The Russians Are Coming! The Money is Flowing!

America Financing Ukraine's Corruption

S.P. Wingate

• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781646545728
• eBook ISBN: 9781646545735
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The U.S.-backed "regime change" in Ukraine – launching a New Cold War with Russia in 2014 – was rationalized by the need to rid Ukraine of corruption, but post-coup officials are busier than ever lining their pockets. Consortium NewsWelcome to Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe The GuardianBoth Biden and Kerry championed $1.8 billion in taxpayer-backed loans to be given to Ukraine courtesy of the IMF. That money would go directly through Kolomoisky's PrivatBank, and then itwould disappear. The Patriot WatchdogBurisma Paid Former Ukrainian President Poroshenko $100mm To Suppress Hunter Biden Investigation in 2017, Bribed FBI agents Ignored Evidence, the US Embassy in Kyiv Neck Deep in Corruption. Investment WatchBuris Ukrainian political scientist Taras Kuzio said, "High-level Ukrainian officials, if not directly are dealing in illegal arms, are reportedly either smoothing the path for sales or at least looking the other way. Christian Science MonitorUkraine has gained a reputation as one of the world's most active suppliers of illegal small arms. Frontline PBS NewsJoe Biden brags about extorting the government of Ukraine threatening that they would not receive their scheduled aid package unless they pull the prosecutor off the case where his son Biden was identified as the recipient of over $3, 000, 000.00. dagalagas YouTube video 9/20/2019Get a first-hand real-life experience with an American investor who lived and worked in Ukraine for six years. Learn what a foreign investor must go through to get a business up and running successfully in Ukraine - or should we say unsuccessfully? The American government knows these facts about Ukraine but continue to send BILLIONS of dollars to them.BILLIONS of $$ have mysteriously disappeared into thin air.Russia and Putin are not perfect. But they are not the problem in Ukraine.Ukraine is Ukraine's problem – Not Russia.

Chapter 1

The European Union just got some new members from the old Eastern bloc.

—Forbes.com

I was enjoying a good Coca-Cola and sitting in an outside café. I looked across the street to see him approaching my building again.

It was his third visit to our building in downtown Nikolayev, Ukraine, this week. My partner and I bought this building during the previous winter. We were remodeling it to open our first business here in Ukraine.

This clean-cut, handsome young Ukrainian bureaucrat was coming back again to see how much he could shake me down for today.

I guess if I was in his shoes and making fifty dollars for a month’s salary, I might be compelled to do the same thing. Pretending I was working for the good of the people—instead, I was taking bribes that would go directly into my pocket.

It is no secret here in Ukraine that there are two economies: the shadow economy and the true economy. Due to high taxes and corruption the shadow economy is where most Ukrainians are forced to work.

There are three components to the shadow economy:

1. Unreported employees
2. Unreported business income
3. Underreporting real wages

It’s not a secret that it would be possible to do business here without hiding most of your income from the local tax inspectors.

Over time, one learns that the tax inspectors expect bribes like every other Ukrainian bureaucrat.

I walked over to my building and smiled at this young man as I told him I was not interested in seeing him yesterday, today, and for sure not tomorrow. My answer did not seem to satisfy him. After listening to him for a few minutes more, I saw that my next appointment drove into our parking lot on this hot day in June.

In his starched fire department uniform, he informed me that if we did not call his office by six that evening that he would shut us down.

“Shut us down?” I said loud enough so that everyone walking by on the sidewalk could hear. “Pazalsta [please], we are not even open yet, and while you are shutting us down, please kick me out of this corrupt country because I’m too stupid to leave.”

My three years living in Ukraine were starting to wear me down. I understand why most ex-pats get up and walk away from all this nonsense. I don’t know if it’s something in our blood that we like adventure, or we are just plain crazy.

I guess it’s the same reason why Christopher Columbus did not give up when everyone else said that the world was flat. He was a man of adventure. If he were living today, I could see him as being one of my partners in this venture.

Three long years. I’m not sure how I survived here in Ukraine. Since coming here, I’ve learned to cook and wash my clothes by hand (that was before I bought an automatic washing machine). I learned to survive on the Ukrainian salary that I made when I first moved here.

