It's not just in Nigeria and China
Taking On Russia's Ubiquitous Bribery"From birth to death, corruption courses through the lives of Russians -- a phenomenon that newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev recently said has become 'a way of life for a huge number of people.'
"'Those who take bribes feel it involves no risks or consider such risks to be negligible,' Medvedev told lawmakers. 'It mustn't be so.'
"In the Russian education system alone, about $1 billion is paid each year in bribes to secure entry and pass exams, according to Mark Levin, a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics who has studied the phenomenon...
"Medvedev has pledged to introduce new anti-corruption legislation by October as part of a broad campaign to reduce bribery. In the early weeks of his presidency, he made the centerpiece of his administration the establishment of the rule of law...
"But Russia has a history of half-hearted or failed attempts at combating corruption... The country's staggering new wealth, largely flowing from oil and natural gas revenues, has led to an explosion in graft, which is now measured in the tens of billions of dollars.
"In a survey of corruption levels in 180 countries, Transparency International, a watchdog organization based in Berlin, ranked Russia 143rd, with 180th as the worst...
"The Institute for Public Projects and the Institute for Comparative Social Research, two Moscow research organizations, recently compiled a price list of big-ticket bribes after interviewing businessmen, politicians, civil servants and other experts who were granted anonymity.
"The think tanks suggested that a place on a political party's list of candidates for parliament could be acquired for $2 million to $5 million..."
Labels: corruption, political culture, politics, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:20 AM
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