(RIA Novosti – February 19, 2013) The number of convicts charged with corruption of all sorts is constantly declining, RIA Novosti news agency reported on 19 February, quoting the head of the Russian Supreme Court, Vyacheslav Lebedev. According to Lebedev’s data, a total of 10,000 people were charged with corruption in 2010, 7,500 people – in 2011, while in 2012 […]
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MOSCOW, February 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) initiated criminal proceedings against more than 800 state and government officials last year, including about 600 lawmakers on different levels, committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said on Wednesday. “Last year we took legal action against some 600 deputies and elected heads of municipalities and local self-government bodies, 19 deputies of regional […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – February 18, 2013) Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer was allegedly killed while in pre-trial detention in 2009, will go on posthumous trial today in what is going to be Russias most controversial case since the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Kremlin has been outraged by the so-called Magnitsky law, passed last year, which […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 14, 2013) Does anybody remember Skolkovo? What seems like eons ago, back when iPads were still must-have gadgets for the Russian elite, the scientific and technological center was the showcase project in Dmitry Medvedev’s efforts to modernize the country’s economy to make it less dependent on oil and gas. Well Skolkovo is back […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – February 15, 2013) State Duma Deputy Vladimir Pekhtin asked to be temporarily relieved of his duties as chairman of the Duma’s Credentials and Ethics Commission until the conclusion of a probe into allegations that he failed to declare more than $2 million in property holdings in the U.S. state of Florida. Although […]
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KAZAN. Feb 13 (Interfax) – Over 50,000 corruption-related crimes were committed in Russia last year, and around 7,000 people were convicted for them, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said. “These figures show that despite all implemented measures, corruption is one of the most burning issues, moreover, it has penetrated all spheres of social life in Russia: authorities, housing services and […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Scott Rose – February 12, 2013) Illicit capital outflows from Russia were as much as $211.5 billion between 1994 and 2011 as the underground economy moved funds abroad, according to Global Financial Integrity, a group that studies financial flows. Total illicit outflows were $9.99 billion in 2011, down from a peak of $41.6 billion in 2010, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – February 13, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday submitted a bill to the State Duma that seeks to ban government officials from holding overseas bank accounts or owning foreign-issued bonds and shares. The legislation, part of a raft of measures proposed by the president that ostensibly target corruption and foreign influence in […]
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MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin has submitted a bill to the State Duma prohibiting Russian officials from holding bank accounts abroad or owning foreign-issued shares and bonds, according to information posted on the Duma’s website. “This ban applies to persons who hold government positions in Russia, the Prosecutor General’s first and other deputies, members of the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – February 11, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News In early December in the Siberian city of Barnaul, Vitaly Sidukhinsky, 28, was trying to board a bus with his mother. The doors closed before his mother could get on the bus, and Sidukhinsky, who was mentally disabled and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 7, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that the “number of phony doctorates surpasses all possible limits,” and that he supported a crackdown on plagiarism in Ph.D. dissertations. Allegations of plagiarized dissertations have hit some of the state’s highest officials, including Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and even President Vladimir Putin, who the Brookings […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – February 6, 2013) Nikita Belykh, the liberal governor of the Kirov region and a former opposition leader, is facing a new wave of pressure from opponents after 19 regional lawmakers announced their intent to put forward a no-confidence vote against him. Investigators raided Belykh’s office last week in connection with the alleged […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – February 5, 2013) “Are you totally out of your mind?” Russian newspaper tycoon Alexander Lebedev exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. He stared combatively at property developer Sergei Polonsky, who had taunted Lebedev for ridiculing his claim to be a major charity donor. As tempers flared during the recording of a TV […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.com – February 5, 2013) After dubbing it the most corrupt sector in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved again to crack down on graft in the utilities sector by calling for public oversight of the sector. Public councils are to be set up to oversee the sector and Putin said this will be done […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 29, 2013) The Defense Ministry’s opacity makes it difficult to determine whether anti-corruption reforms are being carried out, Transparency International said in a report released on Tuesday in which it gave Russia a “D-” grade on an A to F corruption index. The rating put Russia on par with Turkey, Belarus, and China, and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 29, 2013) The net appears to be closing on former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov after military investigators opened an investigation into extravagant improvements at a dacha belonging to his brother-in-law, a news report said Monday. Serdyukov resigned in disgrace last month amid allegations that several of his close associates had enriched themselves via the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – January 28, 2013) On Saturday, an inebriated policeman was involved in a deadly car accident on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow. The policeman, whose official salary is 50,000 rubles a month, was behind the wheel of a Range Rover (the cost of which is about 3.5 million rubles). One person was killed after […]
