La Russophobe: Annals of Russian Corruption

Monday, July 07, 2008

Annals of Russian Corruption

Once again Transparency International has released its independent study of world nations, reviewing each for the presence of social and governmental corruption. Once again, Russia's place on the list has fallen -- from #121 in 2006 to #143 last year. Russia is tied with Gambia and Indonesia, just below Pakistan and Syria, with a woeful score of 2.3 out of a perfect ten. The United States is #20, France is at position #19, Germany is #16 and Britain is #12. These are the nations Russia dares to claim the right to sit with at the G-8 table. Think Russia does better when compared to its neighbors in the former Soviet world? Think again. Russia's current score puts it a pathetic #13 out of 20 countries in Eastern Europe -- Georgia towers above it at #3.

Evaluating the TI scoring at the level of fine detail is actually a bit complicated. While each year more and more countries are found to be less corrupt than Russia, each year more and more countries are studied and the average score of the group, of course, changes. This means that Russia's position compared to the group under study actually hasn't fallen as much as superficially might appear by referencing only the numerical ranking tables, but that doesn't make Russia's performance any less abysmal. Russia under Putin is not remotely close to becoming a civilized nation.

Here are Russia's rankings going back to when Vladimir Putin first took over as president. The fraction is Russia's rank out of the total number of countries surveyed, with the #1 position being the least corrupt nation. In parenthesis is Russia's numerical score that generated its rank, out of a perfect "10" for total lack of corruption, followed by the percentile rank for that score compared to the average of the other nations). Basically, TI considers any score below a "5" indicative of barbarism. All the other G-8 nations mentioned above scored above a "7" and Britain came in with an 8.4 at the top of the group.

2001 -- 79/91 (score 2.3 - bottom 15%)

2002 -- 71/102 (score 2.7 - bottom 40%)

2003 -- 86/133 (score 2.7 - bottom 35%)

2004 -- 90/145 (score 2.8 - bottom 38%)

2005 -- 126/158 (score 2.4 - bottom 20%)

2006 -- 121/163 (score 2.5 - bottom 25%)

2007 -- 143/179 (score 2.3 - bottom 20%)

In 2002 Russia's score and position improved significantly, which conclusively shows that TI has no bias against Russia, and the following year the score stayed the same. But that year the average score for other nations rose, so Russia's percentile ranking fell. In 2004 Russia's score again improved, more evidence of the absence of bias. But in 2005, when Putin had locked down his reelection, Russia's score dramatically plummeted, and it has stayed there ever since. Last year, 141 countries out of 179 surveyed were less corrupt than Russia, while only a paltry three dozen on the whole planet were more corrupt.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: 1) Is there really such a big difference between 2.3. and 2.6for example? A lot of countries fall into that bracket or other groupings leaving margin margin for changes in the ranking of countries.
2) This survey considers Cyprus, Hungary and the Czech Republic more corrupt than Botswana, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania more corrupt than Malaysia and Georgia as more corrupt than Mexico. Is there something odd here?
3)Corruption although a problem doesn't stop a country from developing financially (China, India) and even becoming quite affluent (Italy)
4) There has been criticism concerning the IT and its own transparency http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis
free/2008/may/22/seeingthroughtransparencyin
not to mention its role in Venezuela http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Transparency_International
In Greece it has been accused of having ties to political parties.; 7/07/2008 2:12 AM
La Russophobe said...: (1) There's a gigantic difference. A fall from 2.6 to 2.3 for instance is a fall of nearly 12%. How'd you like a 12% pay cut?

(2) Are you suggesting that your personal anecdotal "feelings" are more reliable than this well-respected international think tank? That would be just plain idiotic, if you were. The whole point of the study is to burst such stupid bubbles.

(3) The fact that you are rationalizing corruption in Russia's defense is barbaric, clear proof of the obscene depth of the problem Russia faces.

(4) If you are suggesting that nobody should be allowed to hold power if anyone criticizes them, we'll be happy to agree. That means Mr. Putin must step down immediately! Will you call for it? If so, we'll be glad to tell TI to pipe down.; 7/07/2008 12:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Here is more proof of corruption in Russia, which actually reaches outside of roosha.

An article in the Eurasis Daily Monitor, based on findings by ABC News.

Recently, some rooshan mafiosos were arrested in Spain. I turns out that they have links to, and operate with the blessings of and for the benefit of, top officials in the rooshan government.

Except for one thing - the mafiosos clearly view Medvedev as a Putin puppet - and are in a position to know.

Oily orthodox mother roosha, where everyone likes to think that the rooshan church does something other than support thugs in and out of government.

What a sick pile of mud!

http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373202; 7/08/2008 9:31 AM
Anonymous said...: A bit more on rooshan corruption in an articles from The Times, in which Abramovich admits to paying for political favors, and provides an explanation, sort of, of the "aluminum wars."

This is in the context of a lawsuit by Boris Berezovsky against Abramovich - in England.

Can anyone imagine any sort of lawsuit like this happening in roosha? Of course not - the courts are much too corrupt in roosha!!!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4272509.ece; 7/08/2008 2:32 PM