President-elect Donald Trump’s recent remarks, expressing support for Ukraine following his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, created a sense of optimism about what America might have next in store for Ukraine. However, some Republican insiders are not as certain that it will be smooth sailing for Kyiv.
“I was on Capitol Hill last week and heard a lot of concerns about corruption in Ukraine,” confides Steven Moore, a former chief-of-staff to a senior Republican congressman whom Politico referred to as “the GOP’s man in Kyiv.”
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Having met with more than 100 Republican Capitol offices to educate them on the situation in Ukraine, Moore says that he is certain the “incoming Republican Congress wants to help Ukraine win.” However, they also want to “see accountability for the money the US has sent – down to the dollar.”
“Expect a lot of hearings asking detailed questions” about whether American aid to Ukraine was used appropriately, says Moore, continuing that “if the Ukrainians cannot answer those questions, Republicans won’t be very forgiving.”
Washington insiders say that it is not just accountability – a staple Republican talking point for months – that interests congressional leaders, but also getting to the bottom of alleged corruption in Ukraine.
Speaking with the American Conservative, Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale earlier this year said: “Just a few years ago, the only thing that we knew about Ukraine was that it was the most corrupt country that anyone had ever heard of… To even try to believe and hope that maybe the funding is being managed better now than it was previously is laughable.”
Financial Stress Index in Ukraine Lowest Since February 2022
“The US has provided billions to support democracy and rule of law in Ukraine,” says Arthur Estopinan, who worked for over 27 years with senior Congressional Republicans before founding a prominent Washington DC lobbying firm, adding that the assistance was not sent to “to enable the extortion of Ukrainian businessmen,” as he sees now.
Illustrating his point, the American lobbyist says that when it recently became public that he was representing Serhiy Tarasov, a Ukrainian businessman who claims “senior Ukrainian government officials” are persecuting him as part of a plot to steal his agricultural company, I&U Group, “a stream of other Ukrainian businessmen began reaching out to me” recounting similar stories and seeking his assistance to organize meetings with American officials to bring attention to their plights.
As Kyiv Post earlier reported, the case of I&U Group may have broader implications for Ukraine’s future as the company is the recipient of loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which means that the assets government-backed raiders are seeking to seize illegally are “the property pledged and mortgaged to EBRD,” according to Ukrainian court filings by the EBRD. A complaint to the European Convention on Human Rights is also being filed.
Even in Ukraine, which is not a stranger to forced takeovers, the case of I&U is unusually brazen as not only are assets mortgaged to an international bank that has invested over €4.5 billion in Ukraine since the war’s beginning, but the owner of the besieged company’s own son is a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the ruling party.
Estopinan, who was formerly Marco Rubio’s boss when the Trump nominee for Secretary of State was a mere student intern in Congress, says that there has been “shock” from the more than 100 congressional offices with whom he has been in touch, that “businessmen are being shaken-down by senior Ukrainian officials.”
“Americans are good at spotting illegal persecution,” insists Estopinan, who believes that following the January briefings he has scheduled between his client and “congressional leaders, US administration officials, think tanks, and the press,” Republican interest in investigating alleged Ukrainian corruption will mount as it is analogous to their own recent experience.
In the US, “successful businessmen, like President Trump” were “persecuted without evidence of wrongdoing,” which Estopinan says is a perfect parallel to his own client, which “is why I call Mr. Tarasov, ‘the Trump of Ukraine’ – there are many similarities,” and why he thinks that interest in Ukrainian corruption is growing so quickly in DC.
“Once more people learn about this kind of blatant corruption, it will lead to further investigations and even congressional hearings,” says the former chief of staff for the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Support for Ukraine “continues to be bipartisan,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the highest-ranking Republican in the nation, before the presidential election. At that time, he lamented that Ukraine’s relationship with Republicans was being “unnecessarily tested” by wounds self-inflicted by Kyiv.
The Speaker’s request to Zelensky to urgently fire Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, saying that the Ukrainian embassy’s actions to allegedly help Democrats prior to the 2024 elections, “caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country,” was seemingly ignored by Kyiv.
Though there is yet to be determined in DC, Steve Moore says there is something we do know for certain: “One more high-profile corruption case in Ukraine could tank US aid to Ukraine for years.”
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