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No, that disproves your assertion that Shokin was fired on behest of Biden Sr because the latter wanted Shokin not to investigate his son. Of course, you could say that it WAS the real reason, and Biden just used reputation of Shokin being a corrupt prosecutor for plausible deniability in getting him fired. But then argue accordingly, not just put it as an undeniable fact.
Also Hunter Biden didn't commit any crime according to Ukrainian law by working there. Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma, most likely did - but then it was during presidential term of Yanukovich, a figure very much beloved by some on American far right and far left, deposed by the evil CIA.
Yeah, it looks like Shokin was fired because he wasn't investigating the 'right' people.
**It still doesn't explain to me why you think politicians getting paid off by through their family getting cushy sinecures in foreign countries is remotely okay. **
It's okay in Ukraine. We get that, it's why Ukraine is that way.
In any normal county, a politician whose junkie son gets $50k a month from a sinecure in a famously corrupt country overseas would instantly be embroiled in a huge scandal.
No, this is business as usual in the UK, France, the USA and more. You usually don't hear about it it because of how accepted it is. And that is because compared to corruption in Pakistan, China and yes Ukraine and so on it is tiny. There is no non-corrupt country but most of the wealthy Western ones have fairly minimal levels like said Hunter Biden issues. The amount of effort it would require to eradicate is just not worth it. And of course it's not like elites whose families benefit from it would want to. Even if they are temporarily on the other side of it for short term political gain. Trump does it even more directly with Jared and Ivanka and so on. It isn't exceptional, it is the norm.
Putting relatives of people with power on boards and in cushy executive positions is endemic almost everywhere. That might not make it ok, but please do not underestimate how common it is in "normal" countries.
As an eastern European, we used to look up to Germany when it came to political culture, and they seem fairly intolerant with corruption.
Do they do this too ? Or is e.g. Schröder involvement in Gazprom only a scandal because it's politically advantageous to bash Russians ?
Yes.
Since 2018 an investigative committee organized by Germany's Federal Audit Office is looking into how contracts worth tens of millions of euros were awarded to external consultancy firms.[109][110][70] The auditing office has found several irregularities in how the contracts were awarded. During the investigation, two of von der Leyen's phones were confiscated, but data from both phones has been deleted before being returned to the defense ministry.[111] In turn, opposition lawmaker Tobias Linder has filed a criminal complaint against von der Leyen suspecting deliberate destruction of evidence relevant for the case.
and
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24504386
Germans are in my experience particularly sensitive to it, so it usually is smaller scale and more hidden. For example see this Quora answer about corruption and nepotism in Germany:
"On a lower scale, there is nepotism. In a very subtile and hidden way. You might not get your own daughter a nice job in the authority you work as a a head of department. But you might ask your fellow who works for an other authority to give her a job. Off course she has to be qualified, and she has to pass some tests.
If you are an executive in a big company, you like one colleague quite much and want that he earns a little more money, you just create a new job for him. Off course he has to be qualified and he has to pass some tests."
Germany is in my experience not that corrupt, but not that corrupt in a wealthy nation still can involve billions of euro.
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Says a person from Slovakia 😩
Our graft is these days mostly limited to 15-20% cost inflation on government contracts. Your president is a an actor whose show was funded by an oligarch, who among other things,stole how many billion $ from Ukrainians by running a bank and giving out loans to friendly companies.. Was it 2 or 5 billion ? They still haven't bothered to wipe that shit off the internet. We had shit like this in mid to late 1990s. That was .. quite some time ago.
If these days Ukraine was as corrupt as Slovakia, you'd probably be as prosperous as Poland what with the better climate, natural resources and sea access.
Now, Slovakia isn't a normal country, but at least half of the parties wouldn't tolerate something like this, and it definitely wouldn't fly anywhere in western Europe.
Yes, yes. Why would anything be wiped from the internet? Kolomoisky is investigated.
It's there for anyone to see — like the fact that Slovakia is one of the most corrupt states in Europe — worse than Georgia or Rwanda. Nothing wrong with it — you made a great progress since mid 90s, being in EU and all that.
But that's interesting — right? The only people who like to talk about Ukrainian corruption or Hunter Biden so much are Orbanites from Hungary, russophiles from Bulgaria, Slovakia in your case, MAGA people (who are linked to Paul Manafort — one of the most corrupt people in recent Ukrainian and American history), Trump himself — all exemplars of honesty and incorruptibility. I find it hilarious. Clean your own stables.
But thanks for Zuzanas.
As Arestovych observed, you need to lie to yourself a lot, no other way to victory is possible.
Don't thank me. I was never asked about NATO membership, would vote against it. "Keeping Americans in, Germans down and Russians out" is a system that benefits primarily Americans.
Yes, no need to thank a fifth columnist.
Matter of perspective. I see people who want to keep Europe subordinate to the murderous, greedy idiots in D.C. as a 'fifth column'. Roughly 40% of Slovaks agree with me.
Knowing your kind, people like you rarely ever vote, and know culture war figures from the US better than their local representatives. "Local corruption? Nah, what about transsexuals in Virginia?"
Less than the support of Tiso party in 1938 elections? Good.
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