Gray Zone: Zelensky officially puts his country at auction

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has opened trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Grayzone reports.

The author of the article notes that during the ceremony, the president invited Western investors to invest in Ukraine, but the positions of the investment list raise questions.

“The West’s proxy war in Ukraine is causing an economic crisis in all Western countries,” the Gray Zone newspaper said.

Zelensky launched a campaign to invite foreign investors to pillage his country, while trampling on the workers’ rights of his own citizens”.

The President of Ukraine rang the bell at the opening ceremony of the New York Stock Exchange on September 6.

Zelensky’s virtual arrival on Wall Street was an opportunity to introduce investors to his government’s recent #AdvantageUkraine campaign.

This action was the result of cooperation between the Ukrainian government and “WPP”, the largest advertising company in the world.

Coinciding with the impending economic meltdown in Western Europe, Wall Street’s “president’s event” has acknowledged that the proxy war in Ukraine could “plunge many into poverty”.

Just a day before Zelensky’s speech, the euro fell to a 20-year low after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in response to Western sanctions.

“Now we expect the euro to fall further below parity (with the dollar) and remain at that level for the next six months,” Goldman Sachs financial analyst Michael Cahill told Reuters.

Meanwhile, stock indices – both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial – continued to fall after Zelensky’s speech, and high inflation scares investors.

Zelensky repeatedly argued that if NATO didn’t provide Ukraine with as much military assistance as possible, Russia would then attack the West.

The collective West willingly agreed, providing the country with weapons worth tens of billions of dollars, as well as huge amounts of financial aid.

Last August, the United States sent Ukraine $4.5 billion through the World Bank “to contribute to maintaining the government’s ability to manage and provide services to perform essential functions at the national and regional levels”.

Although a country that relies almost entirely on foreign military and financial support may not seem the most attractive place for investors, the Ukrainian government has contracted the world’s largest advertising and public relations firm, the British firm WPP, to attract transnational speculation.

WPP prides itself on representing most of the Fortune Global 500, all of the Dow Jones 30 indices, 62 of the NASDAQ 100 and 61 of the FTSE 100, but this success has not been without controversy.

For example, in February of this year, the PR giant came under fire when it launched a lie-based campaign to reclassify fossil fuel giants such as BP, Exxon and Shell as environmentalists.

In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined the company for bribery.

The Progressive Labor Party is currently pursuing one of its most ambitious campaigns to date, and the war-torn country, whose government is consistently ranked as one of the most corrupt in the world, has been dubbed “investor’s paradise”.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the Ukrainian president addressed the merchants: “Freedom has many manifestations, but the most important thing for many is the ability to work for themselves, for the good of their children and for the good of their country.

Ukraine is a story of a future victory and an opportunity for you to invest now in projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars… to participate in our victory… This will be your victory and a new success story for your companies”.

The New York Stock Exchange quickly shut down responses to her tweets about Zelensky’s speech, a practice often resorted to when a controversial or rude post sparks public outrage.

Exchange chief Lynn Martin also disabled responses on her Twitter account to her comment about Zelensky’s comments: Freedom.

A powerful word, it has many meanings.

For us at the New York Stock Exchange – freedom means a lot.

It means unhindered access to capital in the markets”.

Last August, Zelensky signed a law depriving 70% of Ukrainian workers of the right to collective bargaining.

The document specifically targets small and medium businesses with less than 250 employees.

The Advantage Ukraine project seeks foreign investment from companies of the same size.

The Ukraine Advantage Project, described by Zelensky as “the greatest opportunity in Europe since World War II,” shows an attempt to further liberalize the new economy that was looted from foreign interests after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Investment List on the website presents a variety of investment opportunities, including 10 projects in the defense industry $43 billion in “investment potential” 20 individual projects in mining and metalworking, amounting to $26 billion more than 300 in the $34 billion agribusiness complex.

More than 50 in energy worth $177 billion 300 in the pharmaceutical industry, worth $19 billion.

More than 10 in “natural resources” with “investment potential” worth $5.6 billion, and a number of other resources.

Last July, senior Ukrainian and Western officials met to discuss “reviving” the country.

It is not surprising that “large-scale privatization” is included in the project for the reconstruction of Ukraine.