Poll: Most Ukrainians want a unified country

[dipsydoodle]

37. Comparisons with Greece are difficult.

In the case of Greece there was much in the way of debt being either written down or written off. In the case of Ukraine the IMF has already been made clear that neither will occur - all loans must most definitely be satisfied as agreed.

From memory the structure of at least the initial IMF funding will be based on :

Years 1 and 2 - no service payments so presumably interest rolled over.

Years 3, 4 and 5 - service payments including interest paid twice a year and full debt settled at end of year 5.

Interestingly the interest rate is only 3% which is even lower that the figure of 5% Russia used for the $3billion loan which was considered to be low given Ukraine's credit rating. The IMF and EU are both aware that at least initial loans , across 2014 ,will be used mainly to settle current debt -c. $8 billion by this autumn.

Russia's offer was only better than that of the IMF because it lacked austerity strings. It was worse inasmuch it would've lacked the account management which the IMF will install to help ensure the funds are not misused / misplaced.