrad (28.3 thousand hectares) and Khmelnytskyi (21.5 thousand hectares).
The average price of land per hectare is UAH 39,000 in Ukraine. This indicator was calculated based on 125,397 land agreements, covering 284,483 hectares....
....MORE
Previously on The Harvard Boys:
- In 2018, Linking to The Nation: Steyer and Summers and The Harvard Boys Do Mother Russia
- And to Economic Principles: "The /Other/ Russia Story"
On the IMF in Ukraine:
- August 2020 "How $1.8 billion in aid to Ukraine was funneled to the outposts of the international finance galaxy"
- March 2022 National Bank of Ukraine Governor On the Current Situation
- November 2022 "Thieves’ Paradise in Kiev — IMF Admits It Doesn’t Know How Much Ukraine Has Received of $35 Billion in Promised Foreign Cash, or Where the Money Was Spent"
And coming into the present:
- August 2022 Ukraine: When Capital Invades
- December 2022: "Shock therapy on the world economy"
- And More On BlackRock's Plans For Ukraine
- February 2023 "Marketing Ukraine's Reconsturction To Fuel The War"
There are many, many more. See, for example:
December 2014's ""The Corporate Takeover of Ukrainian Agriculture" (linking to The Oakland Institute)August 2021's "In fertile Ukraine, a 20-year freeze on the sale of farmland is lifted -- with uncertain consequences"
One of the reasons for the Maidan Revolution was to open the sale of Ukrainian land to foreigners—it's much too good for the Ukes to keep to themselves—but that step, required by the IMF as a condition of any further loans to replace the loans that were stolen and laundered (just what was Templeton up to with the Ukrainian sovereign debt bets?), that step needs a referendum and enabling legislation.
But this phase, also required by the IMF, is the starting point.
And more including such hits as:
Okay Kids: Here's One Of The Reasons We Had That Whole Ukraine Maidan 2014 Revolution Thingy
Of particular interest is Ihor Kolomoisky, backer of both the current President Zelensky and the Azov Battalion.
Don't tell me Jews and Nazis can't get along!
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stories on 'ol Ihor:
May 1, 2021
Will We Ever Find The Looted Billions The IMF Sent To Ukraine? Ihor Kolomoisky's Adventures In America
But then a $5 billion cash honeypot is apt to draw....um, people.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has done an astoundingly thorough job of turning up facts and figures on one part of the story of a very, very bad person....
AND:
Secrets: Ukraine's Zelensky Will Be Thrown Under the Bus As His Oligarch Patron Gets Squeezed (Deutsche Bank and dirty money)
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has made something of a cottage industry digging into Kolomoyskyi's doings. Here's the latest, February 20, 2022....
It's been seven years since the Maidan and it's about time we find out where all the money went.
"Ukraine Oligarch’s Troubled US Steel Plant Has Been Quietly Mining Bitcoin: Report"
We may be hearing more about this master thief in the coming months.
As
the Department of Justice works through the cases - and I hope to hell
we get a special prosecutor, the magnitude of what was going on in
Ukraine gets quite impressive.
Related:
"Oligarchs Weaponized Cyprus Branch of Ukraine’s Largest Bank to Send $5.5 Billion Abroad"
"Ukraine Probes Ruling that State-Run Bank Must Pay $350m to Oligarchs"
Federal agents raid offices of company tied to Ukrainian oligarch
Glenn
Greenwald's Co-Founder of "The Intercept", eBay Billionaire Pierre
Omidyar Co-funded Ukraine Revolution Groups With US Government
Meanwhile, as part of the IMF shenanigans in Ukraine a land reform package was required which basically meant Ukraine had to sell land to foreigners to get the latest multi-billion dollar loan....
That's it, one little sentence.
So we'll begin with some background. This is far from the whole story because quite a bit has been learned in the intervening years but it's a good place to start.
Two things to keep in mind:
1) Ukraine is the most corrupt place in Europe (outside Brussels)
2) Nothing is as it seems.
As mentioned yesterday, that was the simple question yours truly asked before stumbling into the rabbit hole of "Why Was The American Government Training Neo-Nazis In Ukraine?".
The reason for the original query was the mandate from the IMF that in return for one of the tranches of multi-billion dollar loans related to the whole PrivatBank theft, money laundering, Maidan, Victoria Nuland web of lies and corruption that Ukraine allow foreigners to buy farmland.
Some really good farmland, by all accounts.
Farmlandgrab keeps track of this stuff all over the world and a couple of their posts give a quick overview of what's what.
Here is one part of the puzzle, not the stuff that attracts the foreign money:....
