Yesterday, the embattled New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez announced that he will not run in the upcoming Democratic senate race. According to a report in the New York Times, Menendez realized that due to the international bribery charges he was facing, he was unlikely to win the primary with the democratic party distancing themselves from him. However, according to a report in The Hill, there are strong rumors that Menendez may attempt to run for senate as an independent. Menendez has June 4th to obtain the minimum 800 signatures needed to mount a campaign. Given the scandal surrounding Menendez, I don’t see how he can run again for senate. Surely, his political career is over at this point.
Category: Anti-Corruption
Update on Vietnam Corruption.
Vietnam’s President Vo Van Thuong resigned today after being caught up in a long-running corruption scandal. Vietnam has been in the middle of a wide-ranging Anti-Corruption drive for several years. According to the AP, Thoung was the second president in two years to resign from his post, which, for a country striving to be more democratic, is not a good look. This comes shortly after an ally of Thoung, the governor of the central Vietnamese province Quang Ngai, resigned from his post due to allegations of corruption. While this anti-corruption campaign shows no signs of stopping anytime soon, concerns about political stability will grow if more Vietnamese politicians get arrested.
Albania Rocked by Corruption Protests.
Earlier this week, protests centered around the alleged corruption of the ruling Socialist Party have shaken the country’s political foundations. The protests also came on the 33rd anniversary of the toppling of the former dictator Enver Hoxha. According to a report by ABC opposition politicians, civil society is frustrated by the Albanian parliament not investigating allegations of corruption by Prime Minister Edi Rama and his cabinet. The protests also supported former prime minister and current opposition leader Sali Berisha, who is under house arrest facing corruption charges related to helping his son-in-law facilitate a real estate deal. I don’t see this situation resolved peacefully anytime soon, and I fear that a wave of political instability could affect Albania shortly.
Former Thai Leader Thaksin Released On Parole.
Yesterday, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released on parole due to failing health. According to a report from the BBC, he was released from a police hospital where he had been serving a one-year prison sentence after being found guilty of corruption and abuse of power charges. Last August, he returned to Thailand after being in self-imposed exile for 15 years after a military coup ousted him. According to a report by Aljazeera, many in Thailand are unhappy that Thaksin’s sentence was reduced from eight years to one year and feel that Thaksin and the current Thai government brokered a sweetheart deal to shorten Thaksin’s sentence. No one is sure what will happen next, but knowing Thaksin, despite ill health, he will want to play a role in Thai politics.
Navalny pronounced dead by Putin’s Regime.
(A disclaimer for this article: I was at an event this morning held by the U.S Institute of Peace (USIP), an international relations think tank here in Washington DC, discussing the future of Russia post Putin).
The Russian prison authorities announced this morning that Alexi Navalny, the prominent critic of President Putin, was found dead in his cell. It has been reported that as of yesterday, Navalny was displaying his usual sense of humor, which is remarkable considering his situation. It has been well-known that Navalny was gravely ill and was being denied proper healthcare by the Russian government. According to a report by the Washington Post, fears for Navalny grew after he was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from an attempt on his life by the use of Novichok, a banned nerve agent. The response to Navalny’s death has been swift, according to a report by the New York Times. Navalny’s wife strode into the conference room where the Munich Security Conference (a well-known gathering of world leaders discussing international security issues) was held. She denounced Putin’s regime, openly reporting those in the audience spellbound. All of this raises the question: why does this matter?
The answer is that it matters a great deal. According to an article in the Post, Navalny was the main figurehead for anti-Putin opposition in Russia and worldwide, leading many protests within the country. However, more importantly, Navalny had a pioneering YouTube channel and organization that focused on the rampant corruption within Putin’s Russia. It is unclear what will happen next; at the event I attended today, several of the panelists stated that it is a fool’s errand to predict what might happen post-Putin and that it is likely that either Putin will have to die or that Ukraine will have to win the war decisively for Putin to be deposed. One can only hope that Navalny’s death, while tragic, can spur a new generation of Russian civil society to take on Putin and that the West will continue to fund Ukraine’s war effort.
