Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 10
A few days ago, I called Oleksandr Abakumov, a senior detective at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. I wanted to ask him about Operation Midas, his investigation into a kickback scheme in his country’s energy industry. I didn’t intend to write about him. But as we were speaking, I got interested in his background, and his motivations. As I eventually wrote in the Atlantic, I was struck by the surprising contrast between people like him—the Ukrainian civil servants and civil-society activists who have been demanding transparency from their leaders for two decades—and the American and Russian negotiators who met last week in Moscow, perhaps to decide Ukraine’s fate.
Remember, the civic reform movement in Ukraine, starting with the Orange Revolution in 2004-5, peaking during the Maidan revolution of 2014 and continuing into the present, has always had two goals: A sovereign Ukraine, independent from Russia, and a transparent Ukraine, free from Russian-style corruption. This same civic reform movement is now the backbone of the Ukrainian army and the drone industry, but still fights for influence in the civil service. Ukrainian reformers have always had plenty of opponents inside the country as well as in Russia. Nevertheless the Ukrainian state has slowly transformed itself.
Foreign coverage of “Operation Midas” often relies on the passive voice, as if the scandal has a will of its own (“Scandal Consumes Top Aide”). But people such as Abakumov, who is a part of the Ukrainian state, worked to make the scandal public. They have interrogated cabinet ministers, published surveillance recordings, searched apartments. The Ukrainian Parliament has dismissed two ministers. Tymur Mindich, a former business partner of Zelensky, has fled the country. Late last month, the president’s closest adviser, Andriy Yermak, resigned following a search of his apartment. All of this means that the political system is healthy, operating according to the law.
I asked Abakumov if he feared that his investigation could harm the war effort. On the contrary: “Corruption equals Russia,” he told me. If Ukraine tolerates corruption, “this is the way we lose, during the war, during negotiations, during rebuilding Ukraine.” Daria Kaleniuk, one of Ukraine’s most prominent anti-corruption activists, also told me that with this investigation, “we have the chance to save the country and make it stronger.”
Contrast their motivations with those of Steve Witkoff (a real estate developer), Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law and the owner of an investment company that received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia) and their Russian counterpart, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund:
Last month, The Wall Street Journal revealed that these three businessmen met in Miami Beach in October to discuss not just Ukraine but also future Russian-American business deals. Russian businessmen who are known to be close to Putin have been “dangling multibillion-dollar rare-earth and energy deals” in front of American companies, the Journal explained, to “reshape the economic map of Europe—while driving a wedge between America and its traditional allies.” Some of the companies have connections with Donald Trump’s family.
Witkoff and Kushner are not taking kickbacks on government contracts, as some Ukrainian officials are now accused of doing. The corruption they represent is more profound: They are using the tools of the American state in a manner that happens to benefit their friends and business partners, even while they do terrible damage to American allies, American alliances, and America’s reputation. This is a conflict of interest on a grand scale, with no real precedent in modern American foreign policy
Anne Applebaum
No. of Recommendations: 3
More psyops from the NY Times and Rev. Trombony.
Did you just want to overlook the fact that several top officials in the Zelensky government were themselves found to be totally corrupt?
And his Chief of Staff was actually sent to the Russian front as punishment?
You putz.
You literal putz.
No. of Recommendations: 2
"Corruption Equals Russia"?
That's the conclusion when they are talking about the blatant CORRUPTION IN UKRAINE?
"Just believe me, don't believe your lying eyes."
Is that how this goes?
The article states that Zelensky's "closest adviser" had to resign (that's the one that was sent to the Russian Front)?
And the CONCLUSION of Applebaum and Rev. Aholony is: "OMG RUSSIAN CORRUPTION!!!!"
No.
UKRAINIAN CORRUPTION at the very highest levels.
Did it ever, never, even a little bit, ever, possibly, occur to the NY Times and Rev. JackWateroni that maybe, just possibly, maybe, even a little bit, Ukraine might be doing a little bit better in its war effort against Russia
IF ITS ENTIRE TOP LEVEL POLITICAL establishment wasn't thoroughly CORRUPT?
No. It's ALL RUSSIA's fault.
Not a little, teensy eensy weensy bit Zelensky's fault.
Oh yeah Trump's fault too. Don't forget that.
Can't be Biden's fault. No siree. When he had a prosecutor fired, who was investigating corruption, no siree, that was good thing, don't you know.
Give it up.
You people are just plain stupid.
No. of Recommendations: 14
Did you just want to overlook the fact that several top officials in the Zelensky government were themselves found to be totally corrupt?
The study in contrasts was in how Ukraine is dealing. With its corruption, and how we and the Russians deal with theirs.
Had you actually read the portion of the article I quoted, you would know:
1. The corruption in Ukraine, a carry over from its Soviet days, is being exposed and addressed by the government itself.
2. The corruption of Russia is long standing and the Trump administration is emulating it. And the corruption of both Russia and the United States was on full display in the agreement arrived at by Jared, Witkoff and Kiriil Dmitriev.
The difference between the countries- Ukraine is building a robust democracy with safeguards to identify and address corruption, while the United States is busy destroying the mechanisms that heretofore identified and addressed corruption. And we will increasingly pay a high price for that corruption.
No. of Recommendations: 2
The NY Times, and your, take on "corruption in Ukraine" is absolutely delusional.
So, corruption has been going on with Zelensky's top advisers for YEARS during an existential war with Russia, and Zelensky either didn't notice or didn't care or was and is part of it.
But that's not "Ukrainian Corruption," oh no, it's "Corruption is Russia."
That's the psyops.
What the article purports to be about is how good Ukraine is supposedly fighting its own corruption.
But it doesn't come to the conclusion that "UKRAINE IS VERY CORRUPT."
It comes to the conclusion that "UKRAINE IS NOT CORRUPT, RUSSIA IS CORRUPT."
W.T.F.
Oh and you say Ukraine is a "democracy"? They haven't had a national election for SIX YEARS.
That's not a "democracy." That's a dictatorship. Period.
It may be a dictatorship that we the U.S. for various reasons greatly prefer to the Russian variety; it may be a dictatorship that we don't think is anywhere near as dangerous as the Russian one; but make no mistake--it's a dictatorship.
Not a democracy.
No. of Recommendations: 8
Oh and you say Ukraine is a "democracy"? They haven't had a national election for SIX YEARS.
Their constitution forbids elections during wartime. In two months, they will have been fighting a Russian invasion for four of those six years.
