Maidan Coup, 2014
EXCERPTED COMMENTS by: David North
Served in U.S.N. Navy and U.S.A.F. Intelligence
“ZELENSKYY ran on an anti-corruption platform but anyone who is a student of SOVIET-ERA history knows how the influence of the state filters throughout society and has all sorts of unintended consequences that are difficult to correct.
Imagine being the child of a mafia don and then he dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Your mother comes to you and you discover for the first time in your life what your father was doing. Then, she tells you, “You are the new don now.”
HOW MUCH CHANGE AND “FAIRNESS” could you implement with your newfound “POWER”?
Democratic and especially populist power is reliant on very strong public support. BUT, that doesn’t eliminate INSTITUTIONAL OPPOSITION and STRUCTURAL BARRIERS.[i.e. deep-state]
Zelensky, more to his surprise than expectation, INHERITED this exact situation. He has to WORK THROUGH, WITH AND AGAINST DECADES of INSTITUTIONALIZED SOVIET INFLUENCE and combat all of the obstacles, resistance and inertia it created.
CHANGE like this is hard—VERY HARD.
After 2014 Dignity Revolution [Maidan] measures were taken to stop corruption:
1- Electronic procurement platform Prozorro was introduced to make government spending transparent
2- Government registries were made public so every journalist can investigate corruption schemes
3- Public officials are required to publish official declarations of their spending and spending of their close family
4- New anti-corruption court and DBR (FBI analogue) were introduced for corruption investigations
5- Many public services were turned online
As a result Ukraine corruption perception rating drastically improved same as Doing Business position.
Zelenskyy now has been working with the US to build his country’s democracy. He is probably one of the more honest politicians in recent history. If he didn’t care, he could easily have fled the country at the first sign of trouble, leaving them to Putin’s troops who would have rolled in and put a puppet government in power.
At the governmental level not long ago National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, National Agency for Prevention of Corruption and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office have been established. Although some results of their work Ukrainian citizens can see. There is also an initiative to establish anti-corruption court. There is a widespread support for this initiative and most likely the court will be set up in near future. It remains to be seen how much of a breakthrough will the newly established institution bring about.”