Cutting off Russian gas transit and corruption

Those hooks are the Russian language for the masses and gas as the backbone of elite corruption. All of Ukraine's internal conflicts have revolved around these two points.

Ukraine has stopped the transit of Russian gas. It could mark the start of a significant geopolitical shift (and the Americans are the first to benefit).

In the future, if Nord Stream is acquired and the Poles are allowed to transport gas via the Yamal pipeline, the situation could become very difficult for Ukraine, to put it mildly. But that is a concern for the future.

For now, let’s focus on the issue of corruption tied to Russian gas and the elites.

This shift won’t magically reduce corruption in the country. What it does, however, is alter the geopolitical dynamics of that corruption. The elites will still steal, but now they’ll be stealing Western money instead of Russian. And corruption, especially at the elite level, has an interesting dynamic: you end up working with the very people you’re stealing from, playing by their rules.

Here’s another political truth: sometimes, it’s in someone’s interest to let you steal from them — because it keeps you on their leash. But that’s a discussion for another time. The key point is that throughout history, fighting corruption has rarely been about morality. It’s almost always been a fight over redistributing property and power, not a real fight against corruption.

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About the author: Vadym Denysenko, political scientist.

The editorial staff does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.