Tag: corruption

Putin’s media machine turns on ‘traitor’ Prigozhin

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From national hero to drug-addled, bewigged zero: the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has turned against Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In a sensational report on state-run Rossiya-1’s “60 Minutes” program on Wednesday evening, the Kremlin’s propaganda attack dogs played footage of what they claimed was a raid of Prigozhin’s mansion and offices, showing cash, guns, drugs, a helicopter, multiple (Russian) passports — and a closet full of terrible wigs.

“The investigation is continuing,” said pundit Eduard Petrov at the top of the program, referring to the probe into the mutiny led by Prigozhin last month, during which the leader of the Wagner Group of mercenaries marched his men to within 200 kilometers of Moscow in a bid to oust the country’s military leadership. “In reality, no one planned to close this case,” he added.

It was an open declaration of war on Prigozhin, and came after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides issued improbable assurances that the criminal case into those who had organized the mutiny would be dropped if the warlord and his Wagnerites agreed to either disarm, sign contracts with the Russian defense ministry, or leave for Belarus. On Thursday morning, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who ostensibly negotiated the exile agreement with Prigozhin and Putin, told state media the warlord was not in the country.

“We need to figure out who was on whose side,” Petrov pronounced on “60 Minutes.” “Who was on the mutineers’ side? They should be punished and brought to criminal justice. So the nation understands that if a person acts against their government, they will be punished very, very harshly. Not ‘see you later, I’m going out.’”

“Tomes” of evidence is being combed over by Russian authorities, a gloating Petrov told the audience of the evening show. “Very soon, very very soon, we will hear what stage the criminal case is at.”

Cue: Footage — obtained from unnamed siloviki (a term used to describe members of the military or security services) — of Russia’s special forces raiding what Petrov described as Prigozhin’s “nest” — aka the offices of his now-shuttered Patriot Media company, and his palatial home.

“I believe the image of Yevgeny Prigozhin as a champion of the people was entirely created by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s well-fed media empire,” Petrov said contemptuously and seemingly unironically — never mind that Rossiya-1 itself portrayed Prigozhin as a hero mere weeks ago.

Remaking a murder

Until recently, the Kremlin’s propagandists painted Prigozhin, a 62-year-old one-time caterer and convicted felon, as a macho hero, a Russian Rambo decapitating traitors with sledgehammers on the front line.

Things got complicated when Prigozhin began publicly railing against Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, ranting and raging to his growing cadre of devoted fans on social media.

Still, Prigozhin never criticized Putin, and Putin allowed Prigozhin to continue building his brand, so long as his men kept holding down the fort in the most brutal battles in the war on Ukraine. Then Prigozhin crossed the line by marching his men on Moscow.

Putin’s retribution was always going to be brutal — first, though, he’s destroying Prigozhin’s image and undermining his reputation.

Back to Wednesday night’s “60 Minutes.”

“Why did we forget about Prigozhin’s past?” an impassioned Petrov asked. “Everyone knew about it. Everyone talked about it. Spoke about the fact that he has been on trial twice. His criminal past.”

Showing footage of what he said was Prigozhin’s 600 million ruble (€6 million) mansion, Petrov crowed: “Let’s see how this champion of the truth lived — a twice-convicted champion — a champion who spoke about how everyone around him is stealing.

“Inside Yevgeny Prigozhin’s little house there’s currency lying around like this, in a box, held together by rubber bands,” Petrov continued. “Now let’s see the palace of the fighter of corruption and criminality, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Here’s his palace. Here’s his house. His daughter sometimes posts videos from here, by the way — and she’s not always in good condition.”

Then, the pièce de résistance of the video: a closet full of bad wigs.

“Oh!” exclaimed Petrov as the footage rolled. “This is a closet full of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s secrets — wigs! Why does he need wigs at his house?”

It wasn’t long until Telegram, the social media platform popular among Russians, was flooded with photos of Prigozhin in a variety of wigs and disguises. (Though intriguingly, the photos appeared to come from a Prigozhin-friendly account called “Release the Kraken,” which said it had sourced them from the Patriot Media archive.)

The program also aired footage of what Petrov speculated were drugs found in Prigozhin’s mansion. A Prigozhin-friendly Telegram account which has previously featured voice messages from the warlord himself denied the house in the video belonged to Prigozhin, and claimed the “drugs” were actually laundry detergent.

Divide and conquer

Wednesday night’s program was also designed to reassure Russians that not all Wagner fighters were traitors and mutineers — with his war effort stuttering, Putin can’t afford to lose tens of thousands of men from the front.

“There were worthy people in Wagner,” Petrov insisted — moments after a diatribe about Prigozhin recruiting some of Russia’s worst criminals into the mercenary army’s ranks.

“The majority!” cut in “60 Minutes” host Yevgeny Popov. “The majority of people acted heroically, took cities, served in good faith … and bought their freedom with blood.”

“What’s absolutely clear: Prigozhin is a traitor,” Popov continued. “But Wagnerites — the majority of them are heroic people who with guns in hand defended our motherland. And many of them were lied to.”

Referring to Prigozhin’s Concord catering company and other businesses that Putin admitted were fully funded by the Russian state, Popov said the warlord had received “billions in contracts.”

And seeking to cleave Prigozhin’s men from their exiled boss, Petrov said: “The question is whether this money reached the fighters and heroes of Wagner!”

Translation: Watch your back, Yevgeny.



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If Bulgaria’s anti-corruption fight fails, Moscow stands to gain

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By Nicolas Tenzer, Non-resident senior fellow, CEPA

Bulgaria’s fight against corruption is the best way to combat the Kremlin’s operations in the country, which risks becoming one of Europe’s weak links alongside Hungary, Nicolas Tenzer writes.

Former Bulgarian PM Kiril Petkov recently presented an ambitious seven-point plan to his new coalition partner GERB, whose leader, Boyko Borissov, was in power for more than a decade.

The plan notably includes a roadmap for judicial reform and a warning that the country must urgently flush out Russian influence in its security services if Sofia hopes to succeed in cracking down on corruption.

Yet despite the bold plans, after less than a month, their ostensibly pro-Western coalition is already flirting with collapse — underscoring a perpetual instability which is hampering the long-awaited fight against graft.

Sixteen years after Bulgaria joined the European Union, it remains the bloc’s most corruption-ridden country, according to Transparency International. 

Despite Brussels’ repeated exhortations, Sofia has made little progress in establishing a fully independent judiciary and limiting the particularly extensive powers of the Bulgarian public prosecutor and his unparalleled near-total immunity.

While concerns about overreach by the Bulgarian prosecutor have percolated for years, they have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks as allegations of misconduct by the now-former prosecutor general have mounted. 

Ivan Geshev was finally dismissed by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in mid-June, but amidst controversy over his successor Borislav Sarafov and reports that Geshev is embarking on a political career, it’s clear that more needs to be done to address the situation, especially given that failure to do so risks increasing Moscow’s influence in Bulgaria.

The prosecution finally went too far

The dismissal of Prosecutor General Geshev came as encouraging news after the long list of allegations against him, as accusations of protecting oligarchs and political allies had significantly increased in recent months. 

In January, Geshev ordered raids on the offices of the FinTech company Nexo, alleging financial improprieties. 

The reality, however, is likely far murkier, given that Nexo’s team were known to support the political opposition — expected to get a mandate to form a government just days after the raids took place.

On top of these suspicions of protecting corrupt officials and targeting private companies for political purposes, there have also been suggestions, denied by the prosecutor, that Geshev’s office has slowed down investigations into the explosions of ammunition depots in Bulgaria reportedly carried out by Russian military intelligence.

In early May, Geshev even allegedly escaped an assassination attempt against him after a bomb exploded near his car.

However, the inconsistencies in the official report of the highway blast kicked up significant speculation that Geshev had invented the supposed attack as a tactic to attract sympathy and hamper any attempt to reform the Judicial Prosecutor’s Office, a method straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook. He allegedly even let a series of false reports about the case run unchallenged.

To make matters worse, the alleged bomb attack prompted a smear campaign against investigative journalists in the country, with several OCCRP journalists targeted in particular–perhaps unsurprising given that Geshev and fellow prosecutors have launched abusive legal proceedings against investigative journalists (SLAPPs) for years. 

Notably, Geshev has repeatedly publicly accused journalists of conspiring with criminals and politicians of plotting against him.

Even after Geshev’s ouster, serious problems remain

The fact that Geshev is now preparing for a political career — he announced he had founded his own party, Justice for Bulgaria, this Wednesday, that is meant to target GERB’s and Borissov’s voters — suggests that he is unlikely to tone down his aggressive tactics and accusatory rhetoric. 

What’s more, the conditions under which he was dismissed as prosecutor general —essentially a political compromise decided by the SJC, a commission whose composition and independence are disputed — hardly suggest a serious commitment to genuine judicial reform.

Controversy immediately arose over the appointment of his successor, Borislav Sarafov, to the point where judges protested vigorously, with the Union of Judges questioning some of Sarafov’s decisions and his professional competence and calling for an open and transparent procedure.

Sarafov’s name also made waves amidst the investigation surrounding the Anti-Corruption Fund, notoriously dubbed the “Eight Dwarves” case. 

The saga saw a prominent Bulgarian businessman flee the country after exposing a scheme in which the prosecutor’s office apparently conspired to seize control of the flourishing elevator business Izamet. 

Astonishingly, no penalties or charges have been brought forth thus far, and Sarafov’s involvement remains unexplained.

Despite opposition from the Minister of Justice, Sarafov’s appointment was confirmed on 22 June, casting doubt on the Bulgarian judiciary’s competence to impartially crack down on corruption anytime soon.

The Kremlin stands to gain

A perpetuation of the status quo in Bulgaria — a flawed judiciary and endemic graft —leaves fertile ground for foreign interference, particularly from Russia. 

As Petkov recently noted, “Moscow uses corruption to maneuver their foreign policy.” 

Russian influence is already a major pain point in Sofia; Defense Minister Todor Tagarev recently expressed his extreme concern at Moscow’s increasing malign operations in his country.

These Russian actions are nothing new: as Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev revealed, Moscow operatives were already behind an attempted coup in Bulgaria in 2016.

The Kremlin may well have had a hand in certain policy decisions in Sofia, too — seen, for example, in the fact that the Bulgarian government was the only one in the EU not to condemn the attempted poisoning of the Skripals in the UK in 2018, or the government’s failure to implement any of the EU’s sanctions against Russian citizens or companies. 

Russian influence also appears to have been decisive in toppling Petkov, a fervent supporter of Ukraine and the fight against corruption, after just six months in office last year.

Bulgarian political life itself is ridden with Russian influence — whether in the form of openly pro-Kremlin parties or officially pro-EU parties nevertheless willing to form alliances with pro-Russian factions or Bulgarian President Rumen Radev’s relatively complacent line towards Putin’s regime. 

Many of these elements have seen their own power grow amidst Bulgaria’s instability — it’s hardly surprising, then, that the authorities show little eagerness to combat the manipulation of information on social networks and in parts of the press.

Moscow’s malign influence is not without results

These factors have concrete and worrying results: according to a December 2022 survey, only 46% of Bulgarians (sharply below an EU average of 88%) believe that the war against Ukraine is Russia’s responsibility. 

As Bulgaria’s liberal defence minister pushes for increased arms deliveries to Ukraine, it is feared that Russian disinformation and interference operations will multiply, playing on conciliatory views within the ruling coalition.

Bulgaria’s fight against corruption is not only an indispensable battle in and of itself but is the best way to combat the Kremlin’s operations in the country, which risks becoming one of Europe’s weak links alongside Hungary. 

The long-awaited reform of the judiciary, in particular a reassessment of the chief prosecutor’s role, will be a decisive signal in whether Sofia can genuinely combat graft. 

Both the EU and NATO should take a firmer, more determined stance in urging the motley coalition in power to move in this direction.

Nicolas Tenzer is a guest professor at Sciences Po Paris and a non-resident senior fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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Ukrainians concerned about corruption as donors pledge billions

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Ukrainian businesses listed corruption and a lack of control over public funds as their biggest concerns in the reconstruction of their country.

As an entrepreneur trying to run a small business in Ukraine during the war, things have not been easy. 

Kseniia Goldovska’s software development company has continued to operate, although with difficulties. 

New clients are hesitant about working with Ukrainian companies during the conflict whilst old clients are struggling with budget limitations.

Nevertheless, she is determined to keep attracting new investment from abroad and support the country by paying taxes in preparation for the reconstruction process that Ukraine will have to partially fund itself.

One of her biggest concerns though is corruption: “The main issue is the amount of investment that could be stolen,” she tells Euronews. 

Goldovska’s not alone with those worries.

Corruption is the number one fear for citizens and business owners when it comes to rebuilding Ukraine, according to a report from Transparency International, even more than the resumption of hostilities.

The survey found that 73% of the population and 80% of businesses listed the “restoration of corruption schemes” as the main fear, followed by the “lack of control and embezzlement of public funds” at 68% and 73%, respectively.

Ukraine’s reputation as one of Europe’s most corrupt countries has also concerned donors and allies, particularly the USA and EU that explicitly stated that Kyiv needs to execute reforms in order to receive new financial aid packages. 

Billions pledged in reconstruction funds

International leaders in politics and business met at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in London in June to discuss the monumental task of rebuilding Ukraine. 

Billions of euros were pledged, on top of the hundreds of billions already promised to the war-torn country — and whilst many Ukrainians are optimistic about the future, one thing weighs on their minds that could hinder redevelopment projects:  corruption.

Ukraine needs a huge amount of money to restore itself, with the World Bank estimating in April that Russia’s full-scale invasion has caused $411 billion (€376.6 billion) in damages and assessed that $14.1 billion (€12.92 billion) is needed this year alone for a “quick recovery”. 

June’s London conference confirmed that support is there but both donors and Ukrainian citizens are worried where the funding will end up.

In an effort to show that Ukraine is taking these warnings seriously, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal presented the DREAM system at the reconstruction conference, which he claims will collect, organise and publish open data for all reconstruction projects in real time.

“Anyone, anywhere, can monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of project delivery, and use these insights to mitigate risks, conduct accurate reporting and improve overall project performance,” the DREAM website states.

Transparency International found that 79% of citizens and 62% of businesses want all stages of the recovery process to be as open as possible as well as access to data on responsible individuals to ensure that money is not being misused. 

