Why I don't listen to Mindich's tapes

About fifteen people are mentioned in connection with the Midas case, including Rustem Umerov, Sergei Shefir, Alexei Chernyshev, a bunch of encrypted characters, and even one Vova, who is presumably Aleksandrovich. But this reading doesn't suit me, just as I don't want to start from the first page of a book I've just read.

What did you want for three rubles?

The whole point of Mindgate is an old joke. A man comes out of a not-so-distant place and immediately runs to a brothel. There he is offered everything he wants, starting at 500 rubles. The man refuses several times and asks for cheaper. Finally, he says that he has only three rubles. With these possibilities, he is sent to the train station, where he finds a young lady for three rubles, but in the morning he runs to her claiming that he has pubic lice in his private parts. In response, he receives: "What did you want, arctic foxes to run around there for three rubles?"

More than 70 percent of voters voted for a person with no political experience, not knowing her team, beliefs, and real qualifications. Before the election campaign, she had not shown herself in the parliament or even in local elections. She immediately began to pay lip service to fighting corruption and spent between UAH 934,000 and UAH 9,227,000 on political advertising on Facebook alone, as Yana Zolotaryova notes in her article.

In 2019, did anyone doubt that road construction is one of the most corrupt sectors, if not the most corrupt? Was anyone surprised that the anti-corruption activist decided to prove himself in this fruitful field in the first place?

In 2020, 4000 km of roads were built as part of the "Big Construction" for UAH 120 billion. For comparison, in 2018, UAH 40 billion was spent on 3,800 km of roads, which is three times more expensive. Because of this, the program was often called the "Great Theft". In 2020, law enforcement agencies detected 429 criminal offenses during the execution of work under the Big Construction.

Wasn't everything clear then? The appearance or absence of any version of the Midich tapes depended solely on the presence or absence of the will of law enforcement agencies. After the government's attempt to deprive NABU and SAPO of their independence and subordinate them to a pocket prosecutor's office, it became clear that such a will exists. Young people on the streets defended NABU and SAPO, and it was only a matter of time.

Who is to blame and what to do

While the question of who is to blame should be answered by law enforcement and the court, the question of what to do is more difficult.

Corruption exists where there is a lot of money. A country at war spends most of its money on defense. This is not only the meanness of the thieves, but also the complexity of the situation. Investigating thefts and making the results of the investigation public is difficult from the point of view of secrecy. However, it is imperative that everyone who deserves to be suspected and that names, surnames, and patronymics be made public. This is important even for those who understand everything in general and who do not go into details but want to know specific names. We hope that the war will not wash away everything and that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

What's next.

It is very important to learn lessons from Mindgate. Ukraine will definitely win, so we will have elections. In order to avoid making new mistakes, we need to understand that politics is the same field of professional activity as, for example, medicine.

Would you go to a plumber for an appendectomy? Why, because he also removes excess from the pipes if the system is clogged? Probably not. Because your life depends on it. And doesn't your life depend on politicians today, that is, on the government?

During the election, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was often compared to Ronald Reagan, who was also an actor. I would like to remind you that Reagan began his political career in the 1950s. For eight years, the former actor was the governor of California. In 1976, he challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford during the Republican Party primaries and only in 1980, after a serious political career, he became President of the United States.

I have no doubt that we will see candidates from the military as well. The 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, is a good example. He was not just an army general, but one of those with whom Americans associated the victory in World War II. But he didn't come to the Oval Office directly from the staff either. In 1947, Eisenhower became the head of Columbia University, but he immediately stated that he did not consider himself a scientist and would rely on experts in academic matters. In his role as president of the university, he worked up to 15 hours a day, with free access to his office at any time. Only after Eisenhower proved that he was able to achieve results without direct orders did he become a candidate for the US presidency in 1952. This happened seven years after the war and five years after his discharge from the army. He won the election in 1953.

I want to emphasize that if the elections were held tomorrow, I would not vote for any of the candidates that are being named in the public space. When I criticize the government, I just criticize the government, not work for someone's rating.

Ігор Льов