Leaked U.S. strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat
Leaked U.S. strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat
A report obtained by POLITICO details specific plans to reform Ukrainian institutions and warns Western support may hinge on cutting corruption.
One of the goals mentioned in the article is a re-privatization of a formerly Russian-owned bank that was nationalized. That just seems to be the US strategy of "if it's done by the private sector it can't be corruption".
The important distinction here is who can do the corrupting.
Seems like a fairly accurate assesment; Ukraine used to be – and possibly still is – the most corrupt country in Europe. A nontrivial amount of the donated weapons have ended up in the hands of criminals, and eg. some of the assault rifles that Finland donated have ended up being found back here in the possession of gangs (source, in Finnish though, sorry).
Russia actually ranks worse in Transparency International's Corruption Index.
Oh absolutely, I just didn't include them in "Europe".
The war has ironically probably helped combat corruption because it's taken a ton of power away from oligarchs by robbing them of their foreign currency assets.