Zelenskyy Slams Corruption As Lawmaker Probed for Luxury Trip

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Facts

  • Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a rebuke to his country's public servants that are engaged in corruption on Tuesday — warning them that "there will not be any of you" in his nightly address.1
  • Zelenskyy said: "No one will forgive MPs, judges, military commissars or any other officials for putting themselves in opposition to the state...For any public official, this is a betrayal of state principles, a betrayal of the interests of society."1
  • "Every law that is needed to strengthen the position of our troops must be adopted," he added. "If you are working for Ukraine, you are needed by Ukraine. If not, you are not."1
  • The warning came hours after Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), together with the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), said they were investigating lawmaker Yurii Aristov — a deputy chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence in Ukraine's parliament, as well as a member of Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party.2
  • According to law enforcement agencies, while Aristov was on government business in Poland, he arranged a falsified sick leave certificate from a medical facility in Kyiv before traveling to the private island of Ithaafushi in the Maldives. There, accompanied by his family, he stayed at the five-star Waldorf Astoria hotel until 22 July; under Ukrainian law, unless on official business, public officials are barred from traveling abroad.2
  • Meanwhile, despite Zelenskyy's condemnations, he himself has been accused of corruption. A report from veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh earlier in the year accused the Ukrainian leader and his inner circle of using US funds to buy discounted diesel from Russia, pocketing the difference from market rates with at least $400M allegedly embezzled in total.3
  • According to previous documents acquired by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2021, Zelenskyy was shown to be using offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize. Such entities are typically used to avoid taxes, as well as to hide the ownership of assets such as property from public view.4

Sources: 1President, 2Ukrainska Pravda, 3Seymour Hersh, and 4OCCRP.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Spectator (UK). Zelenskyy understands that if Ukraine is to join NATO or the EU, it has to clamp down on its problem of corruption that existed long before the war with Russia. He is rightly taking steps to eradicate this problem and should be commended for taking Ukraine in the right direction.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by CF. Despite Zelenskyy's public pronouncements, he himself has been at the center of corruption allegations to the tune of several hundred million dollars. How can he be taken seriously on corruption if he's also involved?

Predictions