Friday, June 3, 2022

Corruption in Ukraine, and its links to Washington DC

 

An article titled "Servant of the Corrupt" outlines the scale of official and quasi-governmental corruption in Ukraine, and the ties of the corrupt to US politicians.  It's staggering in its extent.  It also makes clear that the $40 billion US aid package recently approved for Ukraine is almost certainly going to be looted by politicians and oligarchs on both sides of the Atlantic - at the expense of the US taxpayer.


ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRESIDENT ZELENSKY, OLIGARCH IHOR KOLOMOISKY AND WASHINGTON DC

Zelensky didn’t have trouble incinerating vaunted democratic norms well-before Russia crossed the Rubicon into Ukraine this year. So it was no surprise when he did it again amid the war in late March, invoking emergency powers under martial law to nationalize TV channels and ban 11 opposition parties, including OPZZh — all supposedly done in the name of combatting Russian misinformation and Russian sympathizers, even though OPZZh’s then-chairman, Yuriy Boyko, denounced the war and called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Zelensky, however, wouldn’t miss another opportunity to clip the wings of political opposition in his country, certainly not now that Western media rationalizes and glorifies his every move.

But the portrait of the Ukraine President as a democratic paragon whitewashes the real Zelensky and conceals a vast web of corruption and international skullduggery of which Ukraine is situated in the centre. Understanding the real Zelensky, requires seeing him as a creation of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. He is, in truth, a puppet of intrigue.

It might be hard to believe now, but revelations from documents in the Pandora Papers — millions of files from offshore service providers leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with partners around the world — sent Zelensky reeling last year, threatening to end his political career. Though the actor-turned-politico campaigned as an anti-corruption reformer, the Pandora Papers showed him to be just as crooked as his predecessors.

Of more than 300 politicians and public officials, including several current and former national leaders, in more than 91 countries and territories to whom the documents were linked, Ukraine was home to more secret offshore holdings than any other, including Russia.

. . .

Zelensky, the creation of an oligarch, campaigned for president as the character he played in a comedy series with a party named after the show to victory in 2019. During the race, Volodymyr Ariev, a political ally of incumbent President Poroshenko, posted a chart on Facebook claiming it showed how Zelensky and his television production partners were beneficiaries of a constellation of offshore firms which allegedly received millions from Kolomoisky’s PrivatBank.

The allegations were dismissed as baseless at the time, but the Pandora Papers revealed that information on several companies in the network corresponded with Ariev’s chart, the OCCRP noted.

Shortly after taking the reins, Zelensky and his Servant of the People party began firing, supposedly for inefficiency, Ukrainian ministers with reputations as anti-corruption reformers. Daria Kaleniuk, head of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, told the Washington Post in March 2020 that the affair sent the message that Zelensky “can fire a person who takes a risk, for doing the right things, and blame this person for inefficiency.” Kiev-based reform reporter Oleg Sukhov echoed the sentiment last year, writing that “Zelensky has consistently protected corrupt officials from prosecution and killed anti-corruption reforms.” On the other hand, when faced with a petition calling for his dismissal, Zelensky refused to fire Oleh Tatarov, his deputy chief of staff, who had been charged with bribery.

The people put on the chopping block were also the ones most likely to threaten the power of oligarchs like Kolomoisky, from whom Zelensky may have learned a thing or two.

. . .

The war has completely reinvented Zelensky, thus saving his scandal-plagued presidency marked by broken promises. As a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll showed, just 24 percent of voters supported him in late January. But now, thanks to the West’s embracement of the actor’s new persona which often places him beyond reproach, Zelensky has become the recipient of unqualified adoration and enormous amounts of international aid money. “Before the war the U.S. was sending $300 million per year to Ukraine,” said to NPR Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for International and Strategic Studies. Now, we’re providing $100 million a day to what was until recently considered “the most corrupt nation in Europe.”


There's more at the link.

The old rule of "Follow the money" proves itself accurate yet again.  I hope investigative journalists are keeping a very close eye on the bank accounts of our politicians, and others that they may not have in their names, but still control.  I'm willing to bet a very large sum of money that a big chunk - perhaps well over half - of that $40 billion aid package for Ukraine is going to end up in those bank accounts.

I hope my fellow taxpayers are as overjoyed as I am to be contributing to the enrichment of the corrupt.




Peter


21 comments:

McChuck said...

Remember, ten percent for the big guy.

Aesop said...

Unfortunately for that narrative, his reply of "I don't need a ride [out], I need bullets" pretty well kills the idea that he's only in this for the money, else he could and would have bailed out on Day Two.

Factor that into the mix, and take another whack at things.

And the average Ukrainian, with no golden parachute, has decided to take his chances against T-80s rather than accept Vlad's tender romantic overtures to come back into the Soviet, er, Russian fold.

Now tell me which countries are run by honest men above all suspicion.
Start with Afghanistan, and work your way through the list to Zimbabwe, and get back to me.

I'll just wait over here.

KevinM said...

Maybe he's beholden to powers greater than he and a ride out is the bullet stay and fight is the word/order courtesy of the Cabal.

Fredrick said...

Zelensky and Biden understand one another completely.

Skyler the Weird said...

Investigative Journalists are probably cashing in too

Aesop said...

@KevinM,

Of course Zelenskyy's beholden to powers greater than himself.
If the West cuts him off now, it's probably over in a few weeks.
And he knows he's getting a bullet if Putin catches him. That's how the KGB always rolls.

