Ukraine’s agriculture minister became the first cabinet member under Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s presidency to be detained in a crackdown on corruption demanded by allies as a condition for aid in Kyiv’s war against Russia.
The minister, who submitted his resignation even as he denied wrongdoing, was released after paying 75.7 million hryvnia ($1.9 million), according to a ministry statement.
Before he became Ukraine’s wartime leader, Zelenskiy was propelled to office in 2019 on a pledge to root out endemic corruption that eroded Ukraine’s economy for three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed.
The Supreme Court chief was detained in May 2023 after investigators said they had uncovered “large-scale corruption” in the highest judicial body.
Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who supported Zelenskiy during an election campaign in 2019, is suspected of the embezzlement and has been in a detention center since September.
Bloomberg 26 April 2024
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-26/ukraine-detains-first-minister-in-zelenskiy-s-graft-crackdown
Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company, became a flashpoint in his father’s race in 2020 against President Donald J. Trump and helped set off the events that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment.
Politically speaking, there are currently two Americas.
One is outraged and horrified that the former president, Donald Trump, is facing 91 federal and state criminal charges in what they see as a deep state conspiracy orchestrated in part by Joe Biden's Department of Justice.
The other believes that very same justice department has spent five years unfairly pursuing Mr Biden's son, Hunter, over his tax affairs and behaviour while a self-declared and repentant drug addict.
BBC 15 September 2023
In May 2014, Hunter Biden — the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden — became a board member of Burisma Holdings Ltd., one of the biggest private oil and gas companies in Ukraine.
The hiring led to scrutiny in the media, including an Associated Press article
that called Hunter’s hiring “politically awkward” because the Obama administration was looking to “influence the policies of Ukraine’s new government, especially on energy issues.”
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