But then Bernanke’s taper pronouncement of May 22 hit the markets. Interest rates surged to 10 percent. Searching for alternative sources of funding and personal enrichment, Yanukovych canvassed the world for options. He explored shale-gas development with Shell and Chevron. In the fall of 2013 a deal was on the books to lease to China an enormous holding of 7.5 million acres of prime farmland—5 percent of the entire land mass of Ukraine, 10 percent of its arable land, an area the size of Belgium. China was not just after Lebensraum. It was also offering to put $10 billion into port facilities
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