NYT OpEd: Can We Please Talk About How Ukrainians Feel About This?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/opinion/trump-ukraine-corruption.html

Can We Please Talk About How Ukrainians Feel About This?

Donald Trump’s attempt to warp our judicial process for his own ends is a grievous offense against a country that is desperately fighting corruption.


By Alyona Getmanchuk

***

Ukraine has spent years grappling with the influence of Russia, whose president insists that Ukraine and Russia are one nation. Both of the recent popular uprisings here, the Orange revolution in 2004 and the Maidan revolution in 2014, were at least partly revolts against excessive Russian influence; before 2014, many Ukrainian leaders’ policies were shaped by Vladimir Putin’s demands.

Russia’s influence efforts, in turn, were helped along by domestic corruption in Ukraine: by the so-called oligarchs who still play an oversize role in our politics and economy, and by political leaders seeking to profit from their offices.

But for the past five years, Kiev has enjoyed a relatively respectful relationship with Western countries, including the United States, which has helped us make progress on the domestic front. The United States has helped Ukraine both deter Russian aggression and undertake important reforms. Americans have invested billions in making improvements in Ukraine, including in the legal system. It is thanks in no small part to the United States that Ukraine now has a court focused on high-level political corruption that began operations a couple of weeks ago.


It is not surprising that, according to opinion polls, Ukrainians consider the United States, along with Poland, our primary ally in the world.

And so it is bitter to learn that under Donald Trump, it appears that the leadership of the United States has now joined the list of those who would use Ukraine to pursue their own narrow ends, and do so in ways that hinder our own efforts to improve our country. It is especially painful that this is happening at a moment when the new Ukrainian leadership desperately needs a functional partnership with Washington.

***

More at link.

A good read.

[Control-Z]

1. K&R & Bookmarking.

Will come back to read evening. Thanks for the post, Tommy!

[Iliyah]

2. Strong arming a country with promised

monetary aid to falsehood that shithole wanted against a political opponent while the Republican do nada. The DOJ is suppose to represent the people of the United States of America but does the contrary only to represent the corrupt asshole in the WH and his cronies.

[moondust]

3. Absolutely.

Stuck between some manipulative fucking dictators can't be easy.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. Yup. A sad pattern for Ukraine.

See Ukraine during the 1930s/40s with Hitler and Stalin.

[Act_of_Reparation]

5. Maybe later.

No offense, but right now I'd like to impeach the madman. Once I got that under wraps, by all means, let's talk about what it's like for Ukrainians to be stuck in the middle of the Moscow/NATO pissing match.

[Marcuse]

7. Ukrainians may be testifying to that at the impeachment hearings.

[stopdiggin]

6. thanks. good perspective.

young struggling democracies looking for help and support ... And the U.S. turns into a banana republic. U.S. reputation literally flushed down the toilet. All the while the billy bobs are makin' america great again ... Just so unutterably sad ...

[erronis]

8. Interesting that the dump didn't know where Ukraine was until the pute explained it to him

Probably in terms that involved dump's porn/trophy wife's origins.

Dump can't care about any country other than Queens, Miami, NJ, coastal Scotland, etc. Just where his under-water properties are going further.

So, who in his inner circle is really feeding him info? Just fux-nuze? Some private line from his favorite plutocrats?

And who is actually giving him talking points? He obviously doesn't know his shit from shinola since he can't talk either to a depth of more than 1.5. How is his mouth/gibberish being manipulated?

Other dump-ass presidents (mostly repugs, natch) were smart enough to utter stoopidities on their own. This one seems moronic in comparison - almost robotic.