By: Sophia Rich

The United Nations Special Session General Assembly Against Corruption (UNGASS) was introduced in 2018 and was created to address corruption in the international, private, and public sectors. Today, these delegates from nations all over the world set out to tackle two major topics: illicit influence from the first Russian Czech bank and preventative measures of corruption and warfare.

The first half of today’s committee primarily focused on illicit influence from the First Russian Czech Bank. A controversial topic to all, debates immediately arose regarding elitists in Russia and their knowledge of this internal corruption. Delegates from Belarus and Germany immediately blamed Russian elitists for their knowledge of this financial corruption, and they continuously called them out for their lack of action. This form of financial corruption blatantly benefits Russian elitists and therefore leads them to ignore this issue and combat it with self-serving greed. This disputable topic caused quite a spark in the committee and eventually led to some strongly-worded debate, with the delegate from Russia rushing to defend their nation.

The next topic that was brought to the floor was the importance of transparency from the Russian government. The delegate from Tanzania set the stage for this moderated caucus by saying that, “we cannot act upon what we cannot see.” This sparked an intense debate on whether Russian transparency would be an effective solution to this issue, and with some delegates arguing that transparency alone is not enough, this debate seemed to be divisive within the committee. The majority of the delegates began to lean towards the idea of sanctions along with accountability. The delegate from the United States felt strongly that as one of the world's leading powers, the U.S. needed to step up in this committee and help lead everyone to a reasonable and ethical solution. This delegate argued that to hold Russia accountable, this committee must first threaten them with sanctions to prove the severity of this specific case of corruption. The energy was high and the debate was lively in UNGASS today, showcasing the probable high-stakes for the next two days.