The DREAM initiative will quell some of those fears and work alongside the current ProZorro system, an online portal that allows the public free access to open data on all government procurement.

Ukraine Red Cross leading on transparency

“The more we provide visibility the more donations will come, the more we grow and more people will trust us,” explains Ihor Prokopenko, the head of the Kyiv office of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS).

The URCS has supported reconstruction efforts around the country, with Prokopenko overseeing projects in the Kyiv region. The charity relies on donations to fund infrastructure repairs and equipment for hospitals and homes that were impacted during the occupation of the Bucha region last year.

Prokopenko has ensured visibility at all levels, providing receipts, documents and signatures for everything the organisation buys. Although this was challenging in the first months of the full-scale invasion, when aid needed to be distributed rapidly, Prokopenko knows that in the long run transparency is key to gain trust and further donations.

“This is exactly why stakeholders donate to us, because we have provided visibility”, he adds. “This is our number one priority: to keep trust on all levels.”

Ukraine’s reforms to crack down on corruption

At face value, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is supportive of the anti-corruption measures, stressing the need to transform Ukraine in preparation for the reconstruction period. 

He approved a strategic plan to reform the law enforcement system last month and appointed a new prosecutor general in July 2022 amidst a cabinet reshuffle as both Brussels and Washington DC pinpointed Ukraine’s fledgling law and judicial system as a key issue.

Moreover, Zelenskyy fulfilled EU requirements by welcoming in a new head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) in July 2022 as well as a new National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) director in March 2023.

Business owner Kseniia Goldovska is optimistic that the government is sincere in its intentions, particularly with EU membership on the horizon. 

NABU and SAPO have been busy targeting notorious oligarchs and uncovering large scale schemes, which Ukrainian media has catapulted to the front pages. In a major bust, the anti-corruption institutions detained Vzevolod Knyazev, the former head of Ukraine’s Supreme Court, for accepting bribes amounting to €2.47 million. 

“I hope that those institutions that fight against corruption will be controlled, not just by the government themselves but by the society as well,” Goldovska tells Euronews.

However, she also acknowledges that individuals will always find a way around the safeguarding systems put in place. Therefore, like many of Ukraine’s citizens, she insists on stricter consequences such as lengthy prison sentences for those caught, not only to ensure they don’t get back to systems of power but also to deter future crimes. 

“Scary punishments,” she says, “ is something that is necessary” and will make people think twice.

Ukraine has seen progress in the last ten years. It currently has 33 points in Transparency International’s corruption index, a far cry from the 25 points in 2013 when the country was in the grips of former-President Viktor Yanukoych who was ousted during the EuroMaidan revolution.

Goldovska maintains optimism that corruption will continue to improve in the post-war period and acknowledges a cultural shift in attitudes towards small-scale bribes. People are making a conscious effort to take the lawful long route rather than offering money to solve a problem quicker.

“As always you have to start with yourself and then fight with others,” she says.



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The EU puts in place new measures to stop undue political influence

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The EU is making fresh efforts to increase transparency and its own credibility following the recent ‘Qatargate’ corruption scandal. On the Global Conversation, Euronews spoke with Vera Jourova, vice president of the European Commission, to talk about the institution’s new anti-corruption measures.

Euronews

Vera Jourova, thanks very much for being on Euronews. Six months have passed since the biggest since one of the biggest corruption scandals of the history of the European Union. And according to the latest polls the majority of the Europeans, in fact, 60% of them are unhappy about how the EU is dealing with corruption. Are you surprised? 

Věra Jourová

It does not surprise me, but at the same time, it gives me another impulse to do something about that. And it doesn’t matter where the scandal appeared. It was one of the institutions, probably the failure more of individual people than of the system. But what can the citizens think? Well-paid politicians, they have undeserved privileges. We don’t know which standards and whether there is some ethics. You know, too many questions and too little answers. So that’s why we came up with the anti-corruption package, which also covers EU institutions. And today I presented the first-ever European ethics body, which would cover all key EU institutions. 

Euronews

Let’s talk about this new ethics body because it will set future standards for all of the EU institutions. But NGOs and, MEPs are demanding that the control should be not connected to the European Union but should be independent. Why is it not happening? 

Věra Jourová

Well, the ethics body is filling in the gap because just imagine each of the institutions have some internal structure that should do the job. The ethics body should not replace these institutional arrangements. There are people who should go after disciplinary breaches and should sanction these cases. So the ethics body will fill in the gaps, the roof above all the institutions, and work on the unified standards will then reflect in the work of each institution. And why not be independent? Well, I think that it’s important that the ethics body will be composed of the people who know the work and the role of each institution. That’s why I proposed something which will be very practical. There will be ten people sitting around the table. I speak about the political level, the vice presidents of each institution or some other high-level official. And there will be five independent experts invited to work together with the representatives of the institutions. I want the ethics body to be meaningful, to be practical, and to be transparent so the standards which the ethics body will agree on will be known to the public. Referring to your first question, what people can think about us. I think that they should know the rules regarding trips, gifts, declarations of assets, and what the politicians do after the mandate. Well, I think that the people have the right to see clear standards.

Euronews

For example, these new standards will prevent in the future commission director general from taking free flights, free hotel rooms paid by foreign actors like Qatar.

Věra Jourová

Honestly, I don’t understand how this can be happening, because either I am on a business trip and then it has to be blessed by the institution and paid by the institution I work for. Or it is a private trip and then I pay it myself. I don’t see any space for anything else. And I think that this is exactly what the ethics body should clarify and we should agree on it. 

Euronews

Do you think also the 700 MEPs are in line to push the standards higher?

Věra Jourová

If you ask all of them, they will tell you, yes. I spoke to many members of the Parliament. Of course the Parliament is a special institution: there are directly elected people. There is always a discussion about the freedom of the mandate or about their immunities. This is very fair to discuss all these things. But at the same time, there should be high enough equal standards for everyone in the Parliament. We see quite different opinions from different political clubs and I am ready to discuss with all. 

Euronews

And how about the investigations and the sanctions for these ethical rules? 

Věra Jourová

Well, it has to remain in the institutions which have a strong legal basis to do that. I know it sounds too legalistic, but I have to recall that this ethics body will be established on the basis of the agreement, and it’s not foreseen in the treaty, and it’s not going to be established on the basis of the law. Once you work for such a body established by the law, you are authorized to look into private documents and to different kinds of materials. You are authorized to inquire the people and you are authorized to sanction the people. And it really requires the strongest possible legal authorization. And this is why the ethics body will not have. 

Euronews

We are one year ahead of the next European Parliament elections. Are you afraid that foreign actors will try to influence the campaign and they might actually derail the campaign ahead of the parliament elections, for example, with fake news campaigns or disinformation?

Věra Jourová

I do believe they will not win because we do everything to protect the elections against hidden manipulation and against different kinds of interference. But that for sure, there will be a strong influence, and that it will be a big pressure from different hostile actors to interfere into the electoral processes. That’s why we are already alerting the member States, which have the obligation to organize the elections, to somehow fortify the systems also against cyber attacks, but also against coordinated campaigns using disinformation. 

Euronews

To fight foreign influence the European Commission is also proposing a new package called Defence of Democracy. But NGOs were protesting against this legislation, they said it’s very similar to the Russian Foreign Agents Act. So after this criticism, will you amend this legislation, to satisfy NGO’s? 

