America must wake up to Putin’s lies

Excerpt

Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia may have sputtered, but it has not died. Ukrainians are willing to fight for their freedom, but they need weapons and ammunition to do so. Whereas Congress was once willing to rubberstamp almost anything President Zelensky requested and a bipartisan array of senators even pressured the White House to be more proactive in augmenting Ukraine’s military capabilities, in recent months a narrative of Ukrainian corruption has tempted many senators and representatives against supporting Kyiv.  

When President Putin addressed the Russian people at the start of his illegal war, he justified his acts in part on pervasive corruption in Ukraine, claiming: “Corruption, which is certainly a challenge and a problem for many countries, including Russia, has gone beyond the usual scope in Ukraine. It has literally permeated and corroded Ukrainian statehood, the entire system, and all branches of power.” While it was once true that Ukraine, under previous Russian puppet governments was wildly corrupt, that is no longer the case.

Ivana Stradner is a research fellow at FDD. Josh Birenbaum is the deputy director of FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power.