I notice this quite frequently. Some major news story, and some interesting aspect is simply not covered. This is a case in point. There is a major, very major, news story about a corruption scandal in Ukraine. A group of people, including one with strong ties to Zelensky, have been accused by an anti-corruption body of taking bribes in exchange for awarding energy contracts. [1][2] Two government Ministers have been sacked / resigned. To make the story even more dangerous for the pro Zelensky camp, Zelensky tried a few months ago, to take control of the anti-corruption body, and failed. He had to back down after a public outcry. So one could be forgiven for suspecting that Zelensky was trying to head off this scandal – perhaps after he had taken control of the anti-corruption body he would quietly have closed down this investigation.
EU war cheerleader Kaja Kallas has called the episode “extremely unfortunate”. [3] You bet it is! The EU is pouring tax-payers’ money into Ukraine – and look where it is going! Before the war Ukraine was approximately equal to Russia in a typical estimate of “corruption”. * With the vast sums of donated money flowing into the country it is hardly surprising that corruption still flourishes. This is not a good look for them. The reality is that Ukraine is nowhere near meeting the standards for EU Membership. But there is a public narrative that they are on track. Kallas is trying to keep the illusion afloat: “They are acting very forcefully. There is no room for corruption, especially now. I mean, it is literally the people’s money that should go to the front lines”.
But, in fact, the motive for this post was a question about one of they key figures in this episode; Timur Mindich is described as the chief architect of the scheme. He is also reported to have been a former business partner of Zelensky. The Guardian tells us: “Mindich reportedly fled abroad, possibly to Israel, hours before investigators arrived at his Kyiv apartment to carry out a search”. And, with or without the possible detail of Israel as a destination, all the mainstream media I can see also simply reports that the suspect “fled abroad”. (For example, the Yahoo article linked below: “He is believed to have fled Ukraine.”). But, how? Males of fighting age in Ukraine cannot leave. I can find numerous stories of how ordinary Ukrainians have been risking their lives to swim across a border river to escape Ukraine. How was this prominent businessman and chief suspect in a major investigation able to “flee abroad”? What I’m interested in is the lack of curiosity in the Western media. (Doing an Internet search I can see several YouTube bloggers covering this question – one reason why ‘alternative media’ is popular is precisely because they fill in the lacunas left by regular media). It is hard to imagine that Mindich was not allowed to leave; either as a deal with the investigators, or, alternatively, aided by people in the security services – perhaps with Zelensky’s encouragement? At any event – I am just struck by the total lack of curiosity shown by the Western media about this. But, such lack of curiosity is common. There seems to be very little investigative spirit in modern journalism.
* When citing the corruption index of NGO Transparency International, I always feel obliged to add, lest that anyone think I am being duped by this, that this index is a measure of a certain kind of corruption; money in envelopes and suitcases. It does not measure legal Western government money laundering – transferring billions to private companies for the inefficient, even worthless, provision of services – such as the pointless Track and Trace system in the UK during the pandemic which saw GBP 40 billion paid to private business, nor the wider category of using state money to subsidize the private sector, such as the UK’s recent GBP 22 billion for Carbon Storage – a project which supports fossil fuel companies’ production of hydrogen from natural gas – thus making it economically viable for them, bailing out of private banks, and so on.
Notes
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ukraines-energy-minister-resigns-corruption-191332450.html
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ukraines-energy-minister-resigns-corruption-191332450.html
- https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ukraine-corruption-scandal-extremely-unfortunate-eus-kallas-says-2025-11-12/