TI Corruption Index Shows a Decline in Law and Justice Causes a Rise in Corruption.
On Tuesday, Transparency International (TI) released its annual Corruption Perception Index, which shows how corrupt a country is perceived to be. TI ranks country from 0 to 100; the closer a country is to 0, the more corrupt it is; for example, Somalia was ranked 11 out of 100, meaning that TI views them as the most corrupt country in the world. On the other hand, Denmark was ranked 90 out of 100, meaning they were the least corrupt. According to TI’s website, the biggest threat to stopping corruption is the weakening of law & order worldwide, as there is a general lack of accountability from leaders in both democracies and authoritarian regimes. However, there is some good news: according to a report by the Atlantic Council, Ukraine has increased its score from 33 to 36 in the past year, which TI rates as one of the most considerable improvements globally.
Ukraine Embroiled in Another Corruption Scandal.
This past weekend, the Ukrainian government uncovered another large-scale corruption scandal involving missiles for the war effort. According to a report in Aljazeera, employees at a weapons manufacturer called Lviv Arsenal and members of the Ministry of Defense allegedly embezzled $40 million. It was intended to be a payment for missiles used in the war effort. Instead, the money was moved to several offshore accounts, and the military did not receive the 100,000 missiles they ordered. According to a report in NPR, the prosecutor general of Ukraine has announced that the funds have been recovered and will shortly be added to the defense budget. This scandal highlights two major issues. Firstly, corruption is still rife in Ukraine despite significant strides in anti-corruption efforts. Secondly, those 100,000 missiles would have been very handy for the war effort, and instead, several people decided to create a nice little earner for themselves.
Bulgaria and its connections with Russia & Corruption.
Bulgaria has a long and fraught history as a country where corruption has thrived for many years. According to an article in Forbes, Bulgaria is one of the only members of the EU that has not imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation as a state and on Russian individuals. Even Hungary, led by Viktor Orban, has imposed sanctions on Russia. Bulgaria’s lack of movement on sanctions is mainly because the government has close links to Russia at a governmental level and with the oligarchs. According to a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations, one of the main reasons for such a high level of influence is because of an attempted political coup by Russia in 2016. While the coup failed, like it did in Montenegro, it showed that Bulgarian society faces a massive challenge in eradicating Russian influence.
Update on Arevalo.
Back in August, I wrote a piece on the newly elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arevalo, who positioned himself as an anti-corruption activist. Last week, Arevalo was finally inaugurated, but only after a last-ditch attempt by his opponents to challenge his authority. According to an article in the New York Times, his opponents in Congress passed a budget that would severely restrict his ability to spend government funds on healthcare and education, two of his main priorities. There have also been numerous legal challenges by his conservative opponents, including a threat to arrest his vice president Karin Herrera on seemingly spurious and politically motivated challenges. In the coming months, Arevalo and Herrera will face further challenges to their authority from conservative opponents and organized criminal threats.
China’s Ongoing Battle Against Corruption.
China and, more importantly, President Xi Jinping’s battle against entrenched corruption is continuing to make headline news. According to a report in Bloomberg, Xi’s most recent comments will put large swathes of the Chinese economy on edge, and that could continue to fuel uncertainty both domestically and abroad if one of the world’s biggest economies is in a state of constant turmoil. According to a report by CNN, Xi is primarily focused on misconduct in the healthcare, financial, and infrastructure sectors. These actions raise an interesting question: can corruption ever be truly stopped? While there have been some examples, such as Ukraine, where Zelenskyy has made some impressive strides in the last year, by and large, corruption and greed will always occur. If a country with China’s resources can’t fully root out corruption, then no one can. Catching a few big fish will always look good, but there will always be small fish in a pond that will induce greased palms and the benefits those bring.
Crispin Corruption Report 