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(Government.ru – January 27, 2013) Fareed Zakaria: Mr Prime Minister, thank you for agreeing to this meeting. In 2009, when you were President of Russia, you wrote a very interesting and important essay about Russia’s future. You said that the two major problems of the Russian economy were excessive dependence on oil and excessive corruption. A look at current statistics […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Evgeniya Chaykovskaya – January 23, 2013) Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin promised to rid the city authorities of any potential corrupt officials. “I would like to stress a position of principle for the Moscow government that finding corruption and detaining bribe takers is a big help to city authorities,” Sobyanin said at an open meeting of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, Combined report – January 21, 2013) The biggest anti-corruption campaign in the Defense Ministry in years has yielded its first arrest, at the agency’s very top. The head of the ministry’s Facilities Department has been placed behind bars for two months. New arrests have been made as part of the high-profile […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov – January 18, 2013) Russian investigators are said to be near a decision on whether to charge the country’s ex-defense minister amid the biggest anti-graft drive of President Vladimir Putin’s 12 years in power, according to two officials. Anatoly Serdyukov has been implicated by people questioned in an embezzlement inquiry, said […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 14, 2013) Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who at an inquiry Friday into allegedly illicit property sales gave investigators “a few sheets of paper with explanations” then refused further questions, faces being considered a suspect, the Investigative Committee said. “If the former defense minister believes he is free of any guilt with regard to […]
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(www.opendemocracy.net – Andrei Zaostrovtsev – January 9, 2013) Andrei Zaostrovtsev is lecturer at the M-Centre at the European University, St. Petersburg and professor of the Higher School of Economics Owning a business in Russia today is a hazardous affair: each year thousands of companies close after their owners are accused of ‘economic crimes’ and face either prison or protection payments […]
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[Foreign Policy – Anders Åslund – December 28, 2012 – http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/28/Putin_orphans_Russia_crackdown] Anders Åslund examines the state of Russian politics, characterizing it as marked by repression, anger and a realization of a need for change but lacking a grasp of effective alternatives other than personal flight: … I have not found the mood in the Russian capital so depressed since the […]
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[Putin’s Artful Jurisprudence – The National Interest – William Partlett – January 2, 2012 – http://nationalinterest.org/article/putins-artful-jurisprudence-7882] Writing for The National Interest, William Partlett examines aspects of rule of law issues in post-Soviet Russia within the broader context of Russian political and economic power, including unfolding developments under the Putin regime(s). First recalling some of the events of 1993: AT 8:00 […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – December 28, 2012) Some things remain relevant longer than you would expect. Take the death of Sergei Magnitsky. This muck-raking attorney was allowed to die in a Moscow prison in November 2009. That story was still making news when Teatr.doc opened a show called “One Hour Eighteen” in the early summer of […]
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Russia Beyond the Headlines sets out its list of top news stories for 2012: 1. The presidential election … 2. Medvedev’s Cabinet … 3. United Russia’s new leader … Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev swapped jobs and not only in public office … 4. Strident new laws … 5. Protest actions …
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MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – Corruption is customary for Russia but the government still has to combat it, President Vladimir Putin told a Thursday press conference. “Speaking of the anti-corruption fight; this is one of our problems and a customary one,” he said. Putin told reporters a historical anecdote: Peter the Great ordered Prosecutor General Pavel Yaguzhinsky to execute thieves […]
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[Russian politics: A new ideology for political ends: Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation address – The Economist – Dec. 15, 2012 – http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21568431-vladimir-putins-state-nation-address-new-ideology-political-ends] The Economist reports on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s State-of-the-Nation Address, noting what it saw as a values-oriented focus: For a man known for his pragmatism even cynicism President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation speech on December 12th was heavily […]
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SKOLKOVO, near Moscow. Dec 13 (Interfax) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has poured cold water on a proposal for starting a crackdown on corruption in Russia by choosing one of the government’s activities, such as issuing passports, and making it completely transparent. The proposal came from a speaker at the “Open Government” conference in Skolkovo on Thursday. “I believe that […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Dec. 13, 2012) When Dmitry Medvedev was caught by a live microphone last week referring to Investigative Committee agents as “kozly,” a deeply offensive insult in Russian, it sparked a minor scandal, embarrassed the prime minister, and infuriated many in the law-enforcement community. Medvedev’s gaffe cast a light on the turbulence that President Vladimir Putin’s […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Dec. 12, 2012) In a meeting with supporters on December 10, President Vladimir Putin insisted the Kremlin’s anticorruption campaign was the real deal and not just for show. Arrests would be made, he added, and punishment for crooked officials was “inevitable.” Should we believe him? There are, of course, plenty of reasons for skepticism. First […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 11, 2012) President Vladimir Putin spoke to supporters Monday about the recent wave of high-profile official corruption cases, saying they are not a “show-off campaign” but part of a systemic fight against government fraud. Addressing a group of more than 500 of his official representatives who campaigned for him ahead of […]
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(Interfax – Dec. 9) Criminal cases on more than 16,500 corruption-related crimes by Russian officials were passed on to courts in the first nine months of 2012. “The number of corruption-related crimes committed by officials in the criminal cases passed on to courts is 16,603 (compared with 11,137 in 2011),” official spokesman for the Russian Investigations Committee (RIC) Vladimir Markin […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – Rumors of corruption in Russia are exaggeratory and opponents take advantage of the Russian image of a highly corrupt country, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov told President Vladimir Putin’s election agents on Sunday. “Corruption rumors are exaggeratory. This does not mean we have no such problem, but I will be honest: the idea of Russia […]
