Does Bill Gates hate the Ukrainian president so much? In recent days, several Internet users have shared a video in which the American billionaire seems to criticize Volodymyr Zelensky. On this the first man affirms, facing the camera, that “the Ukrainian government is one of the worst in the world, corrupt, controlled by a few rich people”.
For some Internet users, these remarks in the midst of the war in Ukraine are considered as a bias for Russia by Bill Gates. “He no longer hides his game and is clearly on Putin’s side,” some say. What about this video really? 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
This video shared on social networks is an excerpt from an interview given by Bill Gates to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, at the end of January 2023. But it has been truncated. In the 27th minute, he is questioned about the Ukrainian president and his management of the country. “It’s very impressive that he was able to bring the country together. No one expected Ukraine to be successful in resisting Russia,” he says.
Before adding: “It turned out that Russia was much weaker and less intelligent than expected and Ukraine was much stronger. Before the war, the government was one of the worst in the world, corrupt, controlled by a few rich people, unfortunately for Ukrainians. »
Bill Gates therefore pronounces this sentence well, but he also says “before the war”. It therefore does not directly target Volodymyr Zelensky and his government, but evokes the political power in Ukraine before the conflict with Russia, probably before the annexation of Crimea in early 2014, and to the power then held by Viktor Yanukovych, a close Kremlin .
An improvement in the fight against corruption
And what Bill Gates says is nothing new. Ukraine has indeed been plagued by corruption, notably through former President Viktor Yanukovych, to whom Bill Gates is probably referring. The arrival of Volodymyr Zelensky at the head of the country did not completely eradicate this scourge, but efforts are being made. In its Corruption Perceptions Index 2022, the NGO Transparency International notes that before the invasion, Ukraine scored low (33 out of 100). The country has gained 7 points in ten years, which prompted the organization to note “a good and steady dynamic enabled by major reforms and improving steadily”.
Volodymyr Zelensky has not been all white in the face of corruption since he himself was pinned down in the Pandora Papers affair in 2021. But he had no choice but to make an effort, since the United States conditions its aid on the fight against corruption.
As for this excerpt truncated and widely shared on social networks, it was published by an account “Australians vs. The Diary”. An account created in December 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, and which disseminates several conspiracy theories on Covid-19, in particular the very widespread theory according to which Bill Gates would have manufactured the epidemic in order to then be able to sell vaccines.
