[ceejayoz]

Everyone was quite open about wanting Shokin gone. Biden isn't misspeaking here; he's stating the official policy of the US and EU at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Shokin

> Through 2015 and early 2016, domestic and international pressure (including from the IMF, the EU, and the EBRD) built for Shokin to be removed from office. The Obama administration withheld $1 billion in loan guarantees to pressure the Ukrainian government to remove Shokin from office.

[meeuwer]

It's great when corruption and influence peddling can happen out in the open. When it can become the official policy. Right?

> "The truth is that I was forced out because I was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas firm active in Ukraine and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member of the Board of Directors." Shokin continued, stating that, "On several occasions President Poroshenko asked me to have a look at the criminal case against Burisma and consider the possibility of winding down the investigative actions in respect of this company, but I refused to close this investigation."

Nothing fishy about any of this. Good, honest public servants doing their job.

[ceejayoz]

Poroshenko very emphatically denied this on Fox News recently. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/25/biden-ukr...

[meeuwer]

He also emphatically denied any wrongdoing after being named in the Panama Papers. What's the point you're making?

[ceejayoz]

The point is that the EU, IMF, US, and Ukraine itself appears to have wanted Shokin gone; he raided anti-corruption groups on pretenses; his prosecutors were demonstrably corrupt; public protests against him occurred, and Ukraine's parliament voted to get rid of him.

In opposition to all those facts, we have... Shokin himself being grumpy over being fired.

[meeuwer]

Just curious, how do you rationalize Hunter's employment at Burisma? Was it his business acumen or maybe background in natural gas? Or something else altogether?

[ceejayoz]

The same mildly sleazy stuff that tends to happen with politicians' children; companies hoping to garner favor. Same reason Jenna Bush and Meghan McCain wind up working for big media conglomerates. Hunter Biden's hardly unique in this regard.

What's in question is whether it works, which I suspect varies from politician to politician. The assertions of Joe Biden having acted based on Hunter's desires, thus far, don't seem compelling.

[jacquesm]

It may simply have been that people thought that it would give them access. Or did you really think that Trump's children have incredible insight into world politics, the Palestinian question or immigration?