Massive Scale of Corruption in Russia Revealed

[sintax]

Massive scale of corruption in Russia revealed
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 22 July 2005

Vladimir Putin's much-publicised campaign to stamp out corruption was shown to be spectacularly failing yesterday when an authoritative study showed Russians are being forced to bribe their way through life like never before.

The study, by the independent Indem think-tank and the respected Romir Monitoring Centre, revealed that the cost of the average bribe has rocketed by a factor of 13 in the past four years and Russians now pay $319bn (£183bn) a year in backhanders.

The average bribe for an ordinary person now stands at about $100 but businessmen are forced to pay much more. In 2001, the average bribe in the business world was $10,200 but in 2005 the report said the figure was $135,800.

Officials have "price-lists" for bribes and the report's authors accused the Russian state of being "the country's biggest racketeer" and said the sheer quantity of cash involved was more than two-and-a-half times greater than the annual state budget.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article300732.ece

[sniffa]

1. aLso reveaLed - the sky is bLue & water is wet

[skooooo]

2. no kidding!!!

[Wetzelbill]

3. and the White House is white

No kidding. Somebody actually had to do a report on this to figure it out? haha

[Spinzonner]

4. Doesn't Tom Delay have one of these lists too ?

[salminen]

5. 319 BILLION dollars a YEAR!!!

That is a ludicrous amount of money. Yeah, it isn't a shocker that there is a lot of bribing going on, but 1/3 of a TRILLION DOLLARS. Holy Moly. That is double the profits of the top 10 oil companies over the past 3 years...

[Desperadoe]

6. Bribes?

Here in Murika, we call them "Political Donations". Same thing, different country.

[WhiteTara]

20. LOL

[cornermouse]

7. So when do we get around to examining our own massive scale

of corruption? It seems only fair.

[marions ghost]

11. GOOD QUESTION

** Using conservative numbers issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, criminologist Jeffrey Reimer estimates in his book, 'The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison' that the total cost of white-collar crime in 1997 was $338 billion, more than 80 times the total amount stolen in all thefts reported by the FBI that year.

(excerpt) http://www.corporatepolicy.org/issues/crimedata.htm

[cire4]

8. The legacy of Boris Yeltsin and 'shock therapy' capitalism.....

If you want to find a better example of the potential pitfalls in transitioning from a communist to a capitalist style economy, don't look any further than Russia. Rapid privatization and liberalization coupled with the shutting of the Communists out of the reform process has led to the detrimental situation that currently exists in that country.

And don't think the United States is free from blame. They did nothing but encourage Russia to get as far away from communism as possible and to do it as quickly as possible. They supported Yeltsin's constitution, which gave him dictatorial powers because it shut out the Communist-led Duma from the economic reform process.

[MisterP]

13. well, why do you think he was so desperate to take over he nearly

shelled the Parliament?

[brentspeak]

9. Russia is a living hell

There's at least 1 million children and teenagers living on the streets in Moscow. That's one million. They sleep in building alleys, doorsteps, even underground sewage pipes. It's common to see children as young as 10 years old walking up-and-down busy intersections holding signs asking for food.

I'm no fan of communism, by any means, but the Soviet Union's "transition" to a capitalist society has been much worse than a failure - it's been a tragedy.

[sintax]

12. The looting of Russia

is partly the responsibility of the well heeled hooligans from the Harvard Business School.

[Chicago Democrat]

10. I wish we could bribe everyone...

like in the old days (chicago here)

[anotherdrew]

14. this is the power of the free market at work!

All the government needs to do is turn this into how taxes are collected, don't let anyone work alone (so they can't steal from the cash drawer), the price lists can be standardised with a sliding scale and there you have it, pay as you go, free market capitalism. The US has some catching up to do...

(or do we?)

[SharonAnn]

15. No, it's crony capitalism. Corporate kleptocracy. It's setting up

a "government" where powerful people and the corporations aligned with them can steal all they want. And they have the regulatory agencies, the legislative power, the police power and the military power to back them up.

It's not capitalism with a "free market". It's gangsterland.

[LisaL]

16. Well, da.

LOL.

[leesa]

17. Betcha the GOP could beat them any day, corruption-wise

[mbperrin]

18. Yep, howsabout just two companies from pandering:

Halliburton and Carlyle.

Both of whom operate in Russia, by the way, although Carlyle's man Khordokovsky got himself in trouble...

[dArKeR]

19. Putin's fixation threatens Russia

Although Vladimir Putin was chosen to ensure the survival of democracy in Russia, his obsession with centralized power is leading the country to political ruin
By Boris Berezovsky

I helped select Russian President Vladimir Putin to succeed the country's first democratically elected president, Boris Yeltsin. Because KGB/Mafia structures now rule Russia and manipulate the judicial system, it is assumed that Yeltsin wanted to hand-pick his successor in order to avoid future prosecution. But we who chose Putin were charged with finding someone to continue Yeltsin's reforms, not shield him and his family.
Indeed, Yeltsin was fearless, and sought not his personal survival, but the survival of the democratic idea that he introduced to Russia. Yet that idea is now under threat because of the successor we chose.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/07/23/2003264701