Věra Jourová

The criticism was based on the lack of information about what we plan, and I don’t criticize anyone. I think that it’s mainly on us to inform all who might feel affected by that what we plan. What we plan is for the high level of transparency about the financial flows into Europe. And I think that it’s far from Georgian law or even American law or Australian law, which is the criminal justice piece of law. No labeling, no foreign agents, no stigmatizing. We even want to embed into the law the safeguard against the possible abuse from the side of some member states: not to go beyond the requests or requirements of the law. But you asked about the process also. We admitted that we need more time for two things: For the intense consultations with all who raised voices and who expressed concerns, especially the NGOs, I will simplify that. But many, many others also from the member state official places we heard a lot of question marks. I will use this summer for consultations on the basis of the already very precise text so that we know what we speak about. The second thing, we need to do is to try to collect data, which will give us more certainty about how big the problem is. Collecting such data is not an easy thing because it’s mainly in the possession of the member states, secret services and security agencies. So we are now exploring the way how to get reliable data. So we will do two things over the summer and then in autumn, we will come back to that. Because I am convinced we need such a law. And if not, we will be the only democratic space that doesn’t have a law which at least wants to increase transparency and give us a chance to know who is paid by third countries’ governments. This is the last thing I want to say on the substance because also there was a criticism that all the money coming from abroad. No, it will be about the money paid by third countries’ governments and state organizations. 

Euronews

Do you think social media platforms, big social media platforms, are doing enough to fight disinformation because the current European system is on a voluntary basis and Twitter is leaving even that system?

Věra Jourová

Well, soon we will have the Digital Services Act in force and it will be a legally binding heavyweight legislation that seeks to increase the responsibility of the platforms. And it’s a reaction of something which we saw evolving over the years that the platforms are grabbing too much power and are reluctant to take relevant responsibility. Before that and parallel with that, we have the code of practice against disinformation, which indeed is a voluntary agreement. At this moment we have 44 signatories. We have all the big platforms except Twitter. We can do a lot with it, but of course, it has some gaps still. What I want to change: first of all, to address pro-Russia and pro-Kremlin disinformation, because this is a clear-cut case, the word propaganda has to be removed and we are in the information war and so there should be no compromise. Second, we want the platforms to consistently moderate and invest in fact-checking. It cannot be done only in English or German. It has to be done in all member states languages. And the tricky thing is that the more you go to the east of Europe, the bigger the pressure from Russian propaganda appears. So we want them to invest in fact, checking In these countries. We see big influence of Russian propaganda on Slovakia, on Bulgarian public opinion. We see increased pressures on German communities and especially using some domestic proxies. And this is a new thing when the Russian propaganda is being taken over by the extremist parties in the EU. This is a dangerous new stage. So better moderation. The third thing that we want from the platforms is to enable the researchers.to have better access to data. We need the researchers to analyze the situation. When I say we, we are the rules makers because I would like the internet and social media to remain the free zone for free speech. So also my concern is not to overshoot with the rules which we are taking but to come with proportionate, necessary measures. We need to know what’s happening and the researchers should help us with a serious sort of analysis. The first thing and this is a new agenda, and I asked on Monday the platforms to consider is the new development in generative artificial intelligence. And here again, the code can be a quick vehicle, a quick response.

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Eva Kaili is back with a new story: There’s a conspiracy

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ATHENS — Eva Kaili is spinning up a new, eyebrow-raising narrative: Authorities might have targeted her because she knew too much about government spying.

After months of silence during her detention and house arrest, the most high-profile suspect in the cash-for-influence Qatargate scandal was suddenly everywhere over the weekend. 

Across a trio of interviews in the European media, the Greek European Parliament member was keen to proclaim her innocence, saying she never took any of the alleged bribes that authorities say countries such as Qatar and Morocco used to sway the Brussels machinery. 

But she also had a story to tell even darker than Qatargate, one involving insinuations of nefarious government spying and suggestions that maybe, just maybe, her jailing was politically motivated. Her work investigating the illegal use of Pegasus spyware in Europe, she argued, put her in the crosshairs of Europe’s own governments. 

“From the court file, my lawyers have discovered that the Belgian secret services have allegedly been monitoring the activities of members of the Pegasus special committee,” she told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

“The fact that elected members of Parliament are being spied on by the secret services should raise more concerns about the health of our European democracy,” she added. “I think this is the ‘real scandal.’”

As Kaili reemerges and starts pointing the finger back at the government, the Belgian prosecutor’s office has decided to remain mum. A spokesperson on Monday said the prosecutor’s office was “not going to respond” to Kaili’s allegations. 

“This would violate the confidentiality of the investigation and the presumption of innocence,” the spokesperson added. “The evidence will be presented in court in due course.”

But her PR blitz is nonetheless a likely preview of Qatargate’s next chapter: The battle to win the public narrative.

A European media tour

In addition to her interview with the Italian press, Kaili also appeared in the Spanish and French press, where she expanded on her spying theory. 

In a video interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Kaili said her legal team has evidence the entire PEGA committee was being watched illegally, arguing she does not know how the police intercepted certain conversations between her and other politicians. 

“I was not spied on with Pegasus, but for Pegasus,” she said. “We believe Morocco, Spain, France and Belgium spied on the European Parliament’s committee,” she told El Mundo.

Kaili’s assertions have not been backed up by public evidence. But she didn’t equivocate as she pointed the finger.

“The fact that security services surveilled elected members of Parliament should raise enormous concerns over the state of European democracy,” Kaili said. “This goes beyond the personal: We have to defend the European Parliament and the work of its members.”

Kaili was jailed in December as part of a deep corruption probe Belgian authorities were conducting into whether foreign countries were illegally influencing the European Parliament’s work. Her arrest came after the Belgian police recovered €150,000 in cash from her apartment — where she lived with her partner, Francesco Giorgi, who was also arrested — and a money-stuffed bag her father had.

The Greek politician flatly dismissed the charges across her interviews.

“No country has ever offered me money and I have never been bribed. Not even Russia, as has been alleged,” she told El Mundo. “My lawyers and I believe this was a police operation based on false evidence.”

According to her arrest warrant, Kaili was suspected of being “the primary organizer or co-organizer” of public corruption and money laundering.

“Eva Kaili told the journalist of ‘El Mundo’ not to publish her interview, until she gave them the final OK; unfortunately, the agreement was not honored,” her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said on Monday.

Flying in on a Pegasus (committee)

The allegations — Kaili’s first major push to spin her arrest — prompted plenty of incredulity, including from those who worked with her on the Pegasus, or PEGA, committee. It especially befuddled those who recalled that Kaili had faced accusations of undermining the committee’s work. 

“I have absolutely no reason to believe the Belgian intelligence services spied on PEGA,” said Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld, who helped prepare the committee’s final report. “Everything we do is public anyway. And we have our phones checked regularly, it makes absolutely no sense.”

Kaili’s decision to invoke her PEGA Committee work is intriguing as it taps into a controversial period of her career. 

While the panel was deep into its work in 2022, Greece was weathering its own persistent espionage scandal, which erupted after the government acknowledged it had wiretapped the leader of Kaili’s own party, Pasok. 

