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The US, along with West-controlled financial institutions, plans to take Ukraine into its economic, financial and military orbit, Richard Becker from the Answer Coalition told RT.

RT: Is there any hope that Western financial aid will improve the situation in Ukraine?

Richard Becker: I think it’s extremely doubtful if there is any hope at all. In reality the government, the previous government and the present government, agree to terms that impose austerity on the people of Ukraine. And we’ve seen that everywhere this kind of bailout or this kind of financial aid has been extended to countries it has always resulted in problems, severe problems: dislocation, unemployment, loss of subsidies, lowering of standards of living for the great majority of the people in those countries. And we believe it’s very likely to be the same with Ukraine.

RT: What is the role of the United States in the Ukrainian conflict in your opinion?

RB: Well, I think that it’s important to take note of the reason why that conflict is going on at all. And this is due to the intervention of the United States and some of the major powers, major countries in the European Union, who have intervened vigorously and I would say illegally in the affairs of Ukraine going back for quite some time now and leading to the overthrow of the Yanukovich government, the coup that took place overthrowing him. And we should remember that the US has sent some of its top personnel in, and is continuing to do the same thing, the Secretary of the Treasury I believe is going there now. And the IMF is an institution which is also largely controlled by the US, based in Washington DC. There is nothing good that’s going on here from the point of view of people in Ukraine whether people understand that, realize that or not. This agenda of the United States government is one of bringing Ukraine into its orbit in a permanent kind of way, in its economic orbit, its financial orbit and its military orbit. And this is what’s really going on. And I think this is why that’s understood by many people in Ukraine who are resisting this agenda.

RT: Why did the US intervene in this conflict back then?

RB: Well again I think it’s important to remember that what set off the demonstrations of November 2013 by right-wing forces…was an offer by Russia and on much better terms to help Ukraine overcome its debt crisis and its financial crisis. And the Yanukovich government was willing to accept that and was trying to play a balancing game between Russia and Western Europe and the US. But that was not acceptable to the US. And the US agenda has bent to take Ukraine into its orbit and the US intervened very strongly trying to bring this about. But of course Ukraine could find the way out of the financial crisis and it would make more sense, it would have seemed for them to take the Russian offer which was on much better terms, and Russia of course being a close neighbor and trading partner and so forth. But as long as the austerity agenda is in place that is headed by giant banks of the West-ruled institutions like the IMF and the World Bank there is no hope that Ukraine will a see real recovery at least the recovery from the point of view of the majority of people.

RT: What can we expect from the US Treasury Secretary being involved?

RB: Again, nothing good. The Treasury Secretary, the finance minister of the United States, always represent the big banks and that has been a pattern over and over again. They shuttle back and forth between the biggest banks like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs and others and their positions inside the finance ministry of the US also which is called here the Treasury Department… But their agenda is not the agenda of the people of the US, they certainly do not have the interest of the Ukrainian people, and what they are doing is seeking to advance the interests of those that they truly represent which are the giant international multinational banks.

RT: The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko seems not to fulfill promises he once made. What is your attitude towards him?

RB: Well Poroshenko is a very rich man supported by even richer interests, more powerful interests from outside and the fact that you have big corporate capitalist governments in Western Europe and in the US praising him despite as you said he has a record of not being able to fulfill the promises that he made.. something that we don’t find unusual for politicians in the US and probably also elsewhere. But the fact that they are praising him has nothing to do with his role in helping the people of Ukraine … But they praise him because he is really pursuing and furthering their agenda in regard to Ukraine. And you know their hope is to swallow Ukraine to be able to exploit its tremendous natural resources, the labor of the people and to bring eventually Ukraine…into NATO. So that’s why Poroshenko is being praised despite his real record.