ANKARA

Guru investor George Soros has said he is ready to invest $1 billion in Ukraine.

The financier said in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard on Monday: "Ukraine is like West Berlin. Too many in Europe and in Germany close their eyes to this fact."

"They take Ukraine for a financial problem, and behave with Ukraine as though it were Greece."

"People need to understand that Ukraine is defending the EU against Russian aggression," Soros added.

There are not enough people willing to invest in Ukraine, Soros complained. "The West can help Ukraine by making it more attractive to investors. There should be political risk coverage."

 'New Ukraine'

He went on : "I stand ready. There are concrete investment ideas, for example in agriculture and infrastructure projects."

"I would put in $1 billion. This must generate a profit. Private investment should be joined with strong political leadership."

Soros's call came two months after he met senior Ukrainian Parliament members in Kiev amid fears the country faced a debt default.

The Hungarian-born investor is linked to several non-governmental organizations in Ukraine which advocate closer ties to the European Union and which also supported the Euromaidan movement which helped topple the pro-Russian Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovich in February, according to Russian news outlet RT.

Soros also published an article in the New York Review of Books on Jan. 7, in which he called for a $50 billion rescue package to be formed from funds from the IMF, the European Investment Bank, World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to support what he referred to as a "new Ukraine".

 'Black Wednesday' profit

A Paris court also fined Soros €2.2 million in 2002 after he was convicted of using inside information to profit from a 1988 corporate raid on French bank Societe Generale. He had denied the charges. 

The Hungarian-born financial magnate made his name betting against the pound on Sept. 16, 1992, when the UK's Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after being unable to keep it above its lower limit agreed under the mechanism.

Referred to as "Black Wednesday", the UK Treasury estimated the crisis cost Britain £3.4 billion, while other sources estimated it could have reached £27 billion.

Soros, the highest profile currency market investor engaged in betting over the crisis and ranked by Bloomberg as being among the top 30 richest people in the world, reportedly made more than £1 billion in profit by short selling sterling.