In the past 1994, Ukraine's annual GDP plummeted by 20% again, from US$65.6 billion in 1993 to US$52.5 billion. From the peak of US$82.7 billion before disintegration, the overall decline reached 37%.
The only thing better than our fellow sufferer Russia may be the recovery of food production in Ukraine.
Relying on the most fertile black land in Europe, Ukraine's annual grain output in 1994 was 27 million tons, an increase of 145% from the lowest point of 11 million tons in 1991. However, this figure still barely exceeded the pre-disintegration peak of 52 million tons. tons of grain production.
The severe economic recession has left Ukrainian citizens with severe shortages of all living necessities except barely able to fill their stomachs. The entire country, even the capital Kiev, is in a state of depression. Shop shelves are empty and closed, there are few vehicles and pedestrians on the streets, and the flea market is filled with all the items that can be sold in residents' homes, including books, records, tableware, cameras, pianos... Just to exchange for some expensive living supplies in this deep winter.
In the coldest time of the year, this depression is even more shocking.
Celia Miller left Kiev on the morning of January 10th, local time, and rushed to Rivne Oblast along the wide national highway built during the Soviet era. Along the way, the vast swaths of snow-covered cities and villages were all in this desolate scene, even giving... One feels a sense of death and silence.
As a Pentagon official who once had the U.S. government directly confront the former Soviet Union, Celia couldn't help but feel pity when faced with this scene.
At noon, we arrived in Rivni, the capital of Rivne Oblast, on a beautiful sunny day.
Compared with the decayed scenes we saw along the way from Kiev, there were obviously a lot more pedestrians and vehicles on the streets of this capital of the northwestern Ukrainian state under the sun. Even at noon, the temperature was still below zero, and they were wrapped in thick clothes. The faces of the people do not have the numbness about the current situation and the future like in Kiev, but instead have a certain vitality that can be easily felt.
This is a city where hope exists.
The key reason why Rivney is able to do this is because of money.
In early 1994, Ukraine signed an agreement with the United States and Russia to give up nuclear weapons, only in exchange for a US official special fund of US$175 million and economic assistance of US$155 million, totaling US$330 million.
In comparison, in the past year, the Westeros system alone has invested no less than 200 million U.S. dollars in total through purchasing military supplies, supporting the Ukrainian frontline military service company team, investing in Ukraine, etc., a large part of which Part of it went to this border town of the state capital in northwest Ukraine.
As the base of the UMFS mercenaries, the Westeros System directly brought thousands of "high-spending people" to Rivni. The Westeros System's large investment in Rivni also gave the city Tens of thousands of jobs were created, all of which ultimately led to the revitalization of all walks of life in Rivni.
When Simon came to the city in August last year, the number of residents in Rivni had dropped from 290,000 at its peak to 220,000 due to the economic downturn, material scarcity, and a large number of residents fleeing.
In less than half a year, due to the large number of job opportunities brought by the UMFS mercenary garrison and the investment in the Westeros system, a large number of people from the four surrounding counties and counties came into the city. The number of residents in Rivni City has quickly exceeded 300,000.
Looking at everything around her, Celia realized that, aside from all gaming factors, she was actually doing a good thing during her trip. Only by removing those unscrupulous blood-sucking moths can this city, which still has hope, develop better, and the residents here be able to see a future.
otherwise.
Celia was well aware of the strong personality of her young boss.
If he fails to achieve his goal, he will really give up his plans in Ukraine.
If the Westeros system is completely withdrawn, everything here will only fall into death again like the rest of Ukraine.
Celia and her party and the special team from the Kiev authorities passed through the city and arrived directly at the Rivni Municipal Government Building. After meeting up with Ken Dixon who arrived here in advance, things started quickly before everyone had lunch.
Yuri Miloslav, the governor of the Rivne region who came to greet him, was dismissed from his post and detained on the spot. The mayor of Rivni, Andrei Smirnov, who had already had contact with the Westeros system in advance, took over as governor. , the Rivne Oblast police system controlled by the family of UMFS president Klim Derevyanko launched an operation to arrest Miroslav's family members and direct descendants according to a list listed in advance.
In the evening, the rapid earthquake in the officialdom of Rivne Oblast came to an end.
After hearing the news and not knowing what happened, the citizens of Rivni City were unavoidably panicked. When they watched TV in the evening, they finally saw the relevant news from the TV station that had been acquired by the Westeros System.
Looking at the large sum of cash and property searched from the mansion of Governor Miloslav's family on the TV screen, covering the entire living room of the villa, the panic of ordinary residents quickly disappeared, and then turned to anger. The director of the President's Office personally made a speech in Kiev After the authorities' determination to crack down on corruption and restore the economy, residents' sentiments have completely calmed down.
