John Kerry, the former U.S. senator and secretary of state, rarely talks tough. Everything seems to be nuance and subtlety with him – and that is probably one reason why Russia’s war against Ukraine outlasted U.S. President Barack Obama’s term in office
Kerry has this strange and dangerous need to excuse or try to explain away Russian President Vladimir Putin’s behavior as an international outlaw. Take a tip from U.S. Sen. John McCain, Kerry: Putin’s a murderous thug.
But when it came to taking on Petro Poroshenko’s nonsense about how hard the Ukrainian president is fighting corruption, spoken only moments earlier at the Yalta European Strategy conference on Sept. 15 in Kyiv, Kerry was brilliant.
“I sat here in the midst of the president’s comments this morning. Several asked questions about corruption. It would be a mistake to not be honest here in this meeting and make it clear that to the large measure today, the future of Ukraine is going to be defined by Ukrainians and by the leadership and by the willingness to fulfill the promise of what happened on the Maidan,” Kerry said, referring to the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014. “I was here in those immediate days afterwards. I remember the incredible emotions of those days, the tires piled up on the street, the makeshift memorials, the candles, the photographs, the crown of thorns. This was a profound moment for Ukraine.”
Then he got to the point.
“It cannot be betrayed by business as usual which does not move on the issue of corruption,” Kerry said. He said he “sat on my own voice” when Poroshenko asked what nation has an independent anti-corruption court. No one responded to the president.
“In my nation, every court is an anti-corruption court,” the American said.
That won applause.
“Even now, we see a special prosecutor investigating the president of the United States,” Kerry said. “And there’s a state investigation and there’s a federal investigation.”
Talking about his own background, Kerry said: “I was a prosecutor. We did white collar crime at the county, state and federal level,” Kerry said. “I think it’s vital for Ukraine to grab ahold of the moment. It’s not too late, but the decisions made here will help us to be able to defend the future of Ukraine that people have staked their lives for.
Bravo, Massachusetts man. It was too bad that Poroshenko wasn’t in the room listening and probably doesn’t even care.
