27 November 2019
Ukraine has a serious corruption problem. Transparency International, which ranks countries according to their level of perceived corruption, lists Ukraine as 130th out of 180 nations. That makes it among the most corrupt countries in Europe, barely ahead of Russia.
The turning point came with the Maidan Revolution that forced out President Victor Yanukovych who fled to Russia, confronted by the massive demonstrations in which more than 100 protesters died. He and his business associates, robbed the country of around $100 billion. Graft continued to run amok under his successor, Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire who made the bulk of his fortune in the candy business.
The Maidan revolution paved the way for Volodymyr Zelensky (in picture) to become president. Kremlin controlled Ukraine through the oligarchic system of influence. In this system, oligarchs were allowed to enrich themselves at public expense as long as they maintained loyalty to the Kremlin. Trump and his associates have aligned themselves with the forces of oligarchic authoritarianism in Russia, Turkey, Hungary and Ukraine.
Ukraine is at the heart of the U.S. impeachment inquiry. Ukrainians are angry that Trump has dragged them into US politics by asking their new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.  President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine does not interfere in the internal affairs of the United States, and that there was no blocking now of any assistance from the American side, and that was not because of his phone call with President Trump. He also said that Ukraine does not conduct investigations “on command” of other governments. He made this comment during a joint press conference in Tallinn with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulides.
Former Ukrainian Attorney General Yuri Lutsenko worked with President Trump’s legal advisor Giuliani to smear the former US ambassador, Yovanovitch, and spread unsupported stories about Joe Biden’s dealings with Ukraine. Joe Biden demanded his removal.
Ukraine is making significant progress in fighting corruption.  Ukraine created a new anti-corruption court in Kyiv, replaced several dishonest prosecutors and exposed illicit campaign contributions, money-laundering schemes and political backroom deals. The country passed anti-corruption legislation to identify illegal wealth held by officials, calling for up to 10 years in prison for those who cannot satisfactorily explain income of more than $250,000.  They created a hotline for whistle-blowers to report wrongdoing. Recently operatives of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have detained 10 persons, including seven customs officials, over violations of customs law.