The task that Simon assigned to Celia was by no means to clean up the officialdom in Rivni City, but to remove the biggest obstacle that might hinder the development of the Westeros system in this state and county.
Kill the monkey to scare the chicken.
So that night, when television was doing a special feature on the governor's resignation, Celia and Dixon threw a party in person at a hotel in Rivni.
Mainly to appease people.
Faced with the thundering methods of the Westeros system, the Rivne state government system, which was frightened like a bird, also settled down after Celia personally expressed her position. There was no need for any more explicit expressions. A concept was formed in everyone's mind. , the Westeros system has absolute green light power in this state and county and cannot be provoked.
Combined with some of the words used when communicating with her boss, Celia also understood another meaning of Simon's arrangement.
The Westeros system requires this state and county to gain absolute authority, but it will not protect other foreign investors. As long as the Rivne state officialdom does not provoke the Westeros system, it doesn't matter what else it wants. Judging from current signs, Rivni is expected to become the economic center of northwest Ukraine. Coupled with its proximity to other European countries, it will definitely attract more investors in the future.
Then, those people will discover that the investment environment here is actually not that good.
Only the Westeros system can flow unimpeded.
Accordingly, the state and county will become more dependent on the Westeros system.
Take away the governor and some direct descendants, and things don't end there.
After cutting off the biggest government-level hand that reaches out to the Westeros system to scare the monkeys and chickens, there is also the purge of the Westeros system's own power in the Rivne region.
January 11, early morning.
In the west of Rivni City, in a residential house with a separate courtyard, here is the Besonoskov family who just moved to Rivni City at the end of last year.
Eve Besonoskova accompanied the two girls back before Christmas last year. She originally wanted her parents to move here from Kiev. After advancing a salary in advance, Eve claimed to her parents that she was on a business trip this time. After receiving the reward, I discussed with my family and purchased this property not far from the UMFS family community. The whole family moved here after Christmas.
Mainly because there are many job opportunities in Rivni.
After the New Year, both her father and brother successfully entered the factory owned by Oldek Company. Eve, who was actually very thin-skinned, took the initiative to give Sergei Komorov a thank-you phone call and had no reliance on him when looking for a job. The thought of her relationship with a certain man, so she didn't expect that things would go so smoothly.
Eve didn't know that her other identity had been notified to Rivni after it was confirmed. She herself became the head of the security service team of Chengnan Villa. After returning, she was equipped with an additional car and a mobile phone. , these are not something that just anyone can have in Rivni City. None of the six girls in the villa in the south of the city has their own car or mobile phone.
Because it was a working day, the Besonoskovs all got up early.
Eve has her own room in the villa in the south of the city, and there is another apartment nearby, but she still prefers to stay home when she is not on duty.
Before eight o'clock, the family was sitting at the dining table.
Helping her little sister Lyudmila, who was woken up in a daze, to fill a bowl of rice and thoughtfully setting the tableware for her, Eve quietly listened to her parents discussing her brother's marriage, feeling very satisfied.
My brother Vladimir had a very stable girlfriend when he was in Kiev, but because he never had a job, the girl’s family never agreed to their marriage. Now things have finally turned around, and the girl will move to Riv from Kiev in the near future. Ni, the two plan to get married in March.
Eve secretly discussed with her father that some of the money in her hand could be used to buy a house for her brother, but she was rejected. Her father believed that his son was lucky enough to find a job, and the rest should be his own business.
After breakfast, his father and brother went out first and rode to the building materials factory in the suburbs. There was an imported black Mercedes-Benz sedan parked in the courtyard. Neither his father nor his brother had any intention of letting Eve give it to them. The main reason was that his father was afraid of getting the car dirty. Alexander · Besonoskov had to change his clothes and shoes before riding in this car on the few occasions he took it.
The younger sister has no such concerns.
After her father and brother left, Lyudmila asked her sister to drive her to school.
16-year-old Lyudmila dropped out of school two years ago. Eve also knew that her sister's academic performance was not good and she also liked to play crazy.
However, when they came to Rivni, the whole family unanimously agreed to send their sister to school again.
The members of the Besonoskov family are all very tall. Although the 16-year-old Lyudmila is not as tall as her sister, she is already 182cm tall. She is just slender and does not have the heroic spirit of her sister, but her face is prettier. . Because of her height, Lyudmila resisted going to school, because the girl, who was already very mature both physically and mentally, did not want to stay in the classroom with those little brats.
