Ukraine's Security Service Alleges Russian Plot Involving Ex-President

Ukraine's security service said on Saturday it had prevented former president Petro Poroshenko from leaving the country on grounds that Russia planned to exploit a planned meeting with Hungary's prime minister to hurt Ukrainian interests.

Poroshenko's political party, European Solidarity, said the former president had scheduled only meetings in Poland and the United States and warned the SBU security service against becoming involved in politics.

The SBU said he had planned to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who maintains ties with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and opposes opening talks on European Union membership with Ukraine.

"Ukraine's security service said...."

The phrase and related "official" pronouncements by this and other governments acting against simple freedoms underscores the observation that:

The state is an organized crime racket. It appropriates wealth by coercion and regularly uses force in violation of the nonaggression principle. The state is a parasite that perpetuates itself at all costs and extends itself by any means possible. Regardless of its putative leaders, the state grows and increases its power at the expense of its hosts and others who fall victim to its predations.
As Hans-Hermann Hoppe poignantly wrote, states are “gangs of murderers, plunderers and thieves, surrounded by willing executioners, propagandists, sycophants, crooks, liars, clowns, charlatans, dupes and useful idiots—[the state is] an institution that dirties and taints everything it touches.”
One of the state's dirty occupations is war. When undertaking war, the state uses expropriated wealth and human capital to defend its territory or extend its reach and influence. Clearing away the fog of statist preconceptions regarding war, Hoppe explains that war is gang warfare: “Gang wars, then, typically involving some territorial issues, are always wars conducted by rival gang leaders with other people's money, machines and manpower (just think of taxation and compulsory conscription!).”
In Statism Is the Cause of the Israel-Hamas War Mises Institute, 30 October 2023

Liberty should be and remain all people's goal "under God."

In Ukraine, specifically:

"Any Hint" of Corruption "Unacceptable": interview for Kyiv Post NAFTO GAZ, 17 October 2023
Corruption accusations continue to plague top Zelenskiy aides Reuters, 19 September 2023
How much progress has Ukraine's government made against corruption? NPR, 10 October 2023
'Ukrainians understand corruption can kill': Kyiv takes on an old enemy Guardian UK, 19 September 2023
Leaked U.S. strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat Politico EU, 19 September 2023
Ukraine uncovers corruption scheme implicating top officials Politico EU, 25 August 2023
Is Ukraine really interested in fighting corruption? Economist, 4 September 2023
US increases pressure on Ukraine to do more to counter corruption CNN, 3 October 2023
Battling corruption in Ukraine Financial Times, 30 September 2023
Ukraine struggles to curb corruption in its military Deutsche Welle, 17 August 2023
Corruption Is an Existential Threat to Ukraine, and Ukrainians Know It New York Times, 10 September 2023
Discontent grows over wartime corruption in Ukraine EuroNews, 8 September 2023
Corruption scandals continue to sweep Ukraine's government TIME, 13 January 2023
"In one poll, 77.6% of surveyed Ukrainians said Zelenskyy was responsible for government corruption."
Zelenskyy fires recruitment officials for accepting $10,000 bribes. Almost all Ukrainians think the country has a problem with corruption, survey suggests. Business Insider, 13 August 2023
"The majority of Ukrainians believe that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is directly responsible for dealing with corruption in the government and in military administrations."
Almost 80% of Ukrainians consider Zelenskyy responsible for dealing with corruption in government and military administrations Pravda UA, 11 September 2023
The US demands anti-corruption measures from Ukraine in exchange for economic aid EL PAÍS USA Edition, 26 September 2023
Putting Ukraine's corruption problem in context The Hill, 18 September 2023
Corruption in Ukraine: can crackdown on military change the course of conflict? FRANCE 24, 5 September 2023
Ukraine's anti-graft police zero in on major wartime corruption Japan Times, 22 August 2023
Zelenskyy aide on corruption in Ukraine: 'People are stealing like there's no tomorrow' Fox News, 20 October 2023
Investigation of Corruption in Energy Sector is a Top Priority Kyiv Post, 27 September 2023
Ukraine Detains Official Who Helped Men Flee Draft Kyiv Post, 22 August 2023

Corruption. Endemic around the world. Including, sadly, our beloved United States, especially under this current administration. Time will tell, and God acts, albeit in mysterious ways.

---- "How come none of the people worried about corruption in Ukraine are worried about corruption in Russia, Iran, China, Cuba, Greece, Venezuela, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, North Korea,Nigeria, Sudan, Spain,Canada, etc?"

Funny how you comment to a thread begun 2 December 2023, and specifically my comment dated then, almost two years ago.

Since you ask, I cannot comment on "the people worried," because I comment only for myself, and with the various hotlinks placed in my comment, including those from Kyiv Post.

As to corruption in all the nations your list above, and with the view that you are earnest in your question, corruption EVERYWHERE should be our concern. ALL of the above nations you list are observably infected with corruption. Including Ukraine, according to the Kyiv Post. I'll add to your list every other nation in our world, and since I am in these United States, I'll also highlight the detestable Democrats and some RINOs as well.

Corruption is everywhere, and need be rooted out everywhere. Which I why I encourage the diminishing of the size and expense of governments -- plural.

Since your home page features the wonderful Hayek text, Road to Serfdom, I will further reply to you that we all would do well to look at NOT being on that road, wherever we find ourselves.

In the chapter named "The Totalitarians in Our Midst," one reads in part:

"It is one of the saddest spectacles of our time to see a great democratic movement support a policy which must lead to the destruction of democracy and which meanwhile can benefit only a minority of the masses who support it. Yet it is this support from the Left of the tendencies toward monopoly which make them so irresistible and the prospects of the future so dark. So long as labor continues to assist in the destruction of the only order under which at least some degree of independence and freedom has been secured to every worker, there is indeed little hope for the future. The labor leaders who now proclaim so loudly that they have 'done once and for all with the mad competitive system' are proclaiming the doom of the freedom of the individual. There is no other possibility than either the order governed by the impersonal discipline of the market or that directed by the will of a few individuals; and those who are out to destroy the first are wittingly or unwittingly helping to create the second."

The "second" is "directed by the will of a few individuals...." Loosing the "first" -- "order governed by the impersonal discipline of the market" -- is anathema to "a few individuals," and those would be the corrupt, more often than not. In Russia as in Ukraine, and Europe as here.

Using Hayek, though there are so many other thinkers worth noting alongside him, corruption in all nations is an issue. Then it comes to the question, "where does one begin?" I'd say with us individually and then locally and as best we can.

The election of President Trump has brought the revelation that USAID was acting in a deeply corrupt manner. Its gutting brought howls from which people? The corrupt. So Hayek's clear identification of socialism with Nazism with other totalitarians turns focus to all governments loyal to "isms." The antithesis of them -- Hayek's "second" in the above -- is his "first" -- being "governed by the impersonal discipline of the market."

Here, there and everywhere. O'Neill said years ago, "all politics is local." Another corrupt speaker said, "politics is war." Both were Democrats from different eras.

You can think about "people" which is of course falling into notions of collectives and alliances and grand strategies. I'll continue to focus on the smallest, and, as my little tag line states, "degrow government." All of them. Why? Because Hayek predicts the "first" will trump -- pun intended -- the "second" over time.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.