Russia Rated Amongst the Worst for Corruption
Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index today measuring public sector corruption compiled from data produced by ten different organizations including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
Russia scored a 2.1 on this scale, tied in 154th place (of 178 countries measured) with Cambodia, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Laos, Papua New Guinea, and Tajikistan.
Bloomberg notes that bribery cases in the first half of 2010 jumped to 5,708 compared with 5,633 in the same period of 2009. According to a July 2010 poll, Russians surveyed ranked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's inability to deal with corruption during his 10 years in power as the administration's biggest failure.
Kirill Kabanov, head of the National Anti- Corruption Committee, told Bloomberg that Russians pay bribes totaling $300 billion a year, equivalent to almost a quarter of gross domestic product, adding that Medvedev's promises to reduce corruption won't succeed unless law enforcement is improved.
The Moscow Times reminded yesterday that in 2009, Russia was ranked 146th on Transparency International's index, a notch up from 147th the previous year.