Thursday, February 5, 2015

Sputnik — German Lawmakers Claim Ukraine Conflict Covers Up Massive Cropland Seizures


Like Michael Hudson has been saying.
According to the office of a German parliament member, the conflict in Ukraine is used to cover up a sale of farmlands in the interest of major corporations. 
The armed conflict in Ukraine is a smokescreen for the seizure of high-quality cropland by foreign firms funded by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the office of a German parliament member said on Thursday. 
"The conflict in Ukraine is used to cover up a sale of farmlands in the interest of major corporations," Birgit Bock-Luna, who heads the office of Niema Movassat, a deputy for the opposition Left faction in the German parliament, told RIA Novosti. 
Bock-Luna told RIA Novosti a group of faction representatives had officially inquired with the German government on the actions of the country's state-run banking group Bankengruppe KfW that they said is behind the seizure of Ukraine's arable lands, some of the best in Europe. 
Ukraine has a temporary ban prohibiting the sale of farmlands to foreign entities until January 2016. 
But German agricultural concerns – AGRARIUS AG, germanagrar CEE GmbH, KTG Agrar SE, Agroton and Alfred C. Toepfer International (ADM) – seize land using leasing schemes and generous loans from German and global money lenders.…
Bock-Luna said the Ukrainian government that came to power in Kiev after last year's coup has been actively giving away farmland in return for loans from international creditors.
"The previous Ukrainian administration was opposed to further relaxation of agricultural laws, but this changed after the coup, with the help of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development," she added.
Sputnik
German Lawmakers Claim Ukraine Conflict Covers Up Massive Cropland Seizures

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