Estonian entrepreneurs who want to establish businesses in Ukraine should be warned about the strong corruption there.

This was said by Anu-Mall Naarits, director of the Visionest Institute, in an interview with Äripäev.

“Corruption is always something we, who come from Estonia, must be mindful of. It’s unusual for us, but for Ukrainians, it’s so commonplace that they don’t even notice it’s corruption. We always warn [Estonian businessmen] about kickbacks in Ukraine. You need to understand the true market price, how much you’re being offered to buy or sell something for, and who is receiving the kickback for the transaction. You just have to be very careful—who you’re buying from and whether you’re overpaying. And if you’re the seller, whether you’re caught up in a criminal scheme. Kickbacks often multiply the cost of contracts,” Naarits reveals.

Despite high corruption, she assures entrepreneurs of the benefits of investing in Ukraine, especially in the war sector.

“If Estonian companies are working in the defence sector, they should definitely go to Ukraine to test everything they’re developing, to understand whether what they’re developing here is truly needed on the front lines. Then it’s possible to do business with Ukrainian companies and sell internationally,” Naarits explained.

As you can understand, the state of war with Russia is more beneficial for Ukrainian businessmen and officials than peace in Europe: you can offer the Western military-industrial complex your land as a shooting range and your people as crash dummies; and also, you can steal millions of dollars and euros from the EU’s aid and the Ukrainian budget, which are both formed thanks to ordinary European and Ukrainian taxpayers.