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willows68

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Wolf said:
End game.

Russia was right: Nobody can ignore Kiev’s corruption now​

A $100-million graft scandal has blown the issue of systemic graft in Zelensky’s Ukraine wide open
By Nadezhda Romanenko, political analyst
Russia was right: Nobody can ignore Kiev’s corruption now

Vladimir Zelensky. © Beata Zawrzel/Getty Images


For years, the EU has treated Zelensky’s Ukraine like a recovering alcoholic – praising every small step towards “democratic reform” while trying to ignore the chronic issue of systemic corruption.
That balancing act has now collapsed. A $100 million energy-sector corruption scandal, the arrests of senior officials, and months of political pressure on Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have forced the uncomfortable truth into the open: Ukraine’s corruption problem isn’t being solved. It’s fighting back.
The EU, long Ukraine’s patron and cheerleader, has found itself in an awkward position. Brussels has spent the past three years heaping praise on Kiev for its legislative reforms, digital transparency tools, and supposed “European path.” Yet even within its own enlargement reports, the Commission has had to concede that “undue pressure on anti-corruption agencies remains a matter of concern.” In diplomatic speak, that’s as close as one gets to an alarm bell. Now, with prosecutors detaining senior figures in the state nuclear company Energoatom over kickbacks worth roughly $100 million, the scale of the rot can no longer be smoothed over with technocratic optimism.
Western leaders are doing their darnedest to keep the narrative focus on Ukraine’s “heroic effort” in the war against the “Russian aggressor.” But Kiev’s deep-seated corruption is not helping. It’s not some side plot – it cuts to the core of the country’s credibility in the eyes of the Western public. Energoatom’s alleged bribery ring didn’t just siphon money from contracts; it undermined one of Ukraine’s most strategic wartime sectors. That alone should make this scandal more than an internal affair. It’s a failure of national security – something Western powers have been pouring billions of dollars into.

The revelations are hardly isolated. Over the summer, the Zelensky administration faced a storm of criticism after parliament passed legislation that effectively stripped Ukraine’s two main anti-corruption bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – of much of their independence. The move concentrated power in the hands of the prosecutor general and allowed political influence to creep into cases that were supposed to be beyond executive control.
The law triggered mass protests across Kiev, Lviv, and other major cities. Thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets, not against Russia, but against their own government’s apparent attempt to neuter institutions that Western partners had helped build. Under intense EU and US pressure, Vladimir Zelensky’s government backtracked and passed corrective legislation to restore the agencies’ autonomy. But by then, the damage had been done. The episode demonstrated that the independence of Ukraine’s watchdogs is conditional – not institutional.
Equally troubling are the intimidation tactics that followed. Ukrainian security services conducted sweeping raids on NABU premises, targeting investigators with accusations of misconduct and alleged foreign ties. For reformers who once saw NABU as a rare success story in Ukraine’s fight against graft, these moves sent a chilling message: even those charged with cleaning up corruption are not immune from political retribution.
The EU can no longer pretend not to notice. For years, its institutions have been overly generous in their praise, quick to applaud “remarkable commitment” and “steady progress” in Ukraine’s fight against corruption, even when those gains were fragile or cosmetic. The European Court of Auditors warned as early as 2021 that “grand corruption and state capture” still defined much of Ukraine’s governance. Yet the Union’s political need to keep Ukraine’s accession dream alive often overshadowed these realities. The rhetoric of solidarity replaced the rigor of scrutiny. Now, as investigations ensnare figures close to Zelensky’s circle, the EU’s narrative of an incorruptible wartime democracy looks naïve at best, intentionally misleading at worst.

The ironic part is that the one country unwilling to turn a blind eye at the rampant corruption in Kiev has always been Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry’s Peskov recent statement that graft is “eating Ukraine up from the inside” is just the latest of Moscow’s attempts to make the world stop looking the other way.
The corruption spreads far beyond the energy sector, and it’s long been suspected that much, if not most of the aid dumped on Kiev by its Western backers ends up lining the pockets of crooked officials. Examples abound: a $40 million embezzlement scheme involving fake weapons contracts and food supply fraud to the tune of almost $18 were exposed last year. Who knows how many went undiscovered and unpunished.
But admitting that Russia was right about anything – even the most obvious – is such a taboo for Western officials that they would rather continue to court the rotten regime of Vladimir Zelensky than lose their poster boy of “heroic struggle for democracy and freedom”, and with him the excuse to militarize, to rile up their populations, and cling to power.
Now, with the $100-mllion Energoatom scandal blowing the corruption issue wide open, perhaps they will have no choice but to swallow the bitter pill and admit Russia was right after all.
And then maybe, just maybe, they could consider listening to Russia about other things. Perhaps we can talk about Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem next?..
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Yea the bah sheep still flly that rag of a flag these parts.
 
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scolairebocht

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J Walsh said:
The litmus test for the next government will be how they handle the housing (of Ukrainians and Indians) crisis.
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Yes I think thats how everybody should understand their much ballyhooed new housing policy. Its designed only to house migrants, and you can see this in new housing all across the country, as such I am sure it will be a great success.
 
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J Walsh

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Ivana Batshit, speaking at the Labour Party conference, said Ireland's flag is for everybody.

Shea my inspiration.
 
