Corruption Still Flourishes under Putin
On February 6, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti released some of the findings of a research project called ???The Nature and Structure of Corruption in Russie.??? Carried out by the Institute for Public Projects (INOP) and the Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI), the research revealed that the highest level of corruption is observable in the tax collection service, while the recipients of the largest bribes are members of judiciary, the same judiciary responsible for ensuring that the financial and banking regulations are enforced through the courts. As expected, law-enforcement bodies and public health get also colossal ???cuts.???
The black economy, grown large by dint of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, accounts for 40-50 per cent of the economic activity in Russia and no Kremlin government has shown the will to fight corruption because it is happening on such a massive and all-pervasive scale that it became a norm rather than an exception.
In 2006, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank organization headquartered in Washington, argued that Russia is already a ???criminal syndicalist??? state, comprising corrupt officials at all levels of government, successful full-time professional criminals (the Russian Mafia), and businessmen who seem to regard Russian law and Western norms of commerce, respectively, not as barriers to be respected but as mere obstacles to circumvent.
Power To The Party
Vladimir Putin says he may lead United Russia when he leaves office. That will solidify his control, and turn the party into a new center of political might.
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Meeting Vladimir Putin was the most exciting moment of Elena Lapshina's life. The 35-year-old textile-factory worker from Rodniki, north of Moscow, was one of three rank-and-file United Russia party members selected to share the platform with Putin as a guest of honor at the party's annual congress earlier this month. "When I saw [Putin], I forgot my own name, every muscle in my body was shaking," recalls Lapshina. "He is more than a father. He is my leader, he is my idol." In front of 2,000 party faithful, Lapshina made an emotional appeal to Putin. "Heed the wishes of millions of Russians," she pleaded. "Continue to lead us to the wonderful future!" Wearing his characteristic shy smile, Putin's reply sent the hall into a storm of applause: after stepping down as president next March, he would consider leading United Russia and continuing in power as Russia's prime minister.
At a stroke, Putin's move made United Russia something far more than just a political party. As the chosen institution by which Putin and his allies plan to cement their hold on power, it's more like The Party of old—something between an organ of the state and a private club for Russia's rulers. "Putin will de facto stay on for a third term in power," boasts Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of United Russia's presidium. "And since he will be our leader, we will be the real center of power."
For sure, there are some differences between United Russia and the old Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. The old Party, for one, was 20 million strong, had cells in every workplace and controlled appointments to every senior job, from prima ballerina to paint-factory foreman. United Russia, with its 1.6 million members, has nowhere near that reach. The old Party was also intensely doctrinaire, monitoring and instructing citizens in all aspects of their lives, including literature and personal hygiene. United Russia's basic political doctrine doesn't go far beyond the "Putin Plan"—defined by Kremlin-connected political scientist (and, as of two weeks ago, United Russia member) Sergei Markov as "making the country strong, rich and independent."
But these are early days. United Russia plans to remake itself in the image of the old Party, complete with an ideology, a youth wing and, ultimately, a monopoly on power and patronage "Our absolute first priority is to save Russian civilization," says Andrey Vorobyev, head of United Russia's Central Committee. "Not to allow Western influence to corrupt our language, not to allow fashionable theories or other interferences from outside to damage Russian sovereignty." More concretely, Dmitry Orlov from the Kremlin-connected Center of Political Technologies gave deputies at the party congress a list of milestones to achieve in Russia's ascent to greatness. Among them: "a manned mission to the moon by 2012; hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014; attaining the world's fifth largest GDP by 2020; flying to Mars by 2025."
Already, anyone with political ambition is in the United Russia party. More than 60 regional governors (out of 89) are on the party's lists, as are almost all Russia's mayors. And even though three of the four major parties in the Duma support Putin, politicians like Gennady Gudkov, a Duma deputy from the Fair Russia Party, fear that United Russia will sweep away all other parties. "United Russia will not allow opponents," he says. Gudkov complains that two of his party's activists have lost their jobs in local government for belonging to the "wrong" political party. In Stavropol and Samara, he says, the city mayors who are members of Fair Russia are being "choked" of federal funding as United Russia prepares to take over.
The party's youth wing, known as the Young Guard, sees itself as "a cross between the Komsomol [the old Communist Youth League] and a headhunting agency," says its leader Ivan Demidov, whose office is decorated with posters of Orthodox priests and Che Guevara. Its task: to create a party machine that will attract the brightest and best, and then train them at "political factories" designed to prepare young politicians for office. "In two to three years 20 percent of the Young Guard will be in power," says Demidov.
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