The government in Kiev is trying to do something that no previous Ukrainian administration has been able to — wean the country off its gas dependence on Russia. In order to do that Kiev will have to remove energy subsidies that the government gives to households, something that its predecessors thought was a political poison pill that would sink any administration. The IMF has spent years campaigning to get the subsidies removed, because they cripple the government’s budget, and keep Ukraine under the thumb of Russia, which supplies the gas. (Both of those conditions thus make Ukraine a bad …read more
Source: Business Insider