(Buzzfeed) Ukrainian officials wanted to make one thing very clear during a visit to the United States this week: we are open for business and we are nothing like Greece.“There is a big difference between us and Greece,” Dmitryo Shymkiv, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s top staffer on instituting economic and political reforms, told BuzzFeed News in an interview. “Greece has been ‘persuaded’ into reforms recently, [over the last] few days, while Ukraine has a plan. And we’re going after the plan.”
The comparisons were quick to come after Greece and its creditors reached an agreement Sunday night over reforms Athens needs to institute ahead of any further bailout money. One of those creditors — the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — is currently working with Ukraine to finalize a $40 billion loan package that Kiev needs to remain solvent. […]
“There is a rhetorical commitment to reform, and there have been some important steps taken,” Samuel Charap, Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, agreed in an email. “However, there’s a difference between fundamental reform and meeting the conditions for getting additional IMF disbursements. And even on that score, the jury is still out – we’ll know if/when the IMF disburses the second tranche under the new program next month.”
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