| Vladimir Putin asks to explain what corruption is Only 30% of Russians saw changes for the better in the fight against corruption during Vladimir Putin's presidency. Over 40% believe that everything remains as it was under Yeltsin, and 20% even said that the situation with corruption has become worse. These data from the VTsIOM survey were published yesterday just at the moment when the head of state held the first meeting of the newly created Anti-Corruption Council.
However, the idea of creating a special anti-corruption body was not born in response to the concerns of Russians. For the first time, Vladimir Putin announced the need to prepare a system of measures to combat corruption on October 27, in his famous speech regarding the request of representatives of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for a meeting with the head of state after the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The president then said that “there will be no trade regarding the activities of law enforcement agencies,” demanded that the public “stop the hysteria,” and recommended the government “not to get involved in discussions.” It was obvious that this recommendation applied personally to the prime minister. Yesterday, Vladimir Putin “drew” Mikhail Kasyanov into discussions, but not around YUKOS, but around corruption. It was the head of the cabinet that the president proposed to elect as the first chairman of the anti-corruption council. Mr. Kasyanov's tenure in this capacity will be six months, since the chairman of the council is supposed to be re-elected every six months.
The tone of Putin's October speech did not foretell a peaceful fight against corruption. It seemed that the system would be created and implemented by the very law enforcement agencies whose activities the president would not tolerate trading on. However, the council included mainly “peaceful people” (the head of government, the speakers of both houses of parliament and the heads of the Constitutional, Supreme and Arbitration Courts), and yesterday it was clarified that the leadership positions in the “daughter” commissions of the council would be occupied by high-ranking officials in civilian clothes. Deputy Prime Minister Boris Aleshin will head the anti-corruption commission, and the commission to resolve conflicts of interest will be headed by the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak. Both officials are known as supporters of serious administrative reform and a minimal level of government intervention in the economy and business.
“We absolutely do not need empty talk, any kind of hype and campaigning in this area; they should remain a thing of the past. We need precise and realistic measures to combat manifestations of corruption, and most importantly, to prevent it, the head of state instructed council members yesterday. “The authorities in Russia have repeatedly and loudly declared the need to fight corruption, entire programs have been developed, and some fairly tough steps have been taken, but let’s be honest: they, unfortunately, did not have much effect.” The president even made it clear why: until now it was not clear what exactly needed to be fought. “In Russia, corruption mainly means bribery, while the social phenomenon of corruption is a much more complex formation, and its consequences have an extremely negative impact on various spheres of state and public life, from economics to morality,” Putin said . And he immediately set a priority task: “We are obliged to give an accurate qualification of the very concept of “corruption.” According to the president, it would be a good idea for council members to figure out what “contributes to the spread of corruption even in the current modern conditions.” In addition, the body “must have objective information about the scale of corruption and know in which areas it is most entrenched.”
Having finished with the theory, the president moved on to the practical part. “Both in existing laws and in those being prepared, provisions leading to abuses and the very possibility of corruption should be identified,” stated Vladimir Putin. He emphasized that laws should not contain “norms of double interpretation and internal contradictions; they should contain only clear and realistic requirements and set out clear mechanisms for their application.” Even closer to the applied sphere is the following instruction from the head of state: the council must join in the work of analyzing the activities of government bodies at all levels. “This does not mean interference in the activities of local authorities,” the president warned against excesses. “I’m talking specifically about analysis.” The analytical stage should smoothly intertwine with legislative work, primarily in the sphere of establishing public control over the government. “The more effective and stronger the institutions of civil control, the less chance there is for abuse of official powers for both personal and group selfish interests, and therefore one of the tasks of the council is to develop effective forms of public control over state and municipal authorities,” said Mr. Putin. At the exit from the new body, the president expects specific proposals in the form of legislative initiatives, which will be formalized on behalf of the government and personally the head of state.
At the same time, the council will not have any repressive or investigative functions. This was once again emphasized by one of the ideologists of the creation of the new structure, Mr. Kozak. According to him, the body “will not replace law enforcement agencies and will not consider issues of specific offenses and violations of official discipline.” The Anti-Corruption Commission will examine legislation and analyze the activities of state authorities and local self-government for the presence of reasons for the development of corruption, Mr. Kozak explained. The second commission will consider issues related to “resolving conflicts of interest between officials appointed by the president and the government.” Mr. Kozak noted that the council's task is to apply anti-corruption mechanisms to "specific areas of government activity, for example, environmental management, distribution of apartments, and so on."
“The president is right that the point is not in specific laws, but in the content and style of the legislation itself,” says Georgy Satarov, president of the INDEM Foundation. - We need clear regulation of the activities of the bureaucracy, we need administrative reform. However, the president spoke not only about legislation, but also about the fact that in order to defeat corruption, it is necessary to develop democratic and legal institutions in the country. But what is happening to these institutions is more or less obvious: they are degrading here. This applies to media independence, political competition, parliamentarism, and the judicial system. So I see some contradiction between the correct words of the president and what is really happening in our country. Without the development of democratic institutions, the fight against corruption is impossible, so for now I am skeptical about the activities of the council. A good signal would be the utmost openness of the work of the council and its commissions, including the provision of information to the media. At worst, the council will become a useless advisory body to the president.” Alexey GRIVACHS, Ivan GORDEEV, Natalia ROZHKOVA |
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