- Ukraine’s government is running low on money. The Ministry of Finance sold Hr 2.2 billion in short-term bonds at 18 percent. Writes Dragon Capital: “Overall, the government’s funding needs will remain sizable for the rest of the year. We estimate the government faces Hr 24 billion (nearly $1 billion) in hryvnia bond redemptions by end-2018.” Writes Concorde Capital’s Evgeniya Akhtyrko: “It is worrisome that MinFin had to resort to an unplanned auction. Apparently, the cash deficit of the state budget grew faster than planned by public finance managers…the state budget revenue was below plan in 7M18, while teh general budget posted a deficit of Hr 3 billion in June.” The situation is compounded by the stalled International Monetary Fund lending program because of Ukraine’s inability to meet two remaining conditions to which it had agreed: market prices for household gas, and a budget deficit of only 2.5 percent of GDP. Lending is stalled at $8.7 billion out of a possible $17.5 billion in a program that expires in March.
- This news comes amid a weakening currency. Concorde Capital writes on Aug. 3 that the Ukrainian currency “extended its weakness amid high demand for foreign currency on Aug. 2. The central bank’s dollar intervention of $100 million did not prevent the exchange rate from the crossing the psychologically important Hr 27/$ rate for the first time since February.”
- Over the weekend, an arrest of a man suspected of pouring acid on Kateryna Gandziuk, a Kherson city council official, was reported by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov
- Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service says it has banned 740 foreigners from entering Ukraine for three years because they illegally visited Russian-occupied Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
- Defense Onecharts the slow decline of Russia’s space industry, damaged by internal leaks, transfers of technology to China and the failure to deliver on the new Federation passenger module.
- Reuters reports on Russia’s plans to open a new cultural centerin illegally occupied Crimea, part of a drive to deepen integration between Russia and Ukraine’s stolen peninsula.
- Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschkosays the city will cut the clutter of outdoor advertisements, from billboards to ads in the metro subways to beautify the capital.
- Some 31 percent of heads of agrarian companies surveyed say the risk of illegal seizure of their businesses is high, according to a survey by the Ukrainian Agrarian Council.
- 57 women have set a new record for synchronized skydiving in Ukraine, according to Euronews.
- Agence-France Presse takes a look back at Russia’s invasion of Georgia 10 years ago. Coupled with its war on Ukraine, the military adventures have damaged Russia-West relations for a long time to come, analysts say.
OPINIONS
- Alexei Bayerwrites on the prospects and dangers of a Chinese-Russian alliance as the United States appears to retreat from leadership on the world stage.
- Will Ritter calls on Paul Manafort,the former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald J. Trump, to cut a deal with federal prosecutors and tell them what he knows about Trump’s collusion with Russia. Manafort is on trial in Alexandria, Virginia, for bank fraud and tax evasion charges — much of it stemming from $60 million he was paid working for ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who ruled from 2010 to 2014.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
- Read Stepan Korshak’s Aug. 13, 2008 riveting account of Russia’s quick and easy defeat of Georgia in the war 10 years ago that led to Moscow to declare the independence of breakaway Georgian regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
