The interview given by Sergei Ivanov, head of the presidential administration, passed largely unnoticed. And that is a mistake: it was a conceptual interview, and it explains quite clearly why Putin’s regime will neither wage nor be capable of waging any real fight against corruption.
We have heard plenty of general—and sensible—arguments that it would be in Putin’s interest to crack down on corruption a little. It would boost his approval ratings, take trump cards away from opposition critics, and so on.
There were even several attempts to put this seemingly simple advice into practice: the Serdyukov case, the Skrynnik case, the Malofeyev case. As we know, all of it ended in nothing.
Ivanov’s interview makes it clear why. Putin’s team has fundamentally different views on corruption as such.
They consider the current disclosure system broadly effective—a system designed so that only the presidential administration itself has information about who has cheated where. The obvious consequence is monstrous corruption precisely among the “inner circle”, which this system makes impossible to investigate in any real way. The palace of Ivanov’s deputy, Volodin, in the Moscow suburbs is effectively immune from any scrutiny.
For the current authorities, inspections and exposure are not about serving the public good or cleaning up the system. They are a way of setting certain internal informal boundaries. As if Putin has some unofficial red lines that define how much corruption is acceptable for a given official. How much room there is beyond those lines depends on rank, personal closeness, skill at grilling kebabs, and so on.
The example of two governors being dismissed shows this perfectly. What happens in a healthy society when governors are caught “using their official position to solve family problems”? a public scandal; press conferences; a flood of media coverage; a formal investigation; the end of a political career; a cautionary example for everyone else; the costs and risks of corruption rise; some officials make the rational choice in favor of a non-corrupt way of life.
What happens in a smoker’s version of society (as, unfortunately, today’s Russian society is)? a murky story; rumors; a sudden, mysterious resignation; hints in interviews, like this one from Ivanov; the scandal dies down; a new job as a State Duma deputy from the United Russia faction; everyone concludes that corrupt behavior is the most profitable strategy. This is not my invention; this is the exact сценарий of the resignation of Chelyabinsk governor Yurevich and Moscow deputy mayor Resin. And it is a standard scenario.
3) Do you understand? It turns out that the main corruption is in business and at the everyday level. People here like giving bribes, and until they become aware of it and repent, nothing will work.
That is the fundamental difference between our approach—the approach of all normal people—and the approach of Putin’s team.
Translated into plain language, the head of Russia’s presidential administration, Ivanov, said this: guys, when you stop bringing candy to teachers and bottles of liquor to doctors, then I, following your example, will stop arranging jobs for my dear son at “SOGAZ”, and I will also stop illegally shutting down criminal cases against my other dear son, who ran over an elderly woman in Moscow.
And since you still pay to get an ultrasound or MRI without waiting in line, you are simply unworthy and should calmly accept my children at the head of state banks, Volodin’s palace, Shuvalov’s millions, and Yakunin’s fur storage room. That is your level of development, so put up with it and evolve.
That is why there will be no fight against corruption. It is impossible. There is no force that can persuade ordinary cops, doctors, or retail chain managers not to take bribes when they all watch every day as Putin’s inner circle steals hundreds of billions and gets medals for it.
A real fight against corruption can begin only from the top. The leadership sets the example and establishes rules that it follows itself. Then it makes everyone else follow them too.
So, unfortunately, any hope for a real fight against corruption—which is literally suffocating everything and preventing anything from developing—can be tied only to a change of regime. These people are simply asking for more time, and they will spend it stealing more.
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