Russia climbed 10 positions in Corruption Perception Index

(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 country has a perfect score, two-thirds of countries score below 50, indicating a serious corruption problem, the authors of the report say. Governments need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all aspects of decision-making. They must prioritise better rules on lobbying and political financing, make public spending and contracting more transparent, and make public bodies more accountable.

Last year, Russia was ranked 143rd among 183 countries with a score of 2.4 on the table, which was scored from 1 (worst) to 10 (best). At that level, it was similarly ranked with Nigeria and Uganda.

The rise is a result of Russian governments active campaign against corruption since the formation of the new government. Kremlin’s campaign led to investigations in the Ministry of Defense and that of Agriculture and Russian space program. Some Russian high-ranked officials were recently alleged of financial fraud.

With the corruption drive, Russia was expected to improve its score in the report. Government makes it clear it is determent to deal with the problem. Just a day before Transparency International published its report, a new anticorruption law was passed by President Vladimir Putin. Under the law, Russian ministers, their spouses and underage children have to declare their expenses. The legislation will be in force as of 2013 and will affect transactions carried out since January 1st of this year.

At the same time, Russian residents are less optimistic about governments anti-corruption efforts, as poll results released on Tuesday by VTsIOM show. 38% of respondents said the campaign has not produced any meaningful results with 13% saying corruption keeps getting worse.