Russia drops to 154th in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index — its worst ranking ever

Russia has fallen to 154th place in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), its worst ranking since the index was first published in 1995.

In the 2024 CPI, Russia scored 22 out of 100 points, placing it 154th out of 180 countries, alongside Lebanon, Honduras, and Azerbaijan.

In 2023, Russia scored 26 points and ranked 141st, sharing the position with Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, and Uganda. While Guinea improved its score to 28 points in 2024, Russia continues to slide even among nations with traditionally high corruption levels, Transparency International Russia notes.

“The full-scale war has generated numerous corruption risks — classified defense contracts, single-source procurement, and secrecy extending to the budget and military spending, to name just a few. The war weakens the anti-corruption framework and minimizes the impact of reforms in the public sector,” commented Alyona Vandysheva, Executive Director of the organization’s Russia branch.

The organization warns that corruption impacts not just a country's economy and politics, but also its environment. A notable example is the continuing ecological crisis in the Black Sea caused by the oil spill from two Volgoneft-class tankers that crashed in the Kerch Strait in December 2023. On a broader scale, corruption poses a significant threat to global climate efforts. At the UN Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan in November 2024, more than 1,700 oil and gas industry lobbyists were present, while access for green activists and civil society representatives was limited.

Transparency International assessed the global average CPI score at 43, indicating no significant progress in combating corruption at the global level. Two-thirds of the countries scored below 50 points. Denmark topped the index for the seventh consecutive year with a score of 90, followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84). The lowest-ranked countries were South Sudan (8), Somalia (9), and Venezuela (10).

According to Transparency International’s methodology, a perfect score of 100 is awarded to countries perceived as free of corruption. The CPI is calculated using data from multiple organizations, including the World Bank, credit rating agencies, and research institutions.

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