| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: One Big Ilyushin | |
| Posted by: | Mark Evans | |
| Date/Time: | 01/02/24 14:57:00 |
| Interesting you mentioned Michele Mone because when I read further details on this Ukrainian corruption case the parallels seemed very striking. A government in the midst of a national crisis gave priority to the politically well connected to meet urgent procurement needs. It should be pointed out in both cases corruption has merely been alleged rather than proven. Although the Ukrainian Secret Service are accusing these people of embezzlement all the funds have been recovered. If the intention was simply to steal the money, then it seems strange that it wasn't switched to untraceable accounts or crypto. The point that Anna seems to have misunderstood is that corruption exists in all countries but a corrupt country is one where the malefactors are not held to account. There is undoubtly still a lot of corruption in Ukraine which is a legacy of the way the old Soviet system used to work. However, even in 2022 the country ranked well ahead of Russia in international indices of corruption (i.e. it was less corrupt) and it has been seeing rapid improvements with Russia going the other way. On current ratest of improvement, Ukraine looks set to have a better record than the EU's most corrupt country Hungary which currently ranks alongside Burkino Faso. The main reason this war started is that the Ukrainian people wanted to move away from being ruled by a corrupt elite in the pocket of Russia and to a country in which the rule of law provided its citizens protection. More importantly in this regard is that there is a fundamental falsehood underlying Anna's call to stop funding Ukraine. No cash is being sent to Kyiv to buy weapons. The monetary amounts quoted for military aid is the deemed value of equipment and ammuninition transferred out of stock and sent to the Ukraine. US auditors have checked that this is being properly used and, no surprise, have confirmed that everything is okay. Interestingly, the way the US government is getting round the logjam created by Trump is to provide military aid to Greece in return for them delivering stocks to Ukraine. A similar deal with Turkiye looks to be in the offing with the latter being asked to give Soviet era air defence equipment to Ukraine in return for being eligible to take deliver of F35s. |