Yet Kaili perplexed many when she started publicly arguing in response that surveillance was common and happens across Europe, echoing the talking points of the ruling conservative government instead of her own socialist party. She also encouraged the PEGA panel not to visit Greece as part of its investigation.

The arrest warrant for MEP Andrea Cozzolino also mentions the alleged influence ringleader, former Parliament member Pier Antonio Panzeri, discussed getting Kaili on the PEGA Committee to help advance Moroccan interests (Morocco has been accused of illegally using the spyware).

A war of words?

Kaili’s media tour raises questions about how the Qatargate probe will unfold in the coming months. 

Eventually, Kaili and the other suspects will likely face trial, where authorities will have a chance to present their evidence. But until then, the suspects will have a chance to shape and push their preferred narrative — depending on what limits the court places on their public statements.

In recent weeks, Kaili has moved from jail to house arrest to an increasingly unrestricted life, allowing her more chances to opine on the case. Her lawyers also claim she will soon be back at work at the Parliament, although she is banned from leaving Belgium for Parliament’s sessions in Strasbourg.

Pieter Haeck, Eddy Wax, Antoaneta Roussi and Barbara Moens contributed reporting.



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Slovak tycoon acquitted again over murder of journalist

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Slovak tycoon Marián Kočner has been acquitted for his role in conspiring to murder journalist Ján Kuciak. Alena Zsuzsová, his associate, was found guilty of planning and ordering the crime.

A court in Slovakia has acquitted tycoon Marián Kočner for the second time on charges he conspired to murder journalist Ján Kuciak.

However, the District Court in Pezinok convicted co-defendant Alena Zsuzsavá of ordering and planning Kuciak’s murder in February 2018. She received a 25-year prison sentence.

The pair were originally both acquitted in the original trial which began in 2019, and Friday’s decision comes after an appeal was launched in 2021. 

Parties can appeal Friday’s decision to the country’s Supreme Court.

What was this case about?

There is no doubt that the murder of Kuciak is among the most shocking murders of journalists in recent European history, along with that of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Both were targeted for investigating ties between government officials and criminal groups.

Kuciak was the younger of the two. He and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were both 27 years old when they were killed in their home in Veľká Mača on 21 February 2018. The police found their bodies bearing gunshot wounds to the head and chest – injuries pointing to a possible assassination – after Kušnírová’s mother alerted them to the fact that she could not contact her daughter.

The outrage in Slovakia was immediate and resounding, with the president at the time saying that he was “shocked and horrified” that such a thing had happened in the country and calling for either a cabinet reshuffle or an early election.

A number of ministers, members of parliament, police officers, and even Prime Minister Robert Fico — whose business ties were investigated by Kuciak — resigned in the wake of his death.

Protests and concerts demanding an end to corruption in the country were held for a month after the event.

Kuciak worked as an investigative reporter and data journalist for the Slovak news outlet Aktuality. The outlet’s editor in chief Petr Bárdy described him as someone with a knack for open source investigations and “connecting known things” to uncover tax fraud and corruption within the country’s leadership.

At the time of his death, Kuciak was writing an article — published posthumously as a collaboration between his colleagues — about the fraudulent activities of Italian businessmen operating in eastern Slovakia and their connections to the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia clan, as well as their cooperation with representatives of SMER-SD party and PM Fico.

It was suspected that the murder involved cross-border crimes, so investigators from the Czech Republic, Italy, the FBI, Scotland Yard and Europol joined their Slovak counterparts in uncovering the perpetrators.

Slovakia’s trial of the century

In the early stages of the investigation, there were strong suspicions that controversial Slovak tycoon Marián Kočner, whom Kuciak also reported on, had something to do with the murder.

Despite being on several police mafia lists going back as far as 2005, Kočner had fashioned himself into a celebrity and often appeared on the country’s talk shows to bolster or promote his business activities.

The Kuciak murder exposed Kočner’s obsession with surveilling and following journalists in the country, in an attempt to control and discredit them or influence narratives in his favour. Even as late as 2021, the International Press Institute warned journalists from Dennik N that they were being followed.

According to the prosecution’s indictment, Kočner tasked his associate and failed furniture business owner Alena Zsuzsová with arranging Kuciak’s murder and she, in turn, tasked businessman Zoltán Andruskó, who ordered former soldier Miroslav Marček and his cousin Tomáš Szabó to carry out the murder.

Andruskó entered a plea agreement with the prosecution in December 2018 and was sentenced to 15 years — but also named Kočner as the individual who had ordered the murder. Marček received a 25-year sentence for killing the two, and Szabó received the same sentence for co-conspiring and assisting Marček.

Kočner and Zsuzsová were acquitted of charges related to the murders of Kuciak and Kušnírová at the time, with the court stating that their involvement in the murders could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

There were widespread negative reactions to the verdict both in Slovakia and internationally, with President Zuzana Čaputová saying that she believed “the trial would not end here” and should be taken to the Supreme Court. Igor Matovič, a leading opposition politician at the time, said that the instigators of the murder had slipped out of the clutches of justice.”

The Supreme Court ordered a retrial of the case in 2021 and it was taken on by the Special Criminal Court.

Kočner and Zsuzsová were found guilty for other crimes in the meantime, the latter for her involvement in the 2010 murder of Laszlo Basternak, the mayor of a small town in Slovakia. They are currently serving sentences for those crimes.

When time came around for the appeals trial, the secret conversations between Kočner and Zsuzsová on the Threema — an encrypted messaging app developed by for the Swiss military and thought to be impenetrable — became public after a judge ordered them to be released.

Besides including incriminating messages sent by Kočner, including Kuciak’s private address, it also unveiled the extent of the tycoon’s inflated sense of self. His message to Zsuzsová were signed “Ave ja” in Slovak or “Hail me”, which is a direct reference to the Roman phrase “Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant” or “Hail, Caesar, those about to die salute you,” addressed to the Roman emperor by gladiators before games.

It also unveiled that Kočner referred to his political opponents in antisemitic terms, including a message that said “I’ll probably have to cut down some Jews…” in May of 2018.

Kuciak as a symbol

Kuciak, his work, and his tragic demise have become the central European country’s most powerful symbol for change.

Civil society groups and grassroots movements often refer to Kuciak in their statements and carry photographs of him and Kušnírová at protests and marches.

The Jan Kuciak Investigative Centre was established in his honour by journalists who worked with him, who said his murder inspired them to work more closely together in the future.

The landslide victory of opposition parties in the 2020 elections is also attributed to the widespread disgust felt among Slovak voters with the SMER-SD party that was in power at the time of his death.

So powerful is his image that former PM Fico, who lost power in 2020, has also tried to abuse his death for political gain and claims that one day he will reveal the true killers of Jan Kuciak. Fico’s party is currently gaining in support after a months-long political crisis in the country, buoyed by his embrace of conspiracy theories and far-right talking points.

For journalists in Slovakia, things continue to be difficult. On the anniversary of his death this year, the Jan Kuciak Center published a poll indicating that two out of three journalists in the country, or around 66%, continue to face threats on a regular basis.

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Turkish century: History looms large on election day

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ISTANBUL — From the Aegean coast to the mountainous frontier with Iran, millions of Turks are voting at the country’s 191,884 ballot boxes on Sunday — with both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his main rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu warning the country is at a historical turning point.

