Pål Steigan
(Translated from the Norwegian by Tanja Barth)

No, this is not a funeral, it just looks like one. The picture is from
the signing of EU's association agreements between the EU and
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. From left to right: J.M. Barroso &
H. van Rompuy (EU), P. Poroshenko, Prime Minister of Georgia,
Irakli Garibashvili, and Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leancă.

Ukraine's black earth belt may probably have the most fertile soil on our planet. Ukraine has been called the "bread basket of Europe", and international agribusiness is drooling over the chance to get hold of it. The combination of an economic catastrophe and the corrupt regime in Kiev provides a golden opportunity for Monsanto, GMO to carry out large-scale land-grabs.

The scramble for natural resources - Among other things, the conflict in Ukraine concerns natural resources. These include uranium and other minerals, and especially Ukraine's fertile soil. The country has been the world's third largest exporter of corn and the fifth largest exporter of wheat. The Ukrainian "black soil" forms a thick layer and is rich in nutrients. It is difficult to find land that can be more easily farmed. Global cooperations are looking to control it. This struggle is nothing new. More than 1.6 million hectares (nearly as much as the area of the state of New Jersey) have already been sold to foreign agro-business. The largest contracts have been handed o companies based in Luxemburg, Cyprus (perhaps as a cover for Russian or Ukrainian oligarchs) and in France. China signed an agreement to buy more than 3 million hectares (30 000 square kilometers) in 2013 (equivalent to the size of Belgium, comprising 5 % of all of the fertile soil in Ukraine), but at present there are doubts whether this deal will be finalized. (Please read Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe.)

The oligarchs see the agricultural sector as yet another source of profits, and they are the people that have taken control of most of the resources. The richest man in Ukraine, Rinat Achmetov, owns a large section of land. The same goes for Oleg Bachmatjuk, one of the world's largest producers of eggs. His company is registered in Cyprus. Some of the largest foreign land owners are US NCH Capital (400,000 ha) and Russian Ukrainian Agrarian Investments (260,000 ha). (Please read Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe.)

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Pål Steigan
(Translated from the Norwegian by Tanja Barth)

"Victory for the democratic, pro-Western forces" - This was the message that most of the Norwegian and Western media sent when commenting on the elections in Ukraine, claiming that the Nazi and fascist elements have been completely marginalized. The truth is quite the opposite – never have the Nazi & fascist groups been as strong as they now are in Ukraine.

Election results for the openly fascist parties - The Nazi/fascist party "Svoboda" got 4.71% of the votes and did not pass the national election threshold of 5 %. But the party will still have 6 delegates that have been elected in single constituencies.

The even more extreme fascist party "Right Sector" only got 1.81 % of the votes, but their leader, Dmitro Jarosj, personally won the election in his constituency in the Dnepropetrovsk region. In this region, he is closely allied with the oligarch Igor Kolomoiskij, who has financed several fascist battalions in the East. So in this case there is a fusion in Ukraine between Nazi ideology and Nazi militia on the one side, and robber barons on the other.

"The Radical Party", lead by Oleh Lyashko, got 7.45 % of the votes, which resulted 22 seats in the national assembly. So the openly fascist phalange thus will be represented by 29 seats in the national assembly.

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