The first meeting of the Russian Anti-Corruption Council took place. Experts argue about its effectiveness. But are there examples of successful fight against corruption in the world? (The survey was prepared by Anton Osipov.)

An interesting example is Italy, where they passed a law requiring people to prove their origin. The Italians managed to knock the economic foundation out from under the mafia, and corruption ties immediately collapsed. But the campaign was carried out simultaneously with the liberalization of laws. In particular, they softened the penalties for economic offenses (but not crimes). In 1942, the United States held a financial amnesty, established clear and precise rules of the game in the economic sphere, and then toughened the penalties - and also reduced corruption. But the main thing is to make corruption unprofitable. An Australian policeman does not earn much, about $1,000 a month. But it is easