13. On Corruption
Corruption is a much-discussed topic both in Ukraine and in discussions about Ukraine. Besides the war, it is certainly the most significant issue in the country and is being examined from every possible angle. However, there are many myths and misconceptions about corruption, both within the country and especially abroad, where Ukraine and corruption are almost synonymous for many. Corruption is sometimes used as an argument against supporting Ukraine: why support a country where everything is stolen and goes down the rabbit hole?
There is certainly some truth in this statement: one really has to be blind not to notice corruption - and the fight against it - while living in Ukraine. Almost every day on Telegram, news reports can be seen of masked and armed NABU (Національне Антикорупційне Бюро України - Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau) officials knocking down doors and arresting corrupt military or state officials, or catching someone giving or taking a bribe. There are also almost daily reports of new corruption allegations against politicians, businessmen, policemen, soldiers, municipal and state officials, judges, and others. Arrests and suspicions do not go unanswered - the sentences for corrupt officials are often draconian, carrying prison terms of five, seven, sometimes more than ten years, often with confiscation of assets. This is possible thanks to the existence of a special High Anti-Corruption Court, operational since 2019.
Thus, Ukraine has set up a parallel court system to fight corruption, along with parallel police and a parallel prosecutor’s office. The aim is to keep these organizations separate and free from the endemic corruption that plagues the ordinary police, prosecutor’s office, and courts. These measures were taken years before the full-scale war with Russia began, a conflict that has intensified the crackdown on corruption. However, the war has also opened up new possibilities for corruption.
The decision to create whole parallel structures to combat corruption is certainly open to debate. Is it necessary to create a state within a state, and will it not work against the stated objectives by constituting a caste of officials with special powers? It is hard to say. In any case, the war against corruption has now become one of the fronts of the war against Russia, and it is openly said in Ukraine that, just as the country needs to be cleansed of Russian occupiers, it needs to be cleansed of the corruption that is undermining Ukraine from within.
From afar, it is probably difficult to appreciate the enormous progress that has been made in the fight against corruption. For example, a friend of mine tells me of a time, ten or fifteen years ago, when it was wiser for a foreigner to keep his mouth shut in the vicinity of a police patrol, and to remain as inconspicuous as possible, because it was common for a patrol to approach a foreigner, demand documents and always find some mistake that could be used to extort a bribe of a few to a few dozen dollars. While the white foreigner was somehow able to cope with this scourge, students from the Middle East and India used to stuff their pockets full of one- or two-dollar bills because the dark-skinned immigrant always had to reckon with the fact that every police patrol wanted his share. I listen to this with amazement - something like this would be unthinkable now.
Which is not to say, of course, that there is no corruption in the police. The “tradition” of giving a modest bribe instead of paying traffic fines is still alive and well. One can also get off the hook for drunk driving like that. There are limits, though - if a policeman sees that you are a real danger to yourself or others in traffic, there is no getting away from it... Which is not to say that there is no way of paying a few thousand euros in the administrative court to get acquitted... But a few thousand euros is a very large sum.
But buying a driver’s license is so widespread that no one makes a fuss about it. For example, a female colleague who has gone to driving school for some months already confesses to me that, although she really did learn to drive, she finally bought her license. “But why?” I can’t hide my surprise. “Because it was easier that way,” comes the reply accompanied by a mischievous smile.
However, the story of a foreign man in Odesa transcends mere anecdotal absurdity. It unfolds thus: The Ukrainian wife of a foreigner residing in Odesa impulsively ran into the street in the middle of the night during a family dispute. Odesa imposes a curfew from midnight to five in the morning, during which only military and police patrols are permitted on the streets. A police patrol noticed the woman, took her to the station, and began questioning her. Meanwhile, a detective on the night shift overheard the situation and, recognizing its spiciness, promptly drove to the couple’s residence. Upon ringing the doorbell, he informed the man who answered that his wife was at the station. The foreigner, well-versed in Ukrainian circumstances, attempted to offer payment to the policeman, but the detective intervened, explaining that there were several options available. “Your wife is agitated, making unfounded accusations. Do you wish for her to return in this state?” Or something like that. To the foreigner’s astonishment, he learned that he could either bail out his wife for three hundred euros, ensuring she would not be charged with violating the curfew, or pay double to keep her in custody for a week, “until she calmed down.” The young lady returned home that very night.
This rather crazy story illustrates what some cynics would say Ukraine being a free country where money can buy everything. However, the attitude of the police detective seems to imply a genuine lack of law and order. At least in the mind of this detective. Who, of course, is capable of such behavior simply because it is possible, because there is no oversight. Which brings us to the crux of the matter - when ordinary Ukrainians don’t see that there is a connection between paying to rattle off small scams and the several million euros found under the mattress of a top official, it will be very difficult for this country to overcome the pervasive corruption that affects the entire functioning of the state and society.
I could go on at length on this subject - and so far I have not even mentioned what is going on around supplying the army or the fact that the state bureaucracy itself produces situations that are best resolved by a little greasing of the wheels of the machinery.
Indeed, the examples are endless. Let me end with just one: In Ukraine, there is compulsory registration, but no landlord will allow a tenant to register in his apartment because the tenant can later be difficult to get rid of, and the apartment cannot be sold without the tenant’s consent, so people have emerged who provide a valuable service to society by allowing tenants to register in their own apartment for a small fee. In this way, no one is hindered by a requirement that interferes with their daily lives, for example, when they need to obtain new documents and need an official address for that.
But be that as it may, I want to stress that Ukraine’s battle against corruption is an ongoing process. The situation is not static, and there is improvement every year: in 2016, Ukraine was ranked 131st in the World Corruption Perceptions Index, in 2021 it was 122nd, in 2022 116th, and in 2023 it reached 104th, on par with Serbia and Brazil. While Ukraine still lags far behind the Nordic countries, it is no longer in the same group as Russia, which shares a ranking with Mali.
