Americans who even casually followed the news in the fall of 2020 probably know that Ukraine was infamously corrupt long before the United States sent the country $54 billion in aid after the Russian invasion in February. They might not know much else about Ukraine, but they know it’s the kind of place where just being the son of the vice president of the United States can get you an $83,000 monthly paycheck just for sitting on the board of an energy company.
No one knows this better than Ukrainians themselves, who have to put up with a level of official corruption on par with countries like Mexico and Gabon. Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Ukraine 122 out of 180 countries worldwide, and the second most corrupt country in Europe — right after Russia.
But talking about any of this publicly is a big problem for establishment neocons in Washington because it invites uncomfortable questions about the U.S. role in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. Just ask Ukrainian-born Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., who lived in Ukraine until she was 22 and has been back six times since the Russian invasion. Spartz probably understands what’s happening in Ukraine better than anyone else in Congress, and yet Republican House leaders now say they regret giving her such a prominent platform to speak out against the war. Read more…
