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121

NYT discovers that Zelensky’s regime sabotaged oversight, allowing corruption to fester. I am as shocked as you all are by this revelation. (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/news@hexbear.net

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[–] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

To protect their money, the United States and European nations insisted on oversight. They required Ukraine to allow groups of outside experts, known as supervisory boards, to monitor spending, appoint executives and "prevent corruption".

There is another angle to this story. The imperialists have been taking over the functions of the Ukrainian government under the guise of anti-corruption.

Over the past four years, a New York Times investigation found, the Ukrainian government systematically sabotaged that oversight, allowing graft to flourish.

As much as I hate zelensky, I would have done the same thing in his position.

Letting other countries - especially ones you are financially dependant on -this much leeway over your government functions is horrifically stupid. It amazes me that westerner audiences are so brain-dead they cannot see why other countries would have a problem with this "oversight".

[–] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 23 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The Energoatom scandal has hamstrung Mr. Zelensky politically and weakened his case for Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO, two institutions wary of adding a member that is dogged by corruption.

In reality, they are trying to pressure the Ukrainian government for more control and concessions.

If it does not clean up corruption, Kyiv also might not receive the hundreds of billions needed to rebuild the country after the war.

This will be one of the copes used after the war to not help rebuild Ukraine.

[–] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They'll definitely still help 'rebuild' it - that's the main moneymaker. Buy up the land or redevelop it so that you gain a share of it. JPMorgan and BlackRock have had eyes on the rebuild for about 3 years now, and their deals have already been agreed.

[–] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

They'll rebuild, but they won't 'help'

[–] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 22 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Ukrenergo’s board is made up of seven people who oversee major projects and executive appointments. The government picks the supervisory board members, but four are foreigners chosen from a shortlist made by the European Union and Western banks.

The majority are foreigners picked by western banks. This shit is as transparent as GLASS.

[–] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 18 points 2 weeks ago

Let us look at one of the example incidents the NYT talks about. I'm not aware of additional details, I can only comment on the information provided by the article itself.

As Mr. Halushchenko tried to seize control at Ukrenergo, he also pushed a major spending plan at Energoatom. He wanted to buy two old Russian-designed nuclear reactors from Bulgaria. Mr. Halushchenko wanted to move them to a nuclear plant in western Ukraine, bring them back to life and connect them to the energy grid.

Ok, makes sense. Nuclear energy could be useful for powering the country, no?

Western donors and anti-corruption watchdogs immediately criticized the idea. The project, they said, had all the hallmarks of a boondoggle at one of Ukraine’s most notoriously corrupt state-run firms.

Unnamed "donors" and unexplained "hallmarks" of a "boondoggle". Huh.

(I'm not saying that there was no corruption, but the article is written with so much spin it is impossible to use it to determine if there actually was corruption)

An incoming board member, Tim Stone, a British businessman with a background in finance and nuclear energy, said that he had planned to order a review of what he called the “Franken-reactors.”

Opinion dismissed.

Many unrelated paragraphs later >>

The reactor deal is on hold and is not part of the graft investigation.

..... if it isn't even being investigated for graft, what was all this hubbub about?