There is certainly some truth in this statement: one really has to be blind not to notice corruption - and the fight against it - while living in Ukraine. Almost every day on Telegram, news reports can be seen of masked and armed NABU (Національне Антикорупційне Бюро України - Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau) officials knocking down doors and arresting corrupt military or state officials, or catching someone giving or taking a bribe. There are also almost daily reports of new corruption allegations against politicians, businessmen, policemen, soldiers, municipal and state officials, judges, and others. Arrests and suspicions do not go unanswered - the sentences for corrupt officials are often draconian, carrying prison terms of five, seven, sometimes more than ten years, often with confiscation of assets. This is possible thanks to the existence of a special High Anti-Corruption Court, operational since 2019.
Thus, Ukraine has set up a parallel court system to fight corruption, along with parallel police and a parallel prosecutor’s office. The aim is to keep these organizations separate and free from the endemic corruption that plagues the ordinary police, prosecutor’s office, and courts. These measures were taken years before the full-scale war with Russia began, a conflict that has intensified the crackdown on corruption. However, the war has also opened up new possibilities for corruption.
The decision to create whole parallel structures to combat corruption is certainly open to debate. Is it necessary to create a state within a state, and will it not work against the stated objectives by constituting a caste of officials with special powers? It is hard to say. In any case, the war against corruption has now become one of the fronts of the war against Russia, and it is openly said in Ukraine that, just as the country needs to be cleansed of Russian occupiers, it needs to be cleansed of the corruption that is undermining Ukraine from within.
From afar, it is probably difficult to appreciate the enormous progress that has been made in the fight against corruption. For example, a friend of mine tells me of a time, ten or fifteen years ago, when it was wiser for a foreigner to keep his mouth shut in the vicinity of a police patrol, and to remain as inconspicuous as possible, because it was common for a patrol to approach a foreigner, demand documents and always find some mistake that could be used to extort a bribe of a few to a few dozen dollars. While the white foreigner was somehow able to cope with this scourge, students from the Middle East and India used to stuff their pockets full of one- or two-dollar bills because the dark-skinned immigrant always had to reckon with the fact that every police patrol wanted his share. I listen to this with amazement - something like this would be unthinkable now.
Which is not to say, of course, that there is no corruption in the police. The “tradition” of giving a modest bribe instead of paying traffic fines is still alive and well. One can also get off the hook for drunk driving like that. There are limits, though - if a policeman sees that you are a real danger to yourself or others in traffic, there is no getting away from it... Which is not to say that there is no way of paying a few thousand euros in the administrative court to get acquitted... But a few thousand euros is a very large sum.
But buying a driver’s license is so widespread that no one makes a fuss about it. For example, a female colleague who has gone to driving school for some months already confesses to me that, although she really did learn to drive, she finally bought her license. “But why?” I can’t hide my surprise. “Because it was easier that way,” comes the reply accompanied by a mischievous smile.
However, the story of a foreign man in Odesa transcends mere anecdotal absurdity. It unfolds thus: The Ukrainian wife of a foreigner residing in Odesa impulsively ran into the street in the middle of the night during a family dispute. Odesa imposes a curfew from midnight to five in the morning, during which only military and police patrols are permitted on the streets. A police patrol noticed the woman, took her to the station, and began questioning her. Meanwhile, a detective on the night shift overheard the situation and, recognizing its spiciness, promptly drove to the couple’s residence. Upon ringing the doorbell, he informed the man who answered that his wife was at the station. The foreigner, well-versed in Ukrainian circumstances, attempted to offer payment to the policeman, but the detective intervened, explaining that there were several options available. “Your wife is agitated, making unfounded accusations. Do you wish for her to return in this state?” Or something like that. To the foreigner’s astonishment, he learned that he could either bail out his wife for three hundred euros, ensuring she would not be charged with violating the curfew, or pay double to keep her in custody for a week, “until she calmed down.” The young lady returned home that very night.
This rather crazy story illustrates what some cynics would say Ukraine being a free country where money can buy everything. However, the attitude of the police detective seems to imply a genuine lack of law and order. At least in the mind of this detective. Who, of course, is capable of such behavior simply because it is possible, because there is no oversight. Which brings us to the crux of the matter - when ordinary Ukrainians don’t see that there is a connection between paying to rattle off small scams and the several million euros found under the mattress of a top official, it will be very difficult for this country to overcome the pervasive corruption that affects the entire functioning of the state and society.
I could go on at length on this subject - and so far I have not even mentioned what is going on around supplying the army or the fact that the state bureaucracy itself produces situations that are best resolved by a little greasing of the wheels of the machinery.
Indeed, the examples are endless. Let me end with just one: In Ukraine, there is compulsory registration, but no landlord will allow a tenant to register in his apartment because the tenant can later be difficult to get rid of, and the apartment cannot be sold without the tenant’s consent, so people have emerged who provide a valuable service to society by allowing tenants to register in their own apartment for a small fee. In this way, no one is hindered by a requirement that interferes with their daily lives, for example, when they need to obtain new documents and need an official address for that.
But be that as it may, I want to stress that Ukraine’s battle against corruption is an ongoing process. The situation is not static, and there is improvement every year: in 2016, Ukraine was ranked 131st in the World Corruption Perceptions Index, in 2021 it was 122nd, in 2022 116th, and in 2023 it reached 104th, on par with Serbia and Brazil. While Ukraine still lags far behind the Nordic countries, it is no longer in the same group as Russia, which shares a ranking with Mali.
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