Ukraine passes state procurement law to help secure IMF bailout -...

3^min

Ukraine's parliament passed a procurement law on Thursday to end corrupt practice in state purchases and promote transparency in tenders, a move aimed at helping to secure a $14-18 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, presenting the law to parliament, said about 300 billion hryvnia ($25 billion) was spent on state purchases every year.

It was estimated that malpractice meant about 40 percent of the money earmarked for state purchases "stays in the corrupt pockets of the people who carry out these purchases," he said.

Also on Thursday, NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia must pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border if it wants to start dialogue over the crisis there.

Rasmussen told a news conference during a visit to the Czech Republic, a NATO member, that any further military action by Russia would lead to grave consequences and severe economic sanctions.

He said NATO observations showed Russia had around 40,000 troops near Ukraine.

This comes after Russia's Foreign Ministry accused NATO of using the crisis in Ukraine to boost its appeal to members and justify its existence by rallying them against an imaginary threat.

"The constant accusations against us by the Secretary General (Anders Fogh Rasmussen) convince us that the alliance is trying to use the crisis in Ukraine to rally its ranks in the face of an imaginary external threat to NATO members and to strengthen demand for the alliance ... in the 21st century," the ministry said in a statement.

Reactions:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said the deployment of NATO forces in eastern European countries close to Russia would violate of agreements between Moscow and the alliance, the Interfax news agency reported.

Lavrov said even the fact that NATO was discussing deploying troops or installations on territories "closely adjacent" to Russia ran counter to the Founding Act agreed by Russia and the military alliance in 1997, Interfax reported.

For his part, President Vladimir Putin has proposed mechanisms for "urgent discussions" on the situation surrounding Ukraine's debt to Russia for gas in a message to European leaders, his spokesman said on Thursday.

Putin informed the leaders he was deeply concerned about the debt, which state-controlled Gazprom says stands at about $2.2 billion, and its possible effects on transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov said.

REUTERS