by Stephen Lendman

Ukraine is Exhibit A for everything a nation shouldn't be. It's run by illegitimate, Nazi-infested putschists - lunatics risking war with Russia. It's a brutal dictatorship by any standard.

Its US-anointed president is an oligarch mega-crook war criminal. Its top officials look like an FBI most wanted list.

Corruption is the national pastime. So is police state ruthlessness and naked aggression on its own people.

Poroshenko finds new ways to disgrace himself. Earlier he claimed 10,000 Russian soldiers on Ukrainian territory. Now he says, "on Putin's order, there are 200,000 men and an arsenal of armored vehicles, sophisticated missile systems and anti-air arms amassed in our territory."

Where are they? OSCE monitors near the Ukraine/Russian border and elsewhere in the southeast haven't seen any cross over or show up anywhere. Nobody can find them - not a single active duty Russian soldier.

The whole world knows none are there despite Poroshenko, other Ukrainian officials, its state controlled media, Washington and other rogue Western partners repeating similar Big Lies - irresponsible absurdities with no evidence whatever supporting them. None exists.

Worse still, Ukraine is a deadbeat state, refusing to pay its debts while spending millions of dollars daily waging war on Donbass.

Five large international creditors hold about $10 billion in Ukrainian sovereign debt - besides $17 billion more in Eurobonds, $31 billion in domestic debt plus $3 billion owed Russia and billions more in arrears to Gazprom.

In late June, illegitimate prime minister Arseniy Yaysenyuk said "Ukraine is unable to service debts generated over past three years…" At the same time, it's borrowing more from the IMF, World Bank, EU and other sources it knows won't be repaid.

In June, Kiev's rubber-stamp parliament passed legislation letting the Finance Ministry technically default by halting debt service - either suspending it or largely refusing to pay altogether in the case of Russia. It falsely calls legitimate debt owed Moscow odious.

Kiev's failure to pay Gazprom for gas supplied finally got its CEO Aleksey Miller to act. His patience ran out.

He suspended further deliveries as of July 1 without prepayment, regardless of price. On Tuesday, Russia/EU/Ukraine talks in Vienna failed to resolve things.

They met to discuss price for deliveries through September. Russia offered Ukraine a $40 per thousand cubic meter discount - or $247.1, the same price Kiev paid in Q II 2015.

Ukraine wants over a 40% discount. Russia's Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said its demand is "groundless." He called Kiev's unwillingness to pay a fair price politicized.

Putin said lower oil prices affected natural gas. Ukraine should pay the same price as neighboring countries.

On April 1, Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz agreed on a so-called "summer package" similar to a winter deal last fall affording Kiev a $100 discount.

It not only wants cheap gas, it often doesn't pay for what it gets. Enough is enough. Now it's pre-pay or get nothing.

No wonder Moscow/Kiev relations are at a historic low - along with issues involving war, peace and regional stability.

Aggression in Donbass and repressive governance got over 900,000 Ukrainians to flee to neighboring countries, mostly to Russia, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

A new report by the Washington-based IntelCenter ranks Ukraine among the world's 10 most dangerous countries. Others include Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Egypt.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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