Ready, steady, marathon! Vadym Rabinovych manipulates

On November 20th, MP from the Opposition Platform – For Life (OPZZh) party Vadim Rabinovych staged a telethon, which was broadcast by three channels of his one-party member Taras Kozak – ZIK, NewsOne and 112.

In the 9-hour tv marathon by Vadym Rabinovych we have identified 47 factual quotes. Of these, only two were true. So, Rabinovych lied or manipulated on average every 12 minutes.

For comparison, in the 14-hour press-marathon of Vladimir Zelensky we were able to distinguish 14 factual quotations, 6 of which were true and the rest were false, manipulation or exaggeration.

Rabinovych commented on everything possible: the budget, medical reform, gas, government activities, pensions and even air travel. Some of Rabinovych’s theses have not changed for two years in a row. For example, the fact that every Ukrainian, even a baby, owes the IMF $ 10,000, or that gas of country own production is sufficient for the needs of the population and that there is no need for imported gas.

For 9 hours, Rabinovych repeated, for example, repeatedly speaking about restrictions on land purchases in Ukraine and other countries and IMF requirements. At the same time he was confused in the data and every time he called them wrong.

All quotes can be checked here. This article checks quotes that are most typical for Rabinovych’s rhetoric.

As of September 30, 2019, Ukraine’s debt to the IMF was $ 11.17 billion. The population is 1.09 – 41.9 million. That means about $ 270 per Ukrainian.

From the current CMU, only Oksana Markarova and Arsen Avakov were the ministers of the Groysman government. This is only 11% of the Honcharuk government.

Even if the definition of “worked” was extended to all who were in the civil service during the period when Groysman was Prime Minister (2016-2019), even then it would be 61%

In 2015, Vadym Rabinovych registered a bill “abolishing benefits and privileges” for civil servants. However, according to this bill does a salary, but the pension should not exceed the minimum subsistence wage. And not 5, but 10 times. But since it was registered in the VIII convocation of the parliament, the deputies of the IX convocation cannot consider it. There are no similar  document among bills registered at sessions of IX convocation at the time of verification.

Rabinovych is trying to accuse the authorities of the fact that in Ukraine the negative balance of trade is the difference between imports and exports. But neither the government, nor the parliament, nor the president “drove the country down $ 7 billion.”

A negative balance means that Ukraine imports more goods than exports from the country. In addition, there almost always has been a negative foreign trade balance in Ukraine. Exceptions – 2015 and 2000-2004.

And regarding external borrowing. The loans taken by the Ukraine do not cover the difference between imports and exports. The borrowed funds are used to replenish gold and foreign exchange reserves and cover the budget deficit.

Less subsidy money are actually planes in 2020 – UAH 47.6 billion compared to UAH 55.1 billion in 2019.

But this does not mean reducing the number of subsidies themselves. The real (excluding inflation) growth of the minimum wage and subsistence level, as well as the indexation of pensions, is planned in 2020. Therefore, the number of subsidies may remain the same, but the amount of compensation will be reduced as recipients will have more money.

In addition, from year to year, part of the funds allocated for different types of subsidies returns to the state budget. For example, according to The State Treasury Service of Ukraine , in January-September 2019, cash benefits and housing subsidies were paid to citizens in the amount of UAH 15.2 billion out of the planned UAH 18.7 billion. This is due to the fact that with the updated criteria of subsidies in the past, they were less than expected, as since 2018, the targeting of subsidies is increasing and the terms of their granting are changing. This is done to reduce fraud and subsidy schemes.

Restrictions in Poland and Hungary are 500 ha and 300 ha respectively. In Romania – 200 ha200 ha. However, according to draft law adopted in the first reading, the total area of ​​agricultural land may not exceed 0.5% of all agricultural land – this is approximately 213 thousand hectares.

The manipulation is that there are other restrictions, for example, no more than 8% of agricultural land in the region (oblast) or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and no more than 35% of such land in the amalgamated territorial community (OTG in Ukrainian). For example, the area of the largest OTG is 2010.9 square meters. km. Then the limit for the purchase of land within this OTG will be 703.82 square meters. km, or 70.4 thousand hectares. This restriction will be even smaller for the rest of the OTG.

In addition, the restrictions do not apply “in one hand” but with regard to related individuals or legal entities created under Ukrainian law.

First, the administrative area of Kyiv is 83 thousand 558 hectares (Article 4). Secondly, the daft law on turnover of lant refers only to the sale of agricultural land, which makes up about 20% of the total area of ​​Kiev – 16.7 thousand hectares (Article 26). Third, sidewalks and general-purpose places and destinations in cities are not and cannot be agricultural land.

If a referendum were held on the sale of agricultural land in Ukraine, 72% of Ukrainians would vote against, according to a joint survey of KIIS, Razumkov Center and Sociological Group Rating, held in October 19 – November 2, 2018.

According to the current Land Code of Ukraine (Article 121), Ukrainians have the right to free transfer of state or communal property to them:

• for maintaining a private peasant farm – no more than 2.0 hectares;
• for gardening – no more than 0.12 hectares;
• for the construction and maintenance of a house, farm buildings and structures (private plot) in villages – not more than 0.25 hectares, in settlements – not more than 0.15 hectares, in cities – not more than 0.10 hectares;
• for individual cottage construction – no more than 0.10 hectares;
• for construction of individual garages – not more than 0,01 hectares.

That is, a total of one person can obtain 2.48 hectares for personal farming and construction.

However, this is physically impossible, as the population of Ukraine as of July 1 is 42 million.

To give every Ukrainian at least 2 hectares of land, the area of ​​agricultural land should be 84 million hectares. This is larger than the area of ​​Ukraine (60.7 million hectares) and twice the area of ​​agricultural land (42.7 million hectares).

A person can also claim a land share for farming – the size of the share is defined as the average of the district or similar farms of the area. On average in Ukraine, this area is 4 ha, but depending on the region where the unit area is determined, it can vary from 1.1 ha to 8 ha.

The medical subventions in 2020 is actually set at UAH 41.1 billion less than in2019 .

However, this reduction in the subsidy is quite logical: since 2020, primary care facilities that have an agreement with the NHSU will receive funding from it, and in 2020 a secondary link will also be transferred to the NHSU. The MOH expects that most institutions will switch to the “money going after the patient” financing model as early as April 2020, that is, they will receive funding from the NHSU.

The speaker is referring to the revenues from the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, which under the current contract ends by the end of 2019. Transit revenues last year amounted to UAH 72.3 billion, or approximately $ 3 billion at the exchange rate at the time of the speaker’s speech. However, it is not a question of destroying the “pipe” or investing it in support – this part of the natural gas transmission system (NGTS) can be used for the domestic needs of Ukraine. For example, to receive natural gas from Slovakia or Hungary and to transport it to the Central, Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine, the system has been already tested in this direction.

For several years now, the resolution on the fight against the heroization of Nazism has been considered on the initiative of Russia.

Only two states – the United States and Ukraine – voted “against” in this year’s debate on the draft resolution in the Third Committee. Ukraine has not supported this resolution not for the first time, for example, the same was in 2017 and 2018.

Moreover, Ukraine does not support the resolution not because it does not condemn fascism. Ukraine explains its position by refusing to condemn Stalinism at the level of Nazism, as well as by ignoring by Russia contribution of other states in the fight against Nazism.

Thus, the speaker manipulates, omitting some of the important context for understanding the information.