So a rich donor paid the salaries of a political party? How is that different from what happens everywhere? All parties get money from donations and some of it goes to pay the salaries of party workers.
Hey Gary, no it's rather different. First of all cash in a bag is not a legal party donation - anywhere. But this would be more like Trump giving a billion dollars to the Harris campaign. Plaha worked by making it look like there were multiple parties running in elections - but he secretly controlled many of them.
More importantly, it wasn't simply about that. Plaha was in trouble with the Russians and there are some indications that he wasn't so much bribing Dodon as subsidizing them at the request of the Kremlin.
There are lots of details we don't fully know. But do avoid the cynic's instinct to say that all parties everywhere are corrupt. The details of this are not really a matter of "donors" and party financing in any terms that a functioning democracy would understand. This was a time of state capture.
So a rich donor paid the salaries of a political party? How is that different from what happens everywhere? All parties get money from donations and some of it goes to pay the salaries of party workers.
Hey Gary, no it's rather different. First of all cash in a bag is not a legal party donation - anywhere. But this would be more like Trump giving a billion dollars to the Harris campaign. Plaha worked by making it look like there were multiple parties running in elections - but he secretly controlled many of them.
More importantly, it wasn't simply about that. Plaha was in trouble with the Russians and there are some indications that he wasn't so much bribing Dodon as subsidizing them at the request of the Kremlin.
There are lots of details we don't fully know. But do avoid the cynic's instinct to say that all parties everywhere are corrupt. The details of this are not really a matter of "donors" and party financing in any terms that a functioning democracy would understand. This was a time of state capture.
Excellent article, just what I needed!
Pro Russia groups fighting like rats in a sack.
The limits of Dodon's pro-European position seem to be accepting bribes in Euros.