Political strategist Mykhailo Sheitelman explained that Ukraine has the same kind of corruption as any country in a transitional period, and that the task is not to criticize but to continue working on cleaning up the system, Politeka reports.
He talked about this in his blog.
According to the expert, there are different opinions regarding the corruption scandal in Ukraine’s energy sector. For example, he says, an acquaintance who genuinely cares about Ukraine but is not a volunteer believes that such a scandal will negatively affect Western aid. But, the expert continues, an influential activist in Latvia who has done a great deal for Ukraine said that in his own country in 2004, when they were joining the EU, there was the same level of corruption — and that a transitional country simply cannot be any different.
“In other words, note this: a person who talks about aid in theory but does not actually help says, ‘Oh, how could you.’ But an influential person who has truly raised a lot of money and gathered real political support in his country for Ukraine for some reason does not reproach us for corruption. He says, ‘How else could it be?’ Of course, we must fight corruption — we must expose these abscesses, we must. So what is so surprising here that everyone is so shocked?” Mykhailo Sheitelman comments.
As the expert explains, in Latvia in the early 2000s, even similar corruption schemes were uncovered in various state-owned enterprises. And this, he emphasizes, is always linked to state-owned companies: until they are privatized, corruption will always exist — it is inevitable, because a certain political establishment lives off these enterprises; everyone needs to be paid, but not out of their own pocket. Therefore, the expert states, today’s scandal in the energy sector is the exposure of corruption — exactly what should be happening — and it should in no way affect partners’ attitudes toward Ukraine.
“By the way, European officials and bureaucrats understand this. They were the ones who insisted that we fight corruption — and we are doing it ourselves. You see the difference, right? It’s not that we were caught red-handed; we are carrying out self-cleaning,” Mykhailo Sheitelman stresses.
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