The helplessness could not resist the unanimous decision of my parents, brothers and sisters.
Lyudmila wanted to become a model. A year ago, she was bewitched by an unreliable model agent. She almost ran away from home and went to Poland. Fortunately, she was stopped by her father at the station. Since then, her family has been very strict with girls. .
Looking at her sister who was leaning on the passenger seat and saying goodbye to her mother who was a full-time housewife, Eve drove out of her yard.
The school my sister attends is the UMFS school invested and built by Simon. It officially opened on January 9. It is only for children of UMFS families and provides a full range of education from kindergarten to high school. Anyone familiar with the inside story of this school knows that this school The "teaching staff" can even be described as shocking. There are more than 100 teachers collected from all over Ukraine who once held the title of university professor.
Regardless of the country or region, parents with a little bit of foresight will not ignore their children's education.
Therefore, many government officials are trying their best to send their children to this school.
Although most of them are direct children, the education style of this private school is not laissez-faire at all, but very strict. In the future, all students above junior high school are expected to undergo a month-long military training every year. No one will do so because of their parents’ positions. The school has also set up a strict assessment and scholarship system, which only uses academic performance as the criterion, and will not tolerate students who violate school disciplines.
The Mercedes-Benz sedan arrived near the campus in less than ten minutes.
Eve did not drive the car directly to the school gate.
However, Lyudmila still enjoyed watching the passing students paying attention to the car. She pretended to tidy up her schoolbag for a while, and finally turned to Eve with a smile: "Sister, can you give me some money?"
Eve looked at her sister, her eyes filled with doting, but she didn't take out her wallet: "I'll buy you whatever you want."
Lyudmila opened her mouth and said, "It's the birthday of one of my classmates today. We are going to her house for a party in the evening. I must buy a birthday gift, right?"
Eve was not a sociable person, but she really wanted her sister to have her own circle of friends. Even though she thought she might be lying, she hesitated and took out her wallet from her satchel.
Eve's satchel was very ordinary, but her wallet was a gift from two girls, Ekaterina and Natalia, during her last trip. She accepted it without much thought.
When Lyudmila saw her sister take out a Chanel wallet with a double C logo from her bag, little stars immediately lit up in her eyes. Her still slender body wrapped in a down jacket leaned over and touched Eve's arm with her little hands. : "Sister, can you give me this wallet?"
Eve was confused: "Huh?"
Seeing her sister's expression, Lyudmila probably understood. She rolled her eyes and immediately took out her empty wallet from her schoolbag: "Sister, I'll trade with you."
Seeing her sister hand over her wallet, Eve didn't think much. She just took out the documents and banknotes from her wallet, put them into the ordinary wallet that her sister handed over, and handed the pink Chanel to her.
"And money, money."
Lyudmila took the wallet, held it in her hand and touched it. Then she remembered it and hurriedly reached over again.
There weren't many banknotes in Eve's wallet, just a few large Ukrainian hryvnias and about a hundred dollars in change.
In today's Rivni, because UFMS mercenary salaries are settled directly in U.S. dollars, U.S. dollars are much more common than Hryvnia. Everyone doesn't like the local currency that has been depreciating, so there are even various discounts for shopping in U.S. dollars. .
Lyudmila's eyes were very sharp, and she took away all the dollar bills in her sister's hand. Grivner did not move at all, pretending to be cute and laughing, and was about to push the door and get out of the car, but was grabbed by Eve. Catch it.
Looking at her sister who was holding the purse to her chest like a kitten protecting food, Eve certainly had no intention of fighting for it. She just took off the furry white leather hat on Lyudmila's head and replaced it with her own knitted hat. The voice explained: "You are going to school, don't wear such a hat in the future. Also, don't spend money indiscriminately."
Lyudmila nodded her head repeatedly, like a good baby. When her sister let her go, she quickly got out of the car, finally waved to Eve and ran towards the school gate.
Eve kept watching her sister enter the school gate, and then started the car again.
Just as she turned around and planned to go to the villa in the south of the city, her cell phone rang. She parked the car again, picked up the phone and answered it. After hearing a few urgent words from the other side, Eve explained something, quickly hung up the phone, and hurriedly started the car and drove away. go.
Arriving at the villa in the south of the city, two groups of people were confronting each other at the entrance of the villa.
When the female bodyguard on duty saw Eve's car coming, she immediately walked over and pointed at some men and women standing at the gate of the villa: "That's them. They want to take away Annika and the three."
While the two were talking, another black Mercedes-Benz of the same model as Eve arrived.
This time it was Celia Miller who got off the bus.