But if you can't spend something, do you really have it?

Stuart said...

Aesop,

You have an entire website demonstrating you have been completely and utterly wrong about this whole affair. Why do you feel the need to demonstrate your ignorance elsewhere? Not enough people on your site? Working on some kind of a record?

KevinM said...

And he knows he's getting a bullet if Putin catches him. That's how the KGB always rolls.

1)Who says he's in Ukraine?seems like alot of green screens of late?My guess he's in Poland for the most part.

2)When working for the Cabal as one the largest money laundering counties in the World(HBiden) that bullet comes either side at failure to perform.

3)When one(Zelensky) has the support of Klaus Schwab,George Soros,Macron,Biden,H.Clinton etc. The old parable "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" becomes all to true.

Tom said...

It's really not true, though. See the alliance with the USSR in WWII. We shared a common enemy with Stalin, no more, no less, we forgot that, and we paid for it.

Grow up.

Tom said...

Stuart, you know a lot of things.

Most of them aren't so.

KevinM said...

Russia! Russia! Russia! for the last 6 years and it was all BS it's called discernment at this point they lied then and are lying now.Now if you want to line up for your NWO ID card/Badge go right ahead be the first in line.

Aesop said...

Stuart,

Sez you.
Which equals bupkus.

Tom said...

So, just out of curiosity, are you claiming that Russia did not invade Ukraine, or that Russia invaded Ukraine for good reasons?

KevinM said...

Russia invaded Ukraine

Was it all for good reasons I cannot say yet but their are no more BioLabs.The Agency that represented the BL admitted in the Senate they existed but were defensive in ops.If I walk out of my house with a rifle you get suspicious if I walk into your yard I am offensive.

Michael said...

Aesop emotional IQ, it's a thing. Try not to toss fecal outside your blog, please.

3,2,1 one of his other names to speak up.

HMS Defiant said...

it would be nice if all that money was invested in apartment buildings in Kiev and other Ukranian cities.

froginblender said...

If on the way to the airport to fly out to his multi-million dollar mansion in Florida, Zelensky get shot in the back by one of his aides ... I won't shed a tear.

Tom said...

Ah yes, the level 3 biolabs, of which there are several hundred here in the United States alone. It's almost a certainty that your nearest public four-year college has one.

Michael said...

Ah dear Tom, repeating dear Aesop's gems of wisdom :-)

A quote for you to ignore.

“It takes considerable knowledge just to
realize the extent of your own ignorance.”
- Thomas Sowell

We DON'T Know what is going on in Ukraine. We're pretty sure given that the World Economic Forum and Davos folks are in Approval of Russia being so destroyed by this event it's NOT likely to be good for non-One world Government souls.

Pelosi and the rest of the scum in the swamp are overjoyed to have this proxy war distracting us from their traitorous behaviors in District of Criminals.

As Peters article points out so plainly Follow the Money, they are laughing all the way to the bank while you and I are "enjoying" gasoline at new high prices and the very real threat of food shortages in the USA CREATED by the actions of DC.

As I've mentioned to dear Aesop once or twice all Russia has to do to WIN in Ukraine is outlast the USA as NATO would fold like a cheap suit once our power outages and food riots consumed our once fine Republic.

Famine wars act 1 or as Michael Yon says PanFamWar.

Got trusted friends? Two years food? Safe water? ability to repair your home from the damages of spicy times? If not GET BUSY.

Tempus Fugit

KevinM said...

Blogger Tom said...

Ah yes, the level 3 biolabs

Well if we have 700 here why did they build them over...........there?Why are they run by the US Government?Because they are L4 with associates/friends of the Biden Family.

Aesop said...

@KevinM,

Just curious: how many decaying Soviet biological and chemical munitions are stored or turned up near your local college that needed to be deactivated since 1990? Get back to us.

@Michael,
I didn't throw anything; I just called unsupported bluster for what it is. As the latest in a long line of johnny-come-latelys online, you might take your own advice on flinging feces, since it seems most of what you have time to do. If you could recall that on any given post, the topic is not *me*, your replies towards the actual topic, rather than ad hominem, would improve markedly. (I'm spotting you the assumption that such is your intent to begin with.)

And actual intelligence is also a thing. You might look it up.

One could be forgiven for the obvious observation that your situational agnosticism about what's happening in Ukraine conveniently never applies to what you so confidently allege, but only to everyone else's assertions that disagree with yours. How...fortuitous.
A parable about specks and boards comes to mind.

Ukraine has provide zero distraction for anything, it's just added more unneeded chaos and suffering worldwide. But that's all Putin has ever brought to the party. This marks the seventh outright war or military occupation of former Soviet republics since he assumed power, which has to be a world record in such a span of time. Ita semper a tyrannis. He makes Mexico circa 1910 or anywhere in Latin America since 1800 look like stable nations by contrast.

No one anywhere is in any doubt what Biden's incompetence and malicious handlers have done (including instigating this conflict), but Vlad has only added to the mix, and he's been the deliberate aggressor in toto, not some wronged and abused virgin. Believing his own press releases was his fundamental error. And many others' as well.

For a supposed crook, Zelenskyy has urged his own countrymen to defend their own liberty and freedom. Buy contrast, Putin has done nothing but squelch that of his own countrymen, and now sovereign neighbors as well.

Figuring out which way to come down under those circumstances is a no-brainer for most of the world.