What if we shoot corrupt officials?

“What if we shoot a hundred or so of the biggest, most famous, most odious, most iconic figures, the symbol of corruption itself?” a friend suggests after another dose of trash, or rather, the reality in which we live. With the Spanish villas of the military commissar from Odesa, with the Kyiv epic about how much was stolen from the shelters, with the next call 'Let's donate to the army - UAH 100 million for 1000 drones!”

“We don't have the death penalty,” I object.

“I know, but you can dream,” my comrade replies with proletarian honesty.

Obviously, our news feed is not full of 'caught, discovered, exposed' stories. All these facts of terrible corruption cause indignation, aggression, and anger.

Yes, anger and a righteous desire to shoot someone and end this evil once and for all.

How do all those who lost their loved ones read about all this? Who lost their family, home, city, everything and became IDPs? Who is now at war and sees, reads and knows that there are those, and there are quite a few of them, who have taken and paid off, it has become a mass phenomenon.

The question is: why?

“We often forget that corruption is a two-way street. Someone takes because someone gives, i.e. commits a crime called bribery. And it's not just one or two people, there are thousands of them - those who simply buy an official, i.e. commit a crime.”

Even if it's something 'innocent' like buying a grade, test, or exam... This is also evil, and this is where the understanding begins - this is how you can bend the rules.

The classic of the genre: the car and the road - to pay for breaking the rules, no matter what, from speeding to not having something in the first aid kit to avoid punishment or a fine.

Where does this lead in the end? It leads to drunken driving, to driving under the influence of drugs, to deaths on the road, or being hit at a crosswalk. It creates a sense of permissiveness. You have money to pay off, or you have immunity, you are a judge, a deputy. The fact that someone decided that they would buy a reprieve, that someone else would fight for them, defend their homeland, is the result of this: “You can do it. You have money, and that's it, the law is not for you.”

The military commissar from Odesa is not an exception, over the course of the war, each of us has heard about corruption in our village or city. About how people buy 'deferment,' 'not fit for service,' how they buy the same service in the guard company, in the headquarters, that is, in the deep rear. The military commissar is simply a case of extreme arrogance or self-confidence that he will not be touched.

He did not do it alone, he gave orders to his subordinates, they were all 'in on it,' and it lasted for a year and a half! The sums involved are enormous, and how many people did he get off 'for free,' friends or relatives of influential people?

“We have become (or were?) a kingdom of corruption and nepotism. The war will not write everything off, but rather, on the contrary, someone will lose patience. Our Western partners are seriously dissatisfied with Ukrainian corruption practices, although it turns out that they have been hiding it for some time. These are politicians. And the general public no longer hides it when they hear news about Ukraine.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's phrase about '30 years of nepotism' was an unpleasant wake-up call for Kyiv. Why? Did they not know anything about it? The whole Internet, the whole information space was buzzing because it goes on and on, but they did not know, and this is an unpleasant surprise? They knew because they participated in it, because they benefited from it, especially the grassroots.

We are told that when the war is over, there will be a revolt in Russia, a real massacre, riots, blood. And I don't know what can happen here when people with a keen sense of justice return from the war and don't find it, this justice.

And the 'fighters' of the 'battalions of Monaco, Vienna, Spain'? They will also return here. They are not entrepreneurs, they do not know how to earn money. They will run out of money and come back to buy and take over again, to 'sort things out.'

And they will be helped by those who made money on the war, those for whom the war was not a tragedy but a window of opportunity.

Various carriers who have earned and are still earning cosmic sums, taking advantage of fear and panic.

Train conductors, especially in the first days of the war.

Owners of apartments and hotels who ungodly raised prices.

Doctors who made 'unfit' people out of perfectly healthy people.

Border guards and customs officers have little smuggling to deal with, so they help the fugitives.

Authors of schemes with pseudo-volunteers, truck drivers, students, and guardians.

Looting officials who steal humanitarian aid or enrich themselves on military procurement.

“But it is interesting that the desire to be shot or sent to the trenches to fight on the frontline is especially common among those who do not consider the purchase of driver's licenses, school grades, certificates, diplomas to be a sin or at least a crime.”

And the money 'earned' in an unjust way will not go into the economy, but will be used for bribery, again feeding corruption. And from this injustice, it is a step to unprovoked aggression.

To equate corruption with war crimes, 15 years and confiscation? MPs say that everything will come down to our unreformed courts.

And what's next? Both the taker and the giver know that we don't execute people in Ukraine, they will serve 10-12 years at most.

So what, should we wait for the guys to come back from the war and restore order?

Specially for Espreso

About the author. Mykhailo Myshkalo, journalist, writer.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.