I have been following the politics in Ukraine since the 2014 Revolution of dignity (when a pro-Kremlin president, Yanukhovich, a worse kleptocrat than Putin, if you can believe it, reneged on a promise to join a pro-Western EU economic group, and announced he was going to join Putin's Eurasian trade group instead - this pissed the young people off, so they came out on the streets of Kyiv... when Yanukovich's thugs started roughing up the young people, the Afghanistan vets, who had fought on Russia's side, when Ukraine was part of USSR, came out to protect their kids... Yanukhovich fled to Russia, and Russia tried to paint this as a US-led coup, and the new Ukrainian government as "nazis"; before he fled, his "Berkut" paramilitaries fired on the protestors, killing 100's).
These stories by Trump to smear Biden are nonsense. Joe Biden issued an ultimatum to the new Ukrainian government, led by Petro Poroshenko, to fire Shokin, a thoroughly corrupt prosecutor general. This ultimatum came from just about every Western organization with skin in the Ukraine game, IMF, EU, US, EVERYBODY knew shokin was corrupt as sin.
The Giuliani and Trump fabrication is that Biden did this to "protect" his son Hunter from Shokin, who is claimed to have been "investigating" Burisma, the gas company Hunter was on the board for. Just about this time, Shokin's number 2 quit IN DISGUST, and wrote an editorial WHY he quit. Shokin was not investigating ANYBODY. Indeed, he was interfering with investigations.
Burisma? Shokin's PREDECESSOR was asked to provide inciminatory documents to the UK, who had frozen Burisma's assets in the UK, so they could charge Burisma. No documents. Neither Shokin or his predecessor were investigating ANYBODY, let alone Burisma.
Burisma had obtained shaky drilling rights from Yanukhovich. When Yanukhovich fled, Burisma needed to curry favor with the new government and Western interests. They needed reputable representatives on their board. They hired Hunter Biden, as well as a former Polish politician. Maybe a bit unsavory, but as countless journalists have reported, nothing illegal.
The timeline of events completely discredits the Trump accusations. Burisma was investigated by the British at the time of Shokin's predecessor. Neither Shokin's predecessor, nor Shokin, were doind ANY investigating of Burisma, or anybody else, for that matter. They were corrupt to the core, and EVERYBODY wanted them fired as part of the anti-corruption efforts the US and IMF were insisting upon, before they would provide additional loans to Ukraine.
Note, Ukraine has been at war with Russia since 2014.
Shokin was fired and was replaced by Lutsenko. He tried to curry favor with Trump and Giuliani by claiming Jovanovich, our ambassador to Ukraine, had given him a no prosecute list. Lutsenko was completely discredited and reneged on these claims. Giluiani and his little elves, Parnas and the other guy, after conspiring to get Jovanovich dismissed (she was fighting corruption, and thus a threat to Trump's shenanigans), tried to get a sweet deal with Ukraine's gas company on the side.
As you know, Trump was impeached for his attempts to get the new Urkainian president to reopen the Biden "investigation" so he could smear his political rival in the US.
Now, the brave Mitt Romney, after expressing earlier misgivings about the "spectacle" a Burisma investigation would cause, has agreed to continue this charade in the Senate. |
