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Russia to force Ukraine reform itself or never have its money back - expert

Given Ukraine’s current ratings, Russian investment of $15 billion is a risky step

© ITAR-TASS/Vitaliy Grabar

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Russian bail-out, gas discount to help Ukraine with financial woes, experts say

MOSCOW, December 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russia should make Ukraine carry out strict institutional reforms, if it wants the loan to be repaid, the head of the Kiev Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, Professor Igor Burakovsky, said Wednesday.

“Given Ukraine’s current ratings, Russian investment of $15 billion is a risky step,” the expert believes. “To pay the money back, the country will need a working economy.”

Ukraine now has a bunch of unresolved problems, so “unless it implements reforms, stabilizes the pension fund situation and considers in earnest a state budget sequester, it will have difficulty repaying these funds”. Burakovsky his conclusion was quite obvious from Ukraine’s present economic position.

Speaking of Independence Square protests, the expert said “people have come to the square because they have a right to protest”.

“Many of those people in the square have real problems because of the country’s economic conditions,” he said. “For a wise politician these protests are an important signal something is wrong in the country, to put it mildly.” He added that dialogue was the only way to respond to this signal - “the people need to have a word as the dialogue with authorities does not work today”.

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