Fighting corruption is my economic program. A column by Alexei Navalny

My answer is simple. Fighting corruption is my economic program. It is substantive and realistic. The slogan “Do not lie and do not steal” is not a rhetorical flourish, but the essence of political transformation. The fight against corruption is the main—and in fact the only—structural reform that could begin as early as tomorrow, and it is the key precondition for launching any other reforms. This reform requires nothing but political will. It does not require large sums of money. It is popular with the public. This is precisely the kind of area where 20% of the effort can deliver 80% of the result. An honest state would be the first and most important achievement, one that would open the way to solving Russia’s other major problems—social, economic, and security-related alike. Corruption in Russia has spread into every sphere of life. It is unacceptably high for such a rich and educated country—in countries comparable to ours in terms of development, corruption is far lower. It is lower in many countries that are poorer than we are. In corruption rankings, we sit alongside Nigeria and Uganda. Notably, corruption did not decline during all the years when the Russian economy was growing, nor during the periods when it became a major target of political attention from the authorities. The Medvedev years are remembered for threats directed at corrupt officials in the sphere of public procurement. Yet in the RosPil project, we are constantly seeing that those threats did not force dishonest state customers to comply even with formal procedures. The best example is public procurement in Chechnya. Corruption is not an abstraction. It quite literally reaches into every one of our pockets. Bribes for project approvals, land allocation, and connections to electricity and gas make a square meter of housing unaffordable even for people with high salaries. A corruption surcharge amounting to tens of percent is built into the cost of the jacket you bought, the carton of milk, and the sack of potatoes. And the Olympic budget, swelling like a bubble, costs us as if we had been mugged for our coat in a dark alley. There are dozens and hundreds of such examples. Corruption is a cause of political instability. It breeds insulting behavior by politicians and officials and creates a sense of injustice in society. A typical case from RosPil’s practice: a university cannot afford an inexpensive fire alarm system, yet its rector buys a fully loaded Lexus. This leads to harsher political rhetoric and the radicalization of political struggle, which will ultimately bring about the collapse of political institutions. Ostentatious corruption in the republics of the Caucasus recruits fighters for the civil war going on there more effectively than any Islamists could. I believe that slogans about the possibility of stable development in a corrupt state are the most dangerous kind of political deception. Corruption is a cause of inequality—both of income and of opportunity. In Putin’s Russia, people become billionaires not through talent and hard work, but through membership in the right dacha cooperative. The social elevator carries only the 22-year-old daughter of the governor of Sverdlovsk Region to success. At such a young age, she is already “creating” companies that invest tens of millions of dollars. Mayors’ sons are the most successful developers.  Corruption poisons and deforms society, preventing normal relations between people. Citizens do not trust one another and do not believe that it is possible to earn money honestly; they believe that only connections can help build a career. All of this is imposed on the younger generation under the guise of “life wisdom.” The disgusting phrase “everyone steals, that’s just the kind of people we are” becomes a symbol of national hopelessness. What do the economists in thick glasses tell us? The main condition for economic growth is the quality of institutions. So why have we seen no serious success in this area over the past 12 years? It is hard to suppose that Vladimir Putin is personally obsessed with the idea of reducing labor productivity. Or that he is deliberately destroying infrastructure. Or that, on orders from some global cabal, he is torpedoing pension reform. No matter how many hundred-page structural reform programs the Kremlin may propose, not one of them will be implemented, because the entire system of power is warped by lawlessness and corruption. Within the current government there is not, and cannot be, a group of like-minded people united by the idea of reforming institutions rather than immediately buying enough Arbidol (a Russian antiviral drug) for the next hundred years or building the most expensive stadium in the world. Fighting corruption is not the only condition for structural reform in Russia, but it is an absolutely necessary one. We have every precondition for the fight against corruption to succeed and produce serious results in a short period of time: 1. Complete public consensus. No one needs to be persuaded that defeating corruption is necessary. There is no need for complex political coalitions or negotiations. The label “the party of crooks and thieves,” attached to United Russia, has completely destroyed that party’s prospects, despite the fact that it formally won the election. 2. It is the cheapest structural reform available. Political will cannot be bought with money, but if it exists, then money is needed to a much lesser extent. The public project RosPil, which monitors government procurement, spent 3.5 million rubles in a year of work and uncovered, investigated, and successfully challenged corrupt practices in public contracting worth tens of billions of rubles. Each such investigation could serve as grounds for opening a criminal case and holding an official accountable. And this is despite the fact that RosPil has not the slightest official authority. Any newly created anti-corruption body would be inexpensive to run, if there is a genuine desire to defeat corruption. 3. Well-studied successful experience in this area across different countries and historical periods—from Italy and Georgia to Singapore and Hong Kong—gives us a clear understanding of the directions of work and the concrete steps required: creating bodies and institutions staffed by entirely new people, selected on the basis of meritocracy, and endowed with significant powers that they will exercise without regard for the political situation. The experience of independent prosecutors in the United States or the famous Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption is entirely applicable in Russia as well. 4. RosPil’s experience also shows that the principles of transparency, feedback, and public oversight work extremely well in Russia. Modern technology sharply reduces the cost of citizen participation in the fight against corruption. This experience can and should be used everywhere. The main condition for success is that there be no untouchables at any level of government, and that punishment be unavoidable. The famous words of Singapore’s prime minister Lee Kuan Yew—that to defeat corruption, one must not hesitate to jail even guilty friends and relatives—should be treated not as an anecdote, but as a principle of state governance. The first active steps against corruption would significantly increase economic growth. Let us set aside the naive idea that roads would immediately become ten times cheaper, as in China. Even so, the most basic anti-corruption review of state company investment programs would reveal enormous resources. Especially since the names of the managers and officials inflating those investment programs are well known to everyone. There would then be no need to rescue so-called people’s IPOs with taxpayers’ money. Research shows that compliance with modern corporate governance standards increases companies’ market capitalization by up to 10% even in the United States. In Russia’s case, the increase would be 15–35%. An honest state also helps solve the problem of the “resource curse.” In countries free of corruption—Australia, Canada, Norway, Chile—natural wealth helps development. In corrupt countries, it hinders it. That means the problem is not the resources themselves, but corruption. Right now, all the efforts of the corporation of crooks and thieves in power are aimed at extracting resource rents and enriching themselves personally. But the country does not develop as a result. That is the “resource curse”: resources for the ruling elite, a curse for everyone else. The public stereotype encouraged by the authorities is that “do not lie and do not steal” is romanticism. A naive and primitive approach. Better, they say, to drop the rose-colored illusions and think instead about the VAT rate. That is not true. “Do not lie and do not steal” is a rational and pragmatic choice; it is the shortest path to national success. Right now, investing money, time, and effort in fighting corruption—in “do not lie and do not steal”—is more profitable and more reliable than building pipelines or even roads. We will create an infrastructure far more reliable, durable, and beneficial for all our citizens, not just for a handful of crooks and thieves. We know how to do it, and sooner or later we will do it—without lies and without theft.