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[Medvedev discusses corruption, tighter legislation, Opposition with TV journalists – Itar-Tass – Lyudmila Alexandrova – Dec. 7 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c39/592431.html] Itar-Tass covers a recent interview by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with Russian television networks: One of the first most acute questions was about the high-profile scandals and the potential involvement in them of some very high-ranking officials, including the former […]
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[Vladimir Putin tries to restore monopoly of power – Matthew Rojansky – Valdai Discussion Club – Dec. 4, 2012 – Valdaiclub.com interview with Matthew Rojansky, Deputy Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment – http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2012/12/04/vladimir-putin-tries-to-restore-monopoly-of-power/eqjp] Matthew Rojansky of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is interviewed on politics and corruption under Vladimir Putin. Rojansky notes the uptick in anti-corruption action, […]
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[Purge and prejudice: What will the fate of military reform tell us about the anti-corruption campaign? – Mark Galeotti – Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Dec. 3, 2012 – Mark Galeotti (Twitter: @markgaleotti) is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s SCPS Center for Global Affairs. His blog, “In Moscow’s Shadows,” can be read at http://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com – full article […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alec Luhn – Dec. 6, 2012) Even as the government wages a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, Russia remains in the bottom third of Transparency International’s corruption index, released Wednesday. The nation ranked on par with Kazakhstan, Iran and Honduras. This is “the zone of national shame,” said Yelena Panfilova, director of Transparency International Russia. It indicates […]
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Far, far more serious than the shake-up’s implications for Russia’s military doctrine and modernization — and they are serious, because it is unlikely that Shoigu will succeed by retaining Soviet-era management practices — are its implications for the stability of the Putin regime and its reliance on clans, protection, corruption, and intimidation. The Serdyukov scandal is a hint that Putin is not in control, and that his political system has become vulnerable to fratricide.
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[Yulia Latynina – Moscow Times – Dec. 5, 2012 – Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio – http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/new-rules-in-old-corruption-game/472507.html] Yulia Latynina comments upon the shifting landscape in Russian corruption and how it is handled: Under the old rules, a public scandal involving Serdyukov would have failed to result in his dismissal. It also would have meant […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – The anti-corruption fight in Russia has started to bear tangible fruit, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Tuesday. It polled 1,600 people in 138 towns and cities in 46 regions in late November. Thirty-six percent of Russians said the anti-corruption measures were efficient in 2007, and the indicator has grown to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Dec. 5, 2012) The index on state sector corruption, published by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) on Wednesday, showed Russia climbed 10 spots to 133th place in 2012. Based on expert opinion, countries are scored from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Russia scored 28. No country scores a perfect 100. While no […]
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[Corruption scandals dominate Russian headlines; Allegations have involved Russia’s defense and agriculture ministries and even the space program. Some wonder whether the regime is cracking down or fracturing. – Los Angeles Times – Sergei L. Loiko – Dec. 3, 2012 – http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/02/world/la-fg-russia-corruption-20121203] The Los Angeles Times covers recently exposed corruption scandals in Russia: … the news in Russia lately has […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 3, 2012) Magnitsky’s life reveals a man who was in many ways ordinary and felt compelled to fight a state machine he had trusted his whole career. When a childhood friend said he was thinking of not returning to Russia after a concert tour abroad in 2000, Sergei Magnitsky gave him […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vladimir Frolov – Dec. 3, 2012) It may feel like hitting a political trifecta. You defang the political issue that energizes your opponents. You restore your standing with the military and please your core supporters long clamoring for the corrupt elites’ heads. You anesthetize your governing team with a fear of being on the hit […]
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(Business New Europe – www.bne.eu – Ben Aris) A major anti-corruption campaign is underway in Russia. Yet despite making graft the defining issue of the Russian story, the western press is vigorously ignoring the campaign. At the start of November, President Vladimir Putin fired the defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, after an investigation uncovered RUB3bn ($97m) worth of stealing from a […]
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(Augusto Come – www.opendemocracy.net – Augusto Come is a student of the Paris School of International Affairs and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He is interested in issues of democracy and transition in the post-Soviet space – Nov. 29, 2012) Russia’s higher education institutions are popularly assumed to be among the most corrupt in the country. Augusto Come […]
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(Interfax – Vienna, 29 November) The Kremlin hopes that the draft bill on controlling officials’ expenses will take effect this year. “Among anti-corruption stories, I would note the draft bill on controlling officials’ expenses,” the head of the Kremlin (Presidential) Administration, Sergey Ivanov, said at the International Anti-Corruption Academy’s (IACA) first Assembly of Parties in Vienna on Thursday (29 November). […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Nov. 29, 2012) Is it an anti-graft campaign? A purge of the elite? Or the start of a clan war? When police raided and searched the home of Rostelekom CEO Aleksandr Provotorov last week, it marked yet another chapter in what the Russian media has been describing as a Kremlin-backed war on corruption. The search […]
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