In the last sprints of the nail-bitingly close election race, the dueling candidates have both placed heavy emphasis on the historical resonance of the vote falling exactly 100 years after the foundation of the secular Turkish republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923.

In the Istanbul district of Ümraniye on the final day of campaigning, Erdoğan told voters the country was on “the threshold of a Turkish century” that will be the “century of our children, our youth, our women.”

Erdoğan’s talk of a Turkish century is partly a pledge to make the country stronger and more technologically independent, particularly in the defense sector. Over the past months, the president has been quick to associate himself with the domestically-manufactured Togg electric car, the “Kaan” fighter jet and Anadolu, the country’s first aircraft carrier.

But Erdoğan’s Turkish century is about more than home-grown planes and ships. Few people doubt the president sees 2023 as a key threshold to accelerate his push away from Atatürk’s secular legacy and toward a more religiously conservative nation. Indeed, his campaign has been characterized by a heavy emphasis on family values and bitter rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community. Unsurprisingly, he wrapped up his campaign on Saturday night in Hagia Sophia — once Constantinople’s greatest church — which he contentiously reconverted from a museum back into a mosque, as it had been in Ottoman times.    

The state that Atatürk forged from the ashes of the Ottoman empire in 1923 was secular and modernizing, often along Western models, with the introduction of Latin letters and even the banning of the fez in favor of Western-style hats. In this regard, the Islamist populist Erdoğan is a world away from the ballroom-dancing, rakı-quaffing field marshal Atatürk.

The 2023 election is widely being cast as a decisive referendum on which vision for Turkey will win through, and Erdoğan has been keen to portray the opposition as sell-outs to the West and global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. “Are you ready to bury at the ballot box those who promised to give over the country’s values ​​to foreigners and loan sharks?” he called out to the crowd in Ümraniye.

This is not a man who is casting himself as the West’s ally. Resisting pressure that Ankara should not cozy up so much to the Kremlin, Erdoğan snapped on Friday that he would “not accept” the opposition’s attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin — after Kılıçdaroğlu complained of Russian meddling in the election.   

All about Atatürk

By contrast, Erdogan’s main rival Kılıçdaroğlu is trying to assume the full mantle of Atatürk, and is stressing the need to put the country back on the path toward European democratic norms after Erdoğan’s lurch toward authoritarianism. While Erdoğan ended his campaign in the great mosque of Hagia Sophia, Kılıçdaroğlu did so by laying flowers at Atatürk’s mausoleum.

Speaking from a rain-swept stage in Ankara on Friday night, the 74-year-old bureaucrat declared: “We will make all of Turkey Mustafa Kemal’s [Atatürk’s] Turkey!”

In his speech, he slammed Erdoğan for giving Turkey over to drug runners and crony networks of oligarch construction bosses, saying the country had no place for “robbers.” Symbolically, he chided the president for ruling from his 1,150-room presidential complex — dubbed the Saray or palace — and said that he would rule from the more modest Çankaya mansion that Atatürk used for his presidency.

Warming to his theme of Turkey’s “second century,” Kılıçdaroğlu posted a video in the early hours of Saturday morning, urging young people to fully embrace the founding father’s vision. After all, he hails from the CHP party that Atatürk founded.

“We are entering the second century, young ones. And now we have a new generation, we have you. We have to decide altogether: Will we be among those who only commemorate Atatürk — like in the first century — or those who understand him in this century? This generation will be of those who understand,” he said, speaking in his trademark grandfatherly tone from his book-lined study.

At least in the upscale neighborhood of Beşiktaş, on Saturday night, all the talk of Atatürk was no dry history lesson. Over their final beers — before an alcohol sale ban comes in force over election day — young Turks punched the air and chanted along with a stirring anthem: “Long Live Mustafa Kemal Pasha, long may he live.”

In diametric opposition to Erdoğan, who has detained opponents and exerts heavy influence over the judiciary and the media, Kılıçdaroğlu is insisting that he will push Turkey to adopt the kind of reforms needed to move toward EU membership.

When asked by POLITICO whether that could backfire because some hostile EU countries would always block Turkish membership, he said the reforms themselves were the most important element for Turkey’s future.

“It does not matter whether the EU takes us in or not. What matters is bringing all the democratic standards that the EU foresees to our country,” he said in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of a rally in the central city of Sivas. “We are part of Western civilization. So the EU may accept us or not, but we will bring those democratic standards. The EU needs Turkey.”

Off to the polls

Polling stations — which are set up in schools — open at 8 a.m. on election day and close at 5 p.m. At 9 p.m. media can start reporting, and unofficial results are expected to start trickling in around midnight.

The mood is cautious, with rumors swirling that internet use could be restricted or there could be trouble on the streets if there are disputes over the result.

The fears of some kind of trouble have only grown after reports of potential military or governmental involvement in the voting process.

Two days before the election, the CHP accused Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu of preparing election manipulation. The main opposition party said Soylu had called on governors to seek army support on election night. Soylu made no public response.  

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) has rejected the interior ministry’s request to collect and store election results on its own database. The YSK also banned the police and gendarmerie from collecting election results. 

Erdoğan himself sought to downplay any fears of a stolen election. In front of a studio audience of young people on Friday, he dismissed as “ridiculous” the suggestion that he might not leave office if he lost. “We came to power in Turkey by democratic means and by the courtesy of people. If they make a different decision whatever the democracy requires we will do it,” said the president, looking unusually gaunt, perhaps still knocked back by what his party said was a bout of gastroenteritis during the campaign.

The opposition is vowing to keep close tabs on all of the polling stations to try to prevent any fraud.

In Esenyurt Cumhuriyet Square, in the European part of Istanbul, a group of high-school students gathered on Saturday morning to greet Ekrem İmamoğlu, the popular mayor of Istanbul, who would be one of Kılıçdaroğlu’s vice presidents if he were to win.

Ilayda, 18, said she would vote for the opposition because of its position on democracy, justice and women’s rights.

When asked what would happen if Erdoğan won, she replied: “We plan to start a deep mourning. Our country as we know it will not be there anymore.”



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Arrest of Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan sparks deadly clashes with supporters

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Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested and dragged from court Tuesday as he appeared to face charges in multiple graft cases, a dramatic escalation of political tensions that sparked violent demonstrations by his angry supporters in several major cities.

The arrest of Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 but remains the leading opposition figure, represented the latest confrontation to roil Pakistan, which has seen former prime ministers arrested over the years and interventions by its powerful military.

At least one person was reported killed in clashes between protesters and the military in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, with another five people wounded there, while about 15 injuries were reported amid similar violence in Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrations.


Amid the violence, officials at Pakistan’s telecommunication authority said regulators blocked social media, including Twitter, and internet service was suspended in the capital of Islamabad and other cities. Classes at some private schools were canceled for Wednesday.

Khan was removed from the Islamabad High Court by security agents from the National Accountability Bureau, said Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, and then shoved into an armored car and whisked away.

Chaudhry denounced the arrest of the 71-year-old former cricket star as “an abduction.” Pakistan’s independent GEO TV broadcast video of Khan being hauled away.

A scuffle broke out between Khan’s supporters and police outside the court. Some of Khan’s lawyers and supporters were injured in the melee, as were several police, Chaudhry said. Khan’s party complained to the court, which requested a police report explaining the charges for Khan’s arrest.


