Russia's army of bureaucrats are pocketing the equivalent of ?125 billion (US$238.7 billion) in kickbacks every year, according to the country's deputy prosecutor general.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Alexander Buksman said the scale of graft was close to equalling the state's entire annual revenues.
He said that police had discovered 28,000 cases of corruption in the first eight months of this year, a third of them connected to bribe-taking.
"The scale of bribes has reached such a level that within a year a mid-ranking corrupt bureaucrat can buy himself a 200m2 apartment," Buksman told the government-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
On average, property in Moscow costs ?2,165 a square meter, making an apartment that size worth more than ?420,000. Even senior officials have state salaries of less than ?1,000 a month.
The interview with Buksman was designed to promote government action against guilty chinovniki -- as bureaucrats are known -- but risked rousing public anger that the crime is flourishing.
Transparency International, an international monitoring group, estimates that corruption in Russia has grown sevenfold since 2001, the year after President Vladimir Putin came to power. In a survey published this week it ranked Russia 126 out of 159 in the world corruption stakes, on a par with Rwanda and Honduras.
"The situation is not only not getting better -- corruption is growing," said Elena Panfilova, head of Transparency International's Russia office.
During his state-of-the-nation address this year, Putin identified stamping out corruption as one of his priorities but daily life continues to be dominated by demands from state officials for cash payments.
Getting a child into school, passing a driving test and ensuring medical treatment are among the areas riddled with corruption. Businesses often set aside 10 percent of their earnings to pay off bribes.
While the chinovniki are despised, Russians show a surprising tolerance of bribe-taking because they know it is often the only way to get things done. However, the scale of cheating has led to the creation of organizations such as the Public Movement Against Corruption.
Buksman promised new checks on federal institutions in an attempt to bring corruption under control. He said the fact that many state officials were involved in profit-making enterprises was a factor in the level of crime.
"In many regions, bureaucrats are almost openly combining state or municipal service with commerce," he said.
He cited the head of Altai region's hunting control inspectorate, who was prosecuted after it was discovered that he also ran an agency organizing hunting trips.
Last year, the Indem think tank estimated that the average sum paid had risen to ?77,000, up from ?5,800 four years earlier.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese