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Dorothy Mantooth is a saint!
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Russian ex-minister says invasion of Ukraine is stalling because officials stole from military budget for 'mega-yachts in Cyprus'
A former Russian foreign minister claimed that widespread corruption was among the reasons for the Russian military's apparently poor performance in the invasion of Ukraine.
In a Twitter thread over the weekend, Andrey Kozyrev, who served as the foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion.
He suggested Putin had overestimated the Russian military — while Putin has dedicated billions of dollars to modernizing Russia's forces, this money, Kozyrev claimed, may have been lost to endemic corruption.
"The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus. But as a military advisor you cannot report that to the President. So they reported lies to him instead," Kozyrev wrote.
Polina Beliakova, an expert at Tufts University, wrote in Politico this week that rampant corruption meant Russian troops were going into battle in Ukraine with out-of-date rations, faulty equipment, and inadequate fuel supplies.
Western officials have said Putin expected the invasion of Ukraine to be swift. But the capital, Kyiv, is still in Ukrainian control, Russia has failed to establish air superiority, and casualties have mounted amid stiff Ukrainian resistance.
# # #
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
A former Russian foreign minister claimed that widespread corruption was among the reasons for the Russian military's apparently poor performance in the invasion of Ukraine.
In a Twitter thread over the weekend, Andrey Kozyrev, who served as the foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion.
He suggested Putin had overestimated the Russian military — while Putin has dedicated billions of dollars to modernizing Russia's forces, this money, Kozyrev claimed, may have been lost to endemic corruption.
"The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus. But as a military advisor you cannot report that to the President. So they reported lies to him instead," Kozyrev wrote.
Polina Beliakova, an expert at Tufts University, wrote in Politico this week that rampant corruption meant Russian troops were going into battle in Ukraine with out-of-date rations, faulty equipment, and inadequate fuel supplies.
Western officials have said Putin expected the invasion of Ukraine to be swift. But the capital, Kyiv, is still in Ukrainian control, Russia has failed to establish air superiority, and casualties have mounted amid stiff Ukrainian resistance.
# # #
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
