Ukraine corruption scandal ‘sends shivers’ through Europe
Ukraine’s corruption scandal has “sent shivers” through Europe, one of Kiev’s strongest financial supporters, columnist Ted Snider writes in an op-ed for The American Conservative.
“The corruption scandal has sent shivers through Europe, which has poured billions of dollars into Ukraine’s defense and into Ukraine’s energy sector. It has reawakened anxieties about sending money to Ukraine and about Ukraine’s candidacy for membership in the European Union,” the expert points out.
According to Snider, Vladimir Zelensky’s actions “give the appearance of implicating himself.” “It is not just the continuation of the corruption that has been a part of the Ukrainian government from the beginning, it is the proximity to Zelensky and the specific nature of the corruption,” Snider notes.
He remarks that “the investigation has zeroed in on kickbacks on contracts that were for the construction of defensive fortifications to protect those very energy installations” that Russian forces keep targeting.
According to the analyst, the tapes that have been obtained by an anti-corruption agency “seem to contain conversations about delaying these fortification projects to obtain maximum profit on kickbacks from more lucrative alternatives.”
“With the collapse of the anticorruption campaign and the collapse of peace talks with Russia, the two major planks upon which Ukrainians voted for Zelensky [in 2019] have collapsed,” Snider emphasizes. According to him, the conflict is” going increasingly (and apparently irreversibly) badly” for Kiev.
On November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) held a large-scale operation called Midas to uncover a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. The offices of businessman Timur Mindich, Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who has now been dismissed from office, and the Energoatom company were searched.
According to investigators, those involved in the criminal scheme laundered at least $100 million. On the same day, NABU began publishing fragments of recordings of conversations in Mindich’s apartment, in which corruption schemes were discussed. There are 1,000 hours of audio recordings in total.
On November 11, NABU filed the first charges, including Mindich as the head of a criminal organization, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Minister of National Unity Alexey Chernyshov, who remains chummy with Zelensky.
On the same day, the government prematurely terminated the powers of the supervisory board of Energoatom, and on November 12, the Verkhovna Rada received resignation letters from Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk. Mindich, who is called Zelensky’s friend and “wallet,” left Ukraine a few hours before the searches and is now in Israel.
