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Joe Biden Is Visiting Ukraine — And It Could Get Really Awkward | VICE News

https://news.vice.com/article/joe-biden-is-visiting-ukraine-and-it-could-get-really-awkward

Joe Biden Is Visiting Ukraine — And It Could Get Really Awkward

It's a diplomat's job to stay all smiles and keep the business of
international relations chugging along, no matter how bad things look. But
sometimes, even diplomats lose their cool.

This week, US Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Kiev to tell Ukrainians
they still have Washington's support in their fight against Russia and
Russia-backed separatists in the country's east. But his message may be
overshadowed by the US ambassador to Kiev, who hasn't been acting very
diplomatically lately.

At the end of September, Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt got up in front of a
group of businessmen and investors at a conference in the city of Odessa
and told them that Ukrainian prosecutors were protecting the corrupt owner
of an energy company that employs the Biden's son, Hunter, instead of
prosecuting him.

"We have learned that there have been times when the Prosecutor General's
Office not only did not support investigations into corruption, but rather
undermined prosecutors working on legitimate corruption cases," Pyatt said
in Ukraine's main port city.

*Related: *The Priest, the Pianist, a Cat, and a DIY Sauna: One Week in
Ukraine's Forgotten War
<https://news.vice.com/article/the-priest-the-pianist-a-cat-and-a-diy-sauna-one-week-in-ukraines-forgotten-war>

He then pointed specifically to a case involving former Ukrainian Ecology
Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the Burisma Holdings energy firm,
which hired Hunter Biden to its board of directors shortly after the
Euromaidan revolution overthrew Zlochevsky's former boss Viktor Yanukovych.

Burisma likely hired Biden's son in the hopes that some of the family
prestige would rub off on the company in the uncertain times that followed
the revolution, Daria Kaleniuk, director of Ukraine's Anti-Corruption
Action Center, told VICE News.

"They want there to be less suspicion that they're involved in corrupt
under-the-table dealings and are instead seen as operating in line with
international standards," Kaleniuk said, adding that Burisma received gas
production licenses in questionable circumstances under the former regime.

*Watch the VICE News dispatch The War May Be Over: Russian Roulette:*

Burisma insists it hired the vice president's son to its board because he
is an experienced lawyer. "This is totally based on merit," the company's
chairman, Alan Apter said when the younger Biden was hired.

According to the US ambassador, Hunter Biden's boss Zlochevsky stole $23
million from the Ukrainian people. But when a British court seized the
money and asked Ukrainian prosecutors to send documents to confirm the
funds were illicit, they stalled, forcing the court to release the assets
back to the former ecology minister.

*Related: *Did the Islamic State Go Shopping For Weapons in Ukraine?
<https://news.vice.com/article/did-the-islamic-state-go-shopping-for-weapons-in-ukraine>

The elder Biden arrives in Ukraine at a time when there is no bigger issue
than corruption. With the war in the east stabilized for the time being,
the media have nominated graft as the country's number one enemy — not
Russia.

The vice president also lands after months of acrimony between reformers
and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko over the prosecutor general, who
Poroshenko has refused to dismiss despite numerous allegations about abuse
of authority.

But the White House wants the focus of Biden's visit to be Ukraine's close
alliance with the US. One senior administration official, who asked not to
be named, said a major goal was to remind people that Ukraine was not
forgotten despite the fact that attention has shifted toward Russia's
involvement in Syria.

'That's going to be a major theme of the trip — that nothing that's going
on in the Middle East has changed one iota of our commitment to the
Ukrainian people.'

"That's going to be a major theme of the trip — that nothing that's going
on in the Middle East has changed one iota of our commitment to the
Ukrainian people and to their security," the official said in a briefing
for journalists.

The official also acknowledged that the administration has had to fall into
line with the ambassador's now public views.

"The Office of the Prosecutor General itself is in desperate need of
reform," the official said. "And so [Biden] has made this very clear to
President Poroshenko in previous conversations… So I think we are largely
in line with Ambassador Pyatt's sense that much more needs to be done."

*Related: *Russia Is Freaking Out Its Northern Neighbors
<https://news.vice.com/article/russia-is-freaking-out-its-northern-neighbors>

But Biden's meeting with Poroshenko may be a bit awkward, given that the US
backs Ukraine on the presumption that it wants to have a Western-style
democratic system with checks and balances — not a Russian-style autocracy
where anyone who is friends with top officials gets a free pass.

Ukrainian reformers will be watching closely to hear what Biden tells the
president.

"We have been very happy with the criticism the embassy has been bringing
against the prosecutor's office," said Kaleniuk. "It has been very direct.
So if Biden continues in the same vein and highlights the activities of the
prosecutor's office in defending people associated with Burisma, then it
will be clear that he is doing his job fairly and is not beholden to narrow
family interests."

*Follow Simon Ostrovsky on Twitter: **@SimonOstrovsky*
<https://twitter.com/SimonOstrovsky>

Topics: ukraine </topic/ukraine>, united states </topic/united-states>,
politics </topic/politics>, europe </topic/europe>, corruption
</topic/corruption>, joe biden </topic/joe-biden>, hunter biden
</topic/hunter-biden>, petro poroshenko </topic/petro-poroshenko>, corruption
in ukraine </topic/corruption-in-ukraine>, burisma holdings
</topic/burisma-holdings>, russia </topic/russia>, euromaidan
</topic/euromaidan>


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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