US Analyst: Time Has Come for American Politicians to Hold Kiev Responsible for Endemic Corruption
13:03 GMT 23.07.2022 (Updated: 20:35 GMT 19.10.2022)
© AP Photo / Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
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Ukraine's history of rampant corruption and shaky governance has received fresh attention as billions in aid are flowing to Kiev, the Associated Press noted earlier this week, citing GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz, who accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of "playing politics" and urged Kiev to appoint an anti-corruption prosecutor.
"[Ukrainian-born Republican] Representative Victoria Spartz was initially a vocal and effective proponent of providing financial and military support to the Kiev government. That she has altered her position and become so critical of the present Ukraine leadership and their corrupt cronies should be taken seriously," says Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist.
In recent months, Rep. Spartz has been pushing for more oversight of US aid to Kiev and lambasted Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, for apparent corruption. On July 8, she asked President Joe Biden to brief Congress on corruption allegations against Yermak and later slammed both Biden and Zelensky for their irresponsible approaches to the Ukraine crisis.
Spartz's criticism prompted a fierce reaction from Kiev as well as a heated debate among GOP lawmakers and conservative observers.
Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, claimed that Rep. Spartz should "stop trying to earn extra political capital on baseless speculation around the topic of war in our country and the grief of Ukrainians." He also accused the Republican lawmaker of disseminating "Russian propaganda."
Spartz's unnamed party-fellows from the lower chamber also chastised her for damaging US-Ukraine relations at the worst possible time and for "being played by forces that aim to weaken the Western alliance," according to Politico.
However, both National Review and The Federalist, the two publications representing moderate and MAGA GOP views, immediately lashed out at the anonymous House Republicans who "cowardly" attacked Spartz over her concerns about Kiev's longstanding corruption problem.
"If Volodymyr Zelensky’s confidants—namely, Andriy Yermak and Oleh Tatarov—are trusted stewards of seemingly unlimited aid, it does nothing to diminish our support for 'democracy' to ask for more coordination and oversight," highlighted David Harsanyi, a US syndicated columnist and author, in his recent op-ed for The Federalist.
18 July 2022, 02:51 GMT
Pandora Papers & Zelensky's Offshore Accounts
This is not the first time US Republican lawmakers have subjected Kiev to criticism over cronyism and financial machinations.
In March, GOP Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Zelensky "corrupt," and said that she felt sorry for Ukrainian civilians while speaking at a Paulding County Town Hall. The same month, North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "thug" and the Ukrainian government "incredibly evil."
Judging from the October 2021 bombshell "Pandora Papers" release by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), US lawmakers' concerns are not without merit.
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rode to power on pledges to clean up the Eastern European country, but the Pandora Papers reveal he and his close circle were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies, including some that owned expensive London property," the OCCRP reported, detailing Zelensky and his longstanding associates' financial "charades" and attempts to conceal their earnings.
The OCCRP drew attention to the fact that Zelensky and his partners in a television production company, Kvartal 95, founded a network of offshore companies in 2012, when they started to collaborate with television stations owner Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch dogged by allegations of multi-billion-dollar fraud. Kolomoisky was also said to be funding and backing Ukraine's notorious neo-Nazi and ultra-nationalist battalions, including Azov, Aidar, Donbas, Dnepr 1, and Dnepr 2, back in 2014, according to Newsweek.
However, the US mainstream media and top American politicians from both parties have remained largely silent on the OCCRP revelations about Zelensky, his cronies, and suspicious business partners since October 2021, Ortel notes.
Why US Establishment Doesn't Want to Talk About Kiev's Corruption
While the US mainstream press and top politicians swept the issue of Kiev's endemic corruption under the rug after the beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, non-establishment conservative and left-wing think tanks and media raised the question as to what lies behind this behavior.
The Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank, urged the Biden administration in April to stop calling the Ukraine-Russia standoff a fight between democracy and authoritarianism, stressing that Ukraine is "at best… a corrupt, quasi‐democratic entity with troubling repressive policies", with the neo‐Nazi Azov Battalion being an integral part of the state's military and security apparatus.
On the left side of the US political spectrum, Jacobin, a NY-headquartered magazine, lambasted US officials for knowingly greenlighting an uncontrollable flow of weapons to Ukraine despite the country being "one of Europe’s largest arms trafficking markets."
According to Ortel, the main reason behind the US establishment's selective amnesia with regard to Ukraine's burning problems is… money.
"Defense contractors are major supporters of [US] politicians," Ortel says. "Lasting peace is definitely not in their interests. Republicans and Democrats are each quick to promote cronyism when doing so scores more campaign cash, family benefits and increases their political power. Independents are most likely to reject failing foreign policies. Thankfully, Independents are becoming a much more potent force inside America, a trend that likely will continue for years."
The Wall Street analyst notes that "too many politicians in America now understand that 'public service' is a potent way to build financial wealth for their families."
"The American public should fairly debate and then only engage in military operations that truly are necessary to defend America's national interests," says Ortel. "So far, the project to push NATO eastward has, perhaps, served America's rapacious defense contractors well but it certainly has not brought us closer to a lasting peace."
Kiev's Corruption Comes Under Spotlight, Again
However, all of a sudden the Associated Press, an old established US news media outlet, raised the Kiev corruption issue on July 20, citing Zelensky's recent sacking of his top prosecutor, intelligence chief, and other senior officials. AP recalled that prior to Russia's special operation, the Biden administration had been pushing Zelensky to do more to act on corruption.
"As it presses ahead with providing tens of billions of dollars in military, economic and direct financial support aid to Ukraine and encourages its allies to do the same, the Biden administration is now once again grappling with longstanding worries about Ukraine's suitability as a recipient of massive infusions of American aid," the media outlet highlighted.
As the issue of Ukraine's corruption has been brought to forefront ahead of the midterm elections, there is a hope that responsible politicians will fully address the issue, according to Ortel.
"The deadly messes in Afghanistan and now in Ukraine will stop once voters hold corrupt globalist politicians and their donors to account," he says. "Thankfully, in America, pivotal elections are scant months away."
