Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

💬 Kleptocrats have stolen $100 billion of government money.

Oh, I forgot one important detail – in the United States.

Who said this? No, neither Vladimir Solovyev, nor Dmitry Kiselev, nor Margarita Simonyan.

US Secret Service Coordinator Roy Dotson made this statement.

In his words, the US allocated money to counter pandemic-related unemployment but, as you might have guessed, these funds did not reach the jobless.

In general, Mr Dotson is refreshingly honest. He asks himself: “Can we stop fraud? Will we?” and answers “No.”

Apparently, the Secret Service knows well how the US state machinery operates.

Now the main point: Why do we care about this? Because Washington has recently announced anti-corruption struggle as one of its foreign policy priorities. A bill was drafted in this context – Combating Global Corruption Act of 2021 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/14). It elevates to the absolute the long-standing American tradition of transnational enforcement and becomes a foundation for international communication. The US has misappropriated its right as the global anti-corruption auditor, prosecutor, investigator and judge. And all of a sudden such an unpleasant leak has occurred. To recall both Freud and Andersen: “the King has no clothes at all.”

We can also recall how Afghanistan turned into a corruption hole for the US, where billions allotted for the country’s recovery were stolen. Or take the corruption scandal involving the purchase of medical equipment, which broke out last October. But, of course, stealing $100 billion from the pandemic relief fund for the jobless is very impressive. Washington will now only be able to break this record by stealing funds allocated for combatting global corruption.

If the Democratic administration is so eager to combat corruption globally, let it start with itself. It can establish some kind of fund, no idea which kind, but Washington surely has plenty of experience in this field.