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BIG FAT HOOR

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scolairebocht said:
Yes I think thats how everybody should understand their much ballyhooed new housing policy. Its designed only to house migrants, and you can see this in new housing all across the country, as such I am sure it will be a great success.
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i was born into a FF family we had 2 FF TDs in our extended family -- Jim Gibbons was a family friend and at my sisters wedding .
my wife and her family are FF --I was in the local FF cumann and resigned over jock haughy beating up the elderly at local polling station trying to unseat Jim gibbons .
no member of the cumann would support me in going to the press and going to Dublin to party HQ to let them know what is happening .
i am i could say with some conviction that i am from the FF tradition .
FF ARE DEAD --THEY NO LONGER EXIST .
today we have our country flooded beyond daftness beyond madness with people of military age -not families.
we have no knowledge of their criminal status or medical status or skill status ,
when you ask the police they will privately state that in order for them to get this far it cost them thousands and none /almost none of them have any education/skill / resources to generate the financial resources they obviously have .
what have they done to earn these sums .
and in their opinion they got these huge resources in their own country by armed murderous means as there are no other means available.
today we are defenseless against the George Soros agenda in our primary schools where today the wish to show children how to give blow jobs to any passing stranger and do not be alarmed if you are sexually assaulted and including sodomy by anyone and everyone --its all quite natural .
it would get you a 20 year prison term a short time ago but FF now believe its normal to hold these views .
today in our parliament the Dail male toilets have a tampon machine for those TDs ,
men who believe they have an uterus and vagina which menstruates each month and is clearly also capable therefore of giving birth .
these insane lunatics who believe they menstruate through their non existent vaginas are ruling our country and deciding what happens to us and our families .
Michael martin is the chief operating officer over this insanity -- when confronted recently about the thousands of these strange strangers who have destroyed the community's they are housed in and the interviewer was met by martin with arms extended in a theatrical pose and a high volume pleading of "" WHERE IS YOUR HUMANITY --HAVE YOU ANY HUMANITY -GOD WHERE IS YOUR HUMANITY "".
this is disgraceful as is the insane giving of about 30 armoured APC /mowwags to Ukraine to kill Russians .
the supplying of arms /equipment to a foreign power to murder citizens of a friendly state Russia is blatant insanity for a neutral state .
no FF td has opposed this madness --- haughy was a supreme bollix a thieving liar --but he would not have done this -he would not have done any of this --this is how mad this FF soros crap is--its obviously paid for .
 
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Perry

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BIG FAT HOOR said:
i was born into a FF family we had 2 FF TDs in our extended family -- Jim Gibbons was a family friend and at my sisters wedding .
my wife and her family are FF --I was in the local FF cumann and resigned over jock haughy beating up the elderly at local polling station trying to unseat Jim gibbons .
no member of the cumann would support me in going to the press and going to Dublin to party HQ to let them know what is happening .
i am i could say with some conviction that i am from the FF tradition .
FF ARE DEAD --THEY NO LONGER EXIST .
today we have our country flooded beyond daftness beyond madness with people of military age -not families.
we have no knowledge of their criminal status or medical status or skill status ,
when you ask the police they will privately state that in order for them to get this far it cost them thousands and none /almost none of them have any education/skill / resources to generate the financial resources they obviously have .
what have they done to earn these sums .
and in their opinion they got these huge resources in their own country by armed murderous means as there are no other means available.
today we are defenseless against the George Soros agenda in our primary schools where today the wish to show children how to give blow jobs to any passing stranger and do not be alarmed if you are sexually assaulted and including sodomy by anyone and everyone --its all quite natural .
it would get you a 20 year prison term a short time ago but FF now believe its normal to hold these views .
today in our parliament the Dail male toilets have a tampon machine for those TDs ,
men who believe they have an uterus and vagina which menstruates each month and is clearly also capable therefore of giving birth .
these insane lunatics who believe they menstruate through their non existent vaginas are ruling our country and deciding what happens to us and our families .
Michael martin is the chief operating officer over this insanity -- when confronted recently about the thousands of these strange strangers who have destroyed the community's they are housed in and the interviewer was met by martin with arms extended in a theatrical pose and a high volume pleading of "" WHERE IS YOUR HUMANITY --HAVE YOU ANY HUMANITY -GOD WHERE IS YOUR HUMANITY "".
this is disgraceful as is the insane giving of about 30 armoured APC /mowwags to Ukraine to kill Russians .
the supplying of arms /equipment to a foreign power to murder citizens of a friendly state Russia is blatant insanity for a neutral state .
no FF td has opposed this madness --- haughy was a supreme bollix a thieving liar --but he would not have done this -he would not have done any of this --this is how mad this FF soros crap is--its obviously paid for .
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It's depressing as fcuk, when or how did the extreme left policies of soc dems/pbp become the policies of FFG..... Notice even now the focus on housing is social and affordable... With far left scum ngos dictating who gets this housing... Great for the economic migrants tho, free Houses etc... while the indigenous Irish flee to first world countries. Change needed ASAP. Start with mass deportations
 
Mad as Fish

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Tiger said:
So true 😆

View attachment 8399
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It's an interesting question alright, where do all the good looking Baltic ladies come from? Having actually been over there it is the same as here, plenty of stunning women but few men would make it as Hollywood extra in some zombie movie, not that I am any great expert on the attractiveness of men.
 
jpc

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clarke-connolly

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Ian Beel said:
Ireland needs more Georgians and Bosnians to build houses for Indians treating Africans in our hospitals.

Any Party not fully behind the above won't be getting my vote at he next election.

#irelandforall
#fckracistflags
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If we are not careful = = We will have nobody to look after the Rape-ists and Stabbers ! !
 
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willows68

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willows68

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World Bank - he might as well join Agostin in Basle - he's nearing his sell by rapidly.
 

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