Khan was taken to the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, for questioning at the offices of the National Accountability Bureau, according to police and government officials. He also was to undergo a routine medical checkup, police said.

Khan had arrived at the Islamabad High Court from nearby Lahore, where he lives, to face charges in the graft cases.

He has denounced the cases against him, which include terrorism charges, as a politically motivated plot by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, saying his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy. Khan has campaigned against Sharif and demanded early elections.

Tuesday’s arrest was based on a new warrant from the National Accountability Bureau obtained last week in a separate graft case for which Khan had not been granted bail, making him vulnerable to be seized, and his lawyers challenged the legality of the arrest. He is scheduled to appear at an anti-graft tribunal on Wednesday, officials said.

“Imran Khan has been arrested because he was being sought in a graft case,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan told a news conference. He alleged Pakistan’s treasury had lost millions of dollars while Khan was in office due to illegal purchases of lands from a business tycoon.

At a news conference, Law Minister Azam Tarar said Khan was arrested because he was not cooperating with the investigations. He also denounced the violence by Khan supporters, saying that protests must remain peaceful. 

“It should have not happened,” he said, shortly after TV video emerged of burning vehicles and damaged public property in parts of the country.

Authorities said they have banned rallies in the eastern province of Punjab.

As the news of the arrest spread, about 4,000 of Khan’s supporters stormed the official residence of the top regional commander in Lahore, smashing windows and doors, damaging furniture and staging a sit-in as troops there retreated to avoid violence. The protesters also burned police vehicles and blocked key roads.

Protesters also smashed the main gate of the army’s headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where troops exercised restraint. Hundreds of demonstrators shouted pro-Khan slogans as they moved toward the sprawling building.


In the port city of Karachi, police swung batons and fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Khan supporters who had gathered on a key road. 

Raoof Hasan, another leader from Khan’s party, told Al Jazeera English television that the arrest is “blatant interference in the judicial affairs by the powers-that-be.” Hasan added that Khan “was virtually abducted from the court of law.”

Khan’s arrest came hours after he issued a video message before heading to Islamabad, saying he was “mentally prepared” for arrest there.

Khan was wounded by a gunman at a rally in November, an attack that killed one of his supporters and wounded 13. He has insisted, without offering any evidence, that there is a plot to assassinate him, alleging that Pakistan’s spy agency was behind the conspiracy. The gunman was immediately arrested and police later released a video of him in custody, allegedly saying he had acted alone.

In a strongly worded statement Monday, the military accused Khan of “fabricated and malicious allegations” of its involvement in the November shooting, saying they are “extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable.”

The military has directly ruled Pakistan for more than half of the 75 years since the country gained independence from British colonial rule, and wields considerable power over civilian governments.

Sharif, whose government faces spiraling economic woes and is struggling to recover from last year’s devastating floods that killed hundreds and caused $30 billion in damage, slammed Khan for assailing the military. 

“Let this be abundantly clear that you, as former prime minister, currently on trial for corruption, are claiming legitimacy to overturn the legal and political system,” Sharif tweeted after Khan’s arrest.

In a statement, the European Union urged “restraint and cool headedness” in the country, through dialogue and the rule of law.

Khan is the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was arrested and hanged in 1979. The current prime minister’s brother, Nawaz Sharif, who also served as prime minister, was arrested several times on corruption allegations.

In March, police stormed Khan’s Lahore residence, seeking to arrest him based on a court order in a different case. Dozens of people, including police, were injured in ensuing clashes. Khan was not arrested at the time and later obtained bail in the case.

Khan came to power in 2018 after winning parliamentary elections and had initially good relations with the military which gradually soured. 

(AP)



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A Former And Current Democrat Wrestle Against A Moral Universe

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It is a favorite quote of former Pres. Barack Obama (who had it woven into his White House rug) and cited by other politicians, often around MLK Day. But despite its good sentiment, some scholars have noted the meaning was taken out of context to excuse inaction all for a dream of “justice” we might never see in this world.

So, let’s keep this debate in mind when we discuss two specific guests on this week’s Sunday shows.

It’s the Kyrsten Sinema Show!

The senior senator from Arizona, part-time reseller and full-time asshole made a rare appearance on a Sunday show to answer some questions. She also made sure it was at the McCain Institute in front of a live audience with CBS’s “Face The Nation” so that she could receive maximum attention while being the feckless senator we all know.

For example, when Sinema criticized the Biden Administration’s border policy, host Margaret Brennan mentions an immigration bill Sinema and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma introduced. But when asked about passing it before Title 42 expires, Sinema joked about the uselessness of the Senate.

SINEMA: Oh, God, no, Margaret. This is the United States Senate. (laughter)

BRENNAN: That’s what I was saying.

SINEMA: I don’t think you can get agreement on a restroom break by next Thursday. The United States Senate is functioning at a fairly dysfunctional level right now.

Hahahahaha! Isn’t it truly hilarious that the people elected to govern can’t do a single thing?! And that they not only know they won’t take action to help their constituents but find it a joke??! Just hilarious, Sinema. Hardy Har Har …

Sinema was asked about Republicans holding the full faith and credit of the US hostage for draconian cuts with the debt ceiling and she outlined the real problem — “both sides.”

While Sinema admitted Biden is correct to want a “a clean debt limit to meet the full faith and responsibility of the United States of America,” she blamed him for not prioritizing Kevin McCarthy’s political career over destroying the American people’s lives or the global financial system.

SINEMA: […] Kevin McCarthy, as we all saw, took him a long time to become Speaker. Barely squeaked by with the votes, had to make a lot of concessions to get the job and he has a very, very narrow road to walk. So he has to thread a needle where he can get the votes he needs to pass a debt limit increase and continue to be Speaker. […] Reality is the bill that Kevin and his colleagues passed through the House is not going to be the solution. The votes do not exist in the United States Senate to pass that. But what the president is offering is not a realistic solution either. There’s not going to be just a simple clean debt limit. The votes don’t exist for that. […]

The votes DO exist to pass a clean limit, Sinema. You just need all the House Democratic votes and enough sane Republicans for a majority. But the reason that someone like Sinema or McCarthy can’t see that is because anything that doesn’t advance their careers or risks political power for their constituents is not seen as a solution.

Ironically, Sinema’s Senate career and McCarthy’s speakership might be over soon due to that very calculus.

Dick Durbin: The Susan Collins of Chuck Schumers

Speaking of political inaction, Senate Judiciary chair Dick Durbin was on CNN’s “State of The Union” with Jake Tapper.

Tapper asked Durbin about what Congress can do to solve the gun violence that led to ANOTHER mass shooting in Texas on Saturday.

DURBIN: There is something more that America can do, and it’s called an election.

Oh, fuck you, Dick. Your answer to why Congress can’t meet the demands for action from the majority of Americans tired of gun violence is “vote harder”?? Fuck off! Americans are united. It’s Congress who isn’t.

Even in a Fox news poll.

Record-breaking election turnouts in 2018,2020 and 2022 is why Durbin even has a chairmanship. Voters are doing/have done everything they can only to have their votes “rewarded” by political apathy.

But that’s too much to ask from someone like Durbin. When asked about Clarence Thomas’s recent revelations, Durbin at best could muster mild disappointment.

