Putin is still Russia’s most popular politician, according to earlier surveys. A Levada poll conducted last month showed Putin winning 27 percent of the vote in a presidential election, 7 percentage points ahead of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev.
A lawyer, Medvedev has also made the fight against corruption a priority of his presidency. Medvedev says he wants to end Russia’s dependence on natural resources exports, which made billionaires out of well-connected businessmen, favoring a knowledge-based economy with a strong middle class.
Critics say corruption is rooted within the bureacracy and law enforcement agencies across the country.
Buoyed by years of rising oil prices, bureaucrats are said to have demanded ever greater bribes while the number of billionaires shot up.
Despite high-profile firing by President Medvedev of senior Interior Ministry officers, including police generals,vocal campaigns have highlighted continuing corruption among the tax police and the Interior Ministry's Department K which deals with economic crimes.
The officers implicated in the arrest and investigation of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in pre-trial detention last November are still flying high while the police only opened an investigation late last month into the death of 60-year-old Lyudmila Chichvarkina who was found covered in blood and bruises on April 3 in Moscow after her son, the former mobile phone retailer, Yevgeny claimed in a London court she had been murdered. Chichvarkin is fighting extradition to Russia.
Lat month the Finance & Investments Market Players Club (KIFIR), announced it was launching a NO BRIBES / NO KICKBACKS anti-corruption campaign. Club Chairman Eugene Kasevin, said "Given the multilevel, hierarchical system of government and traditional monopolization of domestic business and commercial relationships, there are concerns that the President’s initiatives to modernize the Russian economy may prove fruitless without public involvement, in particular, without involvement of the business community."
“The long and deep-rooted tradition of corruption has resulted in bribes (which were widespread in Soviet times) and kickbacks (which emerged in the early 1990s) becoming standard practice affecting the domestic trade. As a result, any step forward initiated by the government will be thwarted by two steps backward due to public inactivity” said Mr. Kasevin, launching the campaign.
KIFIR is encouraging its members, owners and senior managers of Russian businesses, as well as owners and senior managers of foreign businesses operating in the Russian Federation, to take part in the campaign aimed to get rid of bribery and kickback practices spread across the country.
The Club invites businesses to register on the Club’s website to support the NO BRIBES / NO KICKBACKS campaign. Upon registration, a business will undertake not to enter into any deals, contracts or agreements which involve bribes and/or kickbacks, and the Club will place the logo of such business on the Club’s website. The Club will also allow such participating businesses to place the campaign’s logo on their respective websites, which will serve as a sign for their both new and current counterparties, suppliers and partners.
Julia Ryshkina, a columnist with Finam.Info wrote that "Bribes and kickbacks in the interaction of businesses with the authorities have become so common in our country that they are perceived almost as the norm. If we imagine for a moment that employers no longer succumb to provocations, and officials conduct their duties honestly, a huge field for corruption would simply disappear."
She added, "To create your own business in Russia is almost like going to work for the police. You can start with the purest of intentions, but as "circumstances force" an honest man turns into a corrupt one. Bribes and kickbacks in Russia have become so common that they are perceived as the norm and the main way to interact with the authorities. A bribe for a license, 'gifts' to tax and other authorities, a victorious kickback for winning the tender: most entrepreneurs have a firm conviction that without this it is impossible to do business in our country."
Transparency International rates Russia 146 out of 180 countries in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2009. That's on a par with countries like Zimbabwe.
According to Transparency International's Russia Director, Elena Panfilova, the Russian market of corruption is estimated at 300 billion dollars a year.
Robert Vernon, a former deputy head of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), who now travels tyhe world conducting anti-corruption seminars, recently said, "I must tell you that there is some corruption in every country on the globe, including the United States.
"For instance, when I joined LAPD, it was one of the most corrupt police forces in the country. We needed 38 long years to regain the people's trust and fight off corruption. This won battle inspired me to start traveling the world giving these seminars, as I have realized that they might help governments bring corruption down to controllable levels."
By that criteria Russia's fight against corruption could achieve its aims in 2050.
