Also:
"On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund threw a financial lifeline, agreeing to stump up $14-18 billion as part of a two-year bailout package in exchange for tough economic reforms."I don't know how they can call it a 'financial lifeline' with a straight face. It represents a number, some multiple of which will be extracted from Ukraine. The paltry American billion, so hard fought in Congress, is a loan guarantee, which means it will be used to pay off some financial institution which claims to be owed money by Ukraine. Real Ukrainians won't benefit from any of this, and in fact it just represents the beginning of massive economic plunder by the banksters.
The 'tough economic reforms' means austerity, a war on poor and middle class Ukrainians (see Greece for a hint of the future).
Of course, Ukrainian gold is now safely out of the hands of Ukrainians..