The Aid Workers Really Help Ukraine and Georgia

I have already written that in a single year Ukraine's economy received more dollars from international remittances than Ukraine's economy received in foreign aid in almost ten years (of course, I adjusted both amounts for inflation). International remittances that are essentially money transfers via MoneyGram, Western Union and similar financial institutions are becoming a pretty significant part of Ukraine's economy. As shown in this graph, international remittances and net foreign direct investments represented the same share of Ukraine's GDP in 2009. In 2010 the total amount of international remittances constituted $5.6 billion (4.1% of GDP) or $122 per capita.

It is interesting fact that another former Soviet state, Georgia, received around $280 per capita in international remittances. The GDP share of international remittances is also higher in Georgia than it's in Ukraine. In Georgia the international remittances represent almost 8% of GDP or somewhere between $1.1 and $1.3 billion. 
Overall, it does look like international remittances are becoming another significant source of cash flow in both post-Soviet countries. I agree with ISET's Givi Melkadze that international remittances serve at least two objectives: one, consumption, and, two, investment. I think that international remittances are more biased towards consumption. Anyways, it will be interesting to get more data about international remittances.   

 

Last Days of Freedom of Speech

Just a month before the upcoming parliamentary elections the Ukrainian parliament is making a new advancement against the freedom of speech. And it could be the final stage in reversing the Ukrainian democracy back to autocracy. In the light of the upcoming parliamentary elections, the overall political situation is becoming very dismal in Ukraine, the country of the Orange Revolution.
The parliament has recently passed the Law on Libel in the first reading. Mainly, three political parties voted to pass the infamous law: the Party of Regions (leader: President Yanukovych), the Communist Party (leader: Peter Symonenko), and the People's Party (Speaker of the Parliament Lytvyn). The Law on Libel considers any defamatory statement or published statement that cause a public contempt illegal. If you look for a source of inspiration behind the Law on Libel, it's the Stalinist constitution. The picture (titled: Don't Speak) that you see below shows how the Stalinist regime treated the freedom of speech. If you wonder why they pass it now, the answer is the upcoming parliamentary elections (end of October).

If the parliament passes the law, the freedom of speech as well as democratic election is over in Ukraine. Several newspapers and TV channels started a campaign against the Law on Libel. They posted the following ad:

 One of TV channels that opposed the Law on Libel is TVi. If you follow events in Ukraine, you should know that all cable companies "voluntarily" cancelled their contracts with TVi. You cannot watch TVi on your TV anymore. You can watch it only online. Needless to say, a number of TVi viewers has already shrunk significantly. TVi follows the life story of Russia's NTV. And another one bites the dust. So what are the chances that this campaign will be successful given that some of supporters are under the government pressure?