Applebaum: Corruption Scandal “A Positive Thing” For Ukraine, Chief Detective Told Me “Corruption Equals Russia”
The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, appearing on “Washington Week,” discussed Ukraine’s corruption scandal and its impact on President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s war effort against Russia.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG, ‘WASHINGTON WEEK’ HOST, ‘ATLANTIC’ EDITOR: Right, right. Vivian, I’m going to come to you in a minute to describe the essence of the entire national security strategy of the United States. But before we do that, give me like a one minute warning. Before we do that, I just want to read something that Anne wrote about this corruption issue. In Ukraine, the state itself is investigating the government, the cabinet, even the president’s closest advisers. By contrast, it is impossible to imagine Kash Patel’s FBI investigating anyone in Trump’s White House. This may very well be true. It is also true that they have a serious corruption scandal and that he’s been weakened, Zelenskyy has been weakened. How — both of you handle that question. How bad is it for Zelenskyy right now? ANNE APPLEBAUM, ‘ATLANTIC’ STAFF WRITER: So, I think it’s important to understand, first of all, that this is the Ukrainian state investigating itself. So the, you know, democratically-elected Ukrainian government and people appointed by it and supported by civil society, these are civil servants and they are doing the investigation in accordance with the rule of law. And it’s a reflection — GOLDBERG: Yes. But Zelenskyy has been weakened by the existence of this — APPLEBAUM: Sure. He’s weakened by it. He’s lost some of his advisers and so on. But it’s actually — so inside Ukraine, it’s perceived as good, like it’s a positive thing. And when you — I spoke to one of the chief detective who was leading that investigation a few days ago, and he said to me, and I asked him, don’t you — aren’t you worried this will weaken the state? He said, no, it’s the opposite. Our state is weakened by corruption. Corruption equals Russia.
