this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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By equating corruption to treason, Zelenskyy’s office is manipulating the public’s desire for justice, said Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (Antac), a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization that monitors graft. In reality, Shabunin added, Zelenskyy’s office is pursuing other goals: to protect high-level officials from corruption charges and obtain tools to destroy opponents.

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[–] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 51 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

OP is known tankie just fyi. Doesn't justify US or Ukrainian actions but make sure you understand that the reason for posting this isn't out of any actual concern for human beings. They're also peddling covid conspiracies

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thank you. I hate tankies.

[–] Skyline969@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I’ve heard this term on Lemmy and pretty much nowhere else. What is a tankie?

[–] FaeDrifter@midwest.social 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Authoritarian communist, it can be hard to pin down what they stand for, because they aren't clear on much except, "death to America", and a hatred of capitalism (understandable tbh). They tend to be pro-Russia and pro-China.

I've heard the term a while, but lemmy is the first time I actually interacted with any.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago

It's such a broken mindset. They just want to trade one set of chains for another. China and Russia aren't even communist anymore. They are both capitalist with totalitarian characteristics.

[–] Skyline969@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

Huh, TIL. Thanks!

[–] brain_in_a_box@hexbear.net 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wannabe McCarthy here copy pasting this comment all of the place; "known tankie", are you fucking serious with this?

[–] diffuselight@lemm.ee -2 points 2 years ago

There there Lenin Hitler, here is your pills

[–] crazyminner@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago

This user has posted this same comment in multiple threads. Clearly they have an agenda or something.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net 47 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Interesting.

Ukraine is known for thorough corruption at many levels of government. Zelenskyy first got elected for that reason- he was originally an actor who starred in a movie about a politician who decided to end corruption. He then ran for office on that platform and won. But when the system is thoroughly corrupt through and through, fixing it is not an overnight process.

My initial thought is perhaps this anti-corruption unit is itself corrupt, so it's making up an excuse to justify its own existence.

As for high profile corruption being swept under the rug- what I know of Zelenskyy suggests he would be less likely to turn a blind eye to that. I could of course be wrong though. And I suspect if he brings a high profile treason corruption case against a few well known people and has them jailed or shot for treason, that will send a very strong message to the rest that this isn't tolerated anymore.
That will of course put a target on Zelenskyy's back, but that's always been the case (especially since Russia invaded).

[–] diffuselight@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Razor. Dude didn’t take the treasury and a US Uber at the start of the war but signed up for the hard stuff of leading the country.

This simple miscalculation in character cost Putine everything.

Whatever draft dodgers like Trump are accusing him of - the reality remains, he did not run and instead bailed western balls to the wall to give his country what it needs to beat the vatniks

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes exactly. And that's why I don't jump to the assumption that Zelenskyy himself is corrupt or he is covering for the corruption of others.
A dude that would tolerate corruption doesn't say 'I need ammunition not a ride'. He could have bailed at any point, still could. But he shows no signs of losing resolve.
If Zelenskyy is trying to keep inner circle corruption private to avoid public spectacle, I suspect that whoever is found guilty will probably end up wishing they were arrested publicly rather than dealing with the security service.

[–] slice1@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

TF are you talking about "Vatnik"?

[–] diffuselight@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago

Are you asking for google education?

[–] slice1@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

What do you know about Zelensky? Did he slide into your DM? Seriously, you know exactly what everyone else knows about Zelensky... and also ignore his appearance in the Pandora papers.

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Lol

Ukraine has been known as corruption-country in europe for years.

This is a good thing

[–] geissi@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

Ok, since the title and summary really don't explain at all what the problem is, I think those two paragraphs are much better:

Two senior officials following the proposal, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, say concerns are growing within Ukraine’s anti-graft agencies that Zelenskyy’s plan will take top corruption cases away from their oversight and pass them to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which falls under the president’s command.

The SBU could, potentially, have the power to bury corruption cases involving top officials. The move, the officials say, could put Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure under threat, and anti-corruption watchdogs are sounding the alarm.

But Politico, owned by very agenda-driven Axel Springer SE are hardly an unbiased an neutral news source these days.
Some of what they write here is not very consistent:

As journalists and anti-graft organs start to uncover more alleged corruption schemes during the first months of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion which began in February 2022, Zelenskyy thinks those days were so tough that officials should be cut some slack.

“February and March 2022 — it was a fight for the existence of Ukraine. If I see the corruption cases dated that time, I demand solid evidence. If there is one [evidence], the guilty must be punished by court, not public opinion,” Zelenskyy said in a televised interview. “As for my idea of equating corruption to state treason during wartime, I think it will be a very serious instrument to make them not even think about it [corruption].”

How does "I want solid evidence and then I want it to be counted as treason" equate to cutting someone some slack?