Flag of Russia
Returning to a one of the main themes of this blog, read here an excerpt from an interview with Elena Panfilova published at openDemocracy: High stakes in Russia’s corruption battle.
Panfilova’s thoughts on Russia’s ability to root out corruption are in the end pessimistic. I can’t say that she’s not justified in this conclusion. Her historical overview of how Russia (at least from Yeltsin onward) has “tried” to battle corruption serves as proof that the latest such initiative may be just one of many Potemkin endeavors.
My thoughts on the matter is that the biggest obstacle lies in Medvedev’s anticorruption campaign design, which is heavily top-down, and does not incorporate the bottom-up approach that involves civil society groups and the press in governmental oversight.
On fighting corruption in Russia:
Then there’s the real fight against corruption, the kind that hurts. This will only happen when those at the top decide that Vasya, Petya, Kolya and Sasha may be our great friends, but if we want to deal with corruption systematically, we’re going to have to rethink some of the rules for dealing with them.
Taking a decision like that is a very painful business for the political leadership. It’s painful because Kolya, Petya, Sasha and Vasya, who are all terrific fellows, could end up falling victim to this same campaign, but so what? It is precisely this ability to take decisions that may be painful for one’s own people, but useful for the country in the long term, that distinguishes the real leaders from those who are merely decorative, the strong politicians from the weak ones.
I don’t know if our politicians have the nerve to take this step. I don’t know how strong our political class is, because so far they haven’t been in any hurry to show me. But at least they’re not stupid. They must understand that this habit of the nation’s wealth disappearing into people’s pockets isn’t going to get them very far. I think they know it’s got out of hand, this business of selling oil, tucking the proceeds away in people’s pockets and tossing society a few handouts.
When challenged on her pessimism, Panfilova writes:
Right now government spokesmen keep saying to me: ‘But you don’t seem to understand, this time its (sic) for real’. So what does that mean about the other campaigns? That they weren’t for real?
Of course, it would be great if Panfilova was wrong, but thus far all indication seems to be for another Potemkin effort.
To the west
The dispute between Poland and FIFA/UEFA that threatened Poland’s worldcup qualifying matches and co-hosting rights for EURO 2012 has finally been resolved. Pheww! That was close. It would have been a shame if Poland were to lose tournament rights, because of corruption in the Polish Football Federation.
