According to Edelman International, which publishes an annual "Trust Barometer," Russian businesses are the least trusted on the planet among the 18 advanced nations of the world which were surveyed (see page 20 of the report), and Russia ranked lowest in all four regions of the world surveyed (North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia). Russia received by far the lowest scores for trust from Europeans, its closest neighbors. The World Bank shares the same view of Russia as fundamentally untrustworthy.

And, contrary to the propaganda spewed out by the Kremlin, the people of Russia don't find business less trustworthy than government, but rather significantly more trustworthy (see page 5 of the report). So much for the idea that Russians are consumed with anger at the "evil oligarchs" like Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The report does how, however, how effective the Kremlin's anti-NGO propaganda has been, as Russians trust NGOs less than any other social force measured by Edelman.