Before going over to Ukraine to invest, I made up my mind that I would live like the locals and not use any savings that I had to supplement my business venture. That was before I realized that the Ukrainian salary figure was fictitious because bookkeeping was with two sets of books. So who knows the real salary of Ukrainians?

I thought the cost of living in Ukraine was cheap. That was before I realized that most Ukrainians do not pay a mortgage on their flats in the city. They also have a dacha (house in the country) where they grow all their fruits and vegetables.

I traveled back and forth to the Soviet Union for almost two years. I wanted to make sure that I had good connections so I would be ready to hit the ground running when I got there.

My home that I bought in the States was pretty much everything I ever wanted. In the evenings, I would sit on the swing under the oak tree and watch my three chows run through the yard enjoying the three acres where I lived. It was all that I ever wanted as far as material things go except to go to the former Soviet Union to do business.

I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. I am the fourth son out of eight, growing up in a pastor’s home. Some of the time when I was growing up, my father was an evangelist who traveled the USA, Mexico, Panama, and Canada. It allowed me to become familiar with different cultures.

We lived in seven different states when I was growing up. Packing up and moving was never an issue to me as I got older. Home is where the heart is. Home is where you make it.

This dream of going to the former Soviet Union started while I was riding in my truck with my brother Robin. He told me of his interest in going to the former Soviet Union to tell people about Christianity. He proceeded to tell me about watching these people’s faces as they heard the preacher telling about the simple gospel message. His enthusiasm sparked my thinking along these lines.

In the months to follow, I reached for every bit of news about the situation in the former Soviet Union. The more I read, the more interested I became. In time, this led me to have the opportunity to make my first visit to Moscow and Chelyabinsk, Russia, on a short-term mission trip.

My new Russian friend Igor met me at the airport in Moscow. We took a bus back into this city of twelve million people to his one-room flat, where he lived with his wife and daughter.

Their hospitality was second to none. There was so much food on the table with all kinds of Russian dishes. After eating some of the food, I told myself that for sure I would lose weight. The food was different from what was familiar to me. Later though, after developing a taste for Russian cuisine, I began to crave it.

When I was eating my first Russian food with my new friends, his wife noticed that my eyes kept going over to what I thought was a bowl of blackberry jam.

She asked me if I wanted some. I said, “Yes!” I thought, that finally, I’m going to get something sweet. Blackberry jam sounds good right now. She put some butter on a slice of Russian bread.

Then she topped the butter with what I thought was blackberry jam. She handed it to me. I took a bite and made the worst face. Eww! It was so salty. Little did I know that I was getting exposed to caviar for the first time. At that time, I hated the taste of it. Later, I came to love caviar and asked for it every time I went out to eat.

Being the son of a preacher, I grew up without a lot of extras. We were blessed, though, to travel and experience a lot of different cultures. For some reason in our travels, I can never remember someone serving caviar to our family of seven boys and one girl.

After being in Moscow for a day, I jumped on the train to go to Chelyabinsk, Russia (population 1.1 million) to be involved with the meetings that our church group was having. My friend from Moscow bought me a ticket in an area that had open beds instead of a private cabin. The private cabin tickets would not have been much more money. I’m not sure why he bought me a bed in the open area. Maybe he was trying to protect me because when you get a private cabin, you share it with three other people. I think that he felt I would be safer in the open area around a large group of people.

That twenty-eight-hour train ride was one that a person could never forget. First, that night on my bed was a young Russian couple sitting up trying to get some rest before they were scheduled to get off.

I think that they knew that it was not their bed by not laying down and going to sleep. It was like this young couple expected that the rightful owner of that bed would arrive at any moment.

It was dark on the train and spooky, and I was not about to speak in English to them and reveal who I was. Looking back, I realized that my perception of the Russian people had come from Hollywood movies and what I had read.

What could I say to them? Nothing without giving away my id...

Table of contents

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• Chapter 24
• Chapter 25
• Chapter 26
• Chapter 27
• Chapter 28
• Chapter 29
• Chapter 30