TAPPER: Some of your fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill say that this seems to go beyond ethical lapses; it rises to the level of corrupt behavior. Is that a word you would use, corrupt?

DURBIN: Well, I can tell you that the conclusion most people would reach is that this tangled web around Justice Clarence Thomas just gets worse and worse by the day. […] The question is whether it embarrasses the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice. […] This is the Roberts court, and history is going to judge him by the decision he makes on this. He has the power to make the difference.

History? You’re the Senate Judiciary Committee chair! It’s YOUR job, you feckless fossil! If you are waiting on history, which if I remember is written by the victors, we are all doomed.

Durbin, who can’t even stand up to end the bullshit blue slips, also made an idle threat about taking action about Thomas on Twitter like a telephone tough guy.

Tapper, who is no progressive, seemed almost as frustrated by this when he asked about Dianne Feinstein’s return to the Senate and let his inner sauciness out on Durbin’s bullshit about Feinstein’s wishes over the needs of the American people.

Republicans are pursuing evil, but politicians like Durbin and Sinema help gatekeep progress through incrementalism instead of fighting hard.

And Dick Durbin should know better.

Have a week.

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Scandals have ‘shattering effect’ on belief in EU, says Ombudsman

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In this latest episode of the Global Conversation, Euronews speaks with EU Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, about corruption, transparency, and trust in European institutions.

As the European Union looks to restore trust in its institutions after last year’s shocking corruption scandals, Euronews sat down with European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, who overviews transparency and ethics issues related to the EU, to discuss transparency, intelligence and what it all means for how we perceive Europe.

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: Emily O’Reilly Thanks for being with us. Lately, we saw the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the European Union, MEPs and assistants were caught running with big money bags. Have you been surprised by this scandal?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “Yes and no. I mean, the scandal itself is quite shocking and it is being played out in the Belgian courts, and all of that, we need to be mindful of that. But I suppose anybody watching it would have been quite shocked by it because the graphics were quite dramatic. We saw literally euro notes, we saw suitcases. So everybody [saw that] a sort of cartoon-like idea of corruption was served up to them. So that was quite dramatic. But I suppose when you look at the Parliament in the way that a lot of the rules and codes, that are supposed to protect parliament against corruption, even though there are a lot of them, they’re not really enforced and monitored. So I suppose in a way this was a sort of a scandal or an accident waiting to happen.”

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: This organisation or this network has been running in the parliament for a quite long time. How is it possible that inside the EU, they have been not detected, but they have been detected only by the Belgian police?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “My understanding is it was the intelligence services of another country that gave the information to the Belgian authorities. So that’s what happened there. One of the European Union’s anti-fraud agencies, which is called OLAF (European Anti-Fraud Office), they’ve always had a problem using their powers in relation to the Parliament. So for example, if OLAF suspects that something wrong is being done by somebody in another institution, in another EU agency, they have the right to go into those institutions, to go into people’s offices, to look at their computers, to do everything. Almost like police people. But the Parliament has always refused what OLAF sees as its legal right to do that. So the question is, if OLAF had had the right to go in and search MEPs offices if there was a suspicion that something wrong was been doing, might the scandal have been detected before it was detected by the Belgian authorities? But we don’t know. It’s just speculation.”

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: Now, the European Parliament is trying to get things right to wrap up this scandal. Do you think they are doing enough?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “I was observing what was happening in December in the parliament when the scandal broke and everybody was saying the right things. Everybody was saying, this is terrible. We have to fix it. We have to fix it. But now we’re a few months on and we’re still waiting to see precisely what fixing it means.”

Sándor Zsiros: Let’s talk about the big picture, what this corruption scandal means for the whole of the European Union, because this is obviously eroding the trust towards the institutions. What do you think about the effect in the long run?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “Well, I think that you’re right. I mean, trust is very important. And, you know, it is said that you cannot have political legitimacy without moral authority. You can’t have political legitimacy either unless the people trust in you. 

“And of course, as you know, we’re now in Brussels. Brussels, for most people, is an idea. And it’s an idea that is very far away. So they don’t understand it in the same way as they would their own member state governments, administrations and so on. And therefore, they’re almost predestined to distrust it because they don’t understand it. So, therefore, it’s quite fragile, the trust that there is, that can be there between the European Union and its citizens. And therefore, when the administration does things, when the EU does things which damage that trust, it can have, you know, almost a shattering effect on people’s belief in the EU. 

“You have to draw the dots between the small little incidents that you might not think are particularly important and the bigger picture, the way that they lead to or can lead to distrust by the citizens on the entire European Union project. And also it’s used by people who are sceptical of the EU and people who are hostile to the EU. So it’s very important that the EU acts to the highest possible ethical standards in order to protect its political legitimacy.”

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: There was another scandal when the former transport chief of the European Commission flew nine times to Qatar. And these trips have been paid for by the Qatari government. At the time when, you know, the European Union was negotiating with Qatar about the airline industry, was this a transparency issue for you or a lobbying issue? Any wrongdoings here?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “You know, it was extraordinary because it wasn’t just the European Union that was developing this open skies policy, which was going to benefit directly Qatar Air, the people who were giving this gentleman the free flights to Qatar, but it was his department, his directorate general, that was devising the regulations. So there was a clear conflict of interest. But when the commission spokesperson was asked who decided whether there was a conflict of interest or not, it was revealed that he did. So he asked himself if there was a conflict of interest, and obviously he said no, or whatever he said and he went off and flew to Qatar.”

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, also dealt in private text messages with the CEO of Pfizer about the vaccine procurement. And those text messages were not archived, were not published. So how do you see these issues in the future, the issue of dealing differently with those kind of messages?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “We’re all now so used to using these WhatsApps and Snapchats and everything else to send our messages. And while that creates a lot of efficiencies and so on, the transparency and accountability trail when public administrations are using these methods of communicating and politicians indeed, that’s problematic. So the question is, how do we capture that?”

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: Let’s talk about money because hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money are flowing towards the recovery and resilience facilities. Also, the European Union is supporting the defence of Ukraine by billions. Are the European taxpayers in a position to, you know, follow up on where this money is flowing?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “Well, I think they should be. I don’t think they are completely yet. I mean, we’ve done quite a lot of work on the funds that were the post-covid funds of 700 billion, whatever the figure was. And all we are saying is that, look, this money is being distributed around the Member States. Obviously, whenever there’s money of that amount circling around the place, there are possibilities of corruption. There are possibilities that it’s not going to be well used and so on. So let the citizens also be the watchdogs of this money.”

Sándor Zsiros, Euronews: Your organisation just published the annual report for last year. When you add up all of these developments, you know, transparency, lobbying, ethical problems, Qatargate. Do you think it was a turning point in how we see the European Union?

Emily O’Reilly, EU Ombudsman: “In relation to Qatargate, it’s an interesting story because it was very easy to understand and, you know, it was dramatic and all of that and we had the pictures of the money in the suitcases. But at the same time, I think it also recognises the growing importance of the European Union. And certainly when you have the polarisation of the United States, then you have Brexit and what’s happening in the UK, you have Russia, you have China, you have whatever, there’s never been a greater need for Europe to assert itself globally. But to do that, it has to have a moral authority. And I suppose that feeds into a lot of the issues that you’ve just been discussing.”

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