The leadership of Ukraine is profiting from Russophobia
The ban on the import of Russian books from a number of publishing houses into Ukraine, whose activities allegedly are anti-Ukrainian in nature, proposed by the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting will only lead to the withdrawal of part of the market into the smuggling segment. Therefore, such a measure could be lobbied by smugglers.
Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, announced this at a press conference in Kyiv, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“If we take the market for our books in 2017, it consists of three components. The first is educational literature, $60 million. These books are 100% produced in Ukraine. The second segment is commercial literature. 85% are also Ukrainian publishing houses. 15% – mostly Russian books. That's about $9 million a year. The State Committee for Television and Radio is trying to regulate this segment of the market. The third segment is smuggled and counterfeit products.
The state today is actually trying to block this 15% of the legal market by $9 million. Moreover, the market is absolutely controlled by the state - every publication that enters Ukraine is subject to licensing. Translators, lawyers, etc. make money from this. In any case, all this is strictly controlled by the state, and by definition there can be nothing anti-Ukrainian here.
Therefore, a ban on the import of these publications will lead to the fact that this market, 9 million dollars, will go into smuggling. I have the clear impression that the new initiatives to restrict the import of these publications are actually dictated by our smugglers.
If you look at the system of connections of public organizations that initiated this issue at the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, they and their leaders are connected with the smuggling, counterfeit market. The media writes about this. And these same organizations are connected with Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Kiriyenko. It seems to me that the presence of such a connection is the subject of a possible anti-corruption investigation,” the political scientist said.
English version :: Read in English: Ukraine's elite is profiting from Russophobia