Interfax: Corruption not Russians’ primary concern – deputy interior minister

(Interfax – February 9, 2015) Russian citizens are not particularly worried about corruption in the country, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov has said, as reported by privately-owned news agency Interfax on 9 February.

“All the colour revolutions, in every country that has had one, took place under the slogan of fighting corruption, but thereafter these countries were thrown into chaos. Regimes that are tens of times more corrupt have emerged, living standards have dropped and people have lost everything,” he said.

“In the opinion of Russian pollsters, corruption is not at present the public’s primary concern. It ranks 13th,” he said.

“Take the Interior Ministry system, which has been the object of serious complaints in this respect. We are now observing a rise in the public’s trust in internal affairs bodies. And the police is a mirror of the authorities,” he said.

Zubov was speaking at a meeting of a government-sponsored group examining proposals by anti-corruption activist Aleksey Navalnyy’s Foundation for the Fight Against Corruption to introduce criminal liability for illegal enrichment, Interfax said.

Earlier, Interfax reported that Navalnyy was not allowed to attend the meeting. “I am not being allowed to attend the meeting of Open Government. [They are] saying that ‘only the author of the initiative’ [is allowed]. That is funny because I am the formal author,” Navalnyy was quoted as saying through social media.

Lyubov Sobol, lawyer for Navalnyy’s Foundation, was not allowed to attend the meeting either, said Interfax.