This is no laughing matter

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Soon after joining my first ship as a 16 year-old boy, I purchased a short-wave radio and can remember tuning into the international stations as the ship criss-crossed the oceans; soon discerning which newscasts were more believable than others. That was long before the Internet and personal computers, and no televisions on ships in those days.

What was learned from short-wave newscasts during a quarter-century working at sea – and from seeing with my own eyes how people lived under various regimes in so many ports of call – became foundations for a life-long interest in global affairs and geopolitics. All these decades later, communications are very different, with unlimited news media available on television and the Internet. While perusing local, national and international outlets, it soon becomes evident that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is featured almost as frequently as US President Donald Trump, who truly dominates the airwaves. Although Ukraine is neither a member of the European Union nor of NATO, he’s always pictured shaking the hand of a president or prime minister somewhere in the world, while performing another shakedown for funds to continue the war against Russian aggression.

I have frequently questioned why elected leaders so eagerly hand over money collected from their own country’s honest tax-payers to Ukraine. That country has such a terrible record in corruption that can be traced back to the 1980s when Ukrainian ruling elite linked to organised crime, becoming even more rampant following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Bribery became a way of life, while no sector escaped the stench of corruption that pervaded all levels of politics, the judiciary, higher education, healthcare, social services, business, etc.

Politicians repeatedly campaigned to clean up the system, only to leave office guilty of corruption. The latest 2025 Gallup Poll finds that 85 per cent of Ukrainians believe that corruption is still widespread throughout their government, as several ministers of President Zelenskyy’s government have been involved in recent years.

Now a US$ 100-million kickback fraud at the state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom has been uncovered. The justice and energy ministers have just resigned, but the chief suspect has disappeared along with the money, and he’s a close friend and associate of the president. They were co-owners of an entertainment business when Mr Zelenskyy was a comedian, but that’s no laughing matter.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada