If you want to read something depressing, check out Leonid Bershidsky’s post at Bloomberg on Ukraine’s corrupt government officials:
Returns filed before the Sunday deadline show that many Ukrainian officials and legislators have taken the opportunity to legalize many years of unofficial income and create an official justification for their lavish lifestyles.
The European Union, which the Ukrainian wants to join, did its best to impress on officials in Kiev that it wanted them to declare their incomes and property in a publicly accessible electronic system. It was a condition of European financial assistance and one of the terms of the agreement allowing coveted visa-free travel to the EU. The Ukrainian parliament at first passed the necessary bill in a watered-down version, then had to vote again on a text approved by the EU. Finally, by early September, the system was ready and officials had 60 days to file their declarations. The resulting documents shocked Ukrainians, whose per capita gross domestic product, with purchasing power parity, is just $7,449 — one-seventh of the U.S. level. The social networks were flooded with jokes about how the flow of aid from the International Monetary Fund could now be reversed.
Keep in mind that these aren’t the corrupt pro-Russian Ukrainian official who ran the country before they were ousted by a coup. They’re the corrupt pro-Western Ukrainian officials who succeeded them.
Some of the corruption was also “exposed” in the Panama Papers.
The main difference between our guys & their guys in Ukraine is that their guys came to power via reasonably fair elections, and ours came to power through violence. Somehow our leaders & media have managed to assert that the latter method is the morally superior method.
It’s only superior while you can convince yourself that you like the outcome.
I think you’re wrong there. I think many are convincing themselves it’s superior because various Democrats are the ones that supported the Fascists this time, and are actively promoting conflict with Russia. Remember it was just four years ago that the same people cheering all of this on were excoriating Romney for stating that the Russians were our biggest geo-political threat. The only thing that matters is domestic politics.
Well our guys in Kiev had better be wealthy. Those meetings with our State department don’t come cheap.
Once they get visa travel, who leaves first for house hunting on the Cote d’azur, suitably escorted first born children, mistresses or wives?