JOSEPH BIDEN, America’s folksy vice-president, is not known as an enforcer—except in Ukraine, where he has become the spearhead of American policy. This week Mr Biden made his fourth visit to Kiev since Ukraine’s Maidan revolution and delivered a fiery speech in parliament, imploring the country’s leaders to eradicate “the cancer of corruption”. He invoked the “Heavenly Hundred”, the protesters slain on Kiev’s icy streets in 2014. “Their sacrifice, to put it bluntly, is now your obligation,” Mr Biden roared.
Even as Mr Biden was speaking, Roman Baidovsky faced a panel of expressionless judges in a cramped courtroom halfway across town. Mr Baidovsky’s 23-year-old son, Sergey, was one of the Heavenly Hundred. Sergey’s killers and their superiors have yet to be punished. Incompetence has hampered the investigation, and the old guard in the security services have undermined it. Most crucially, says Taras Hatalyak of OPORA, a human rights group, “there’s no political will” among the country’s leaders to pursue the cases, an assessment echoed by senior Ukrainian lawenforcement officials.
When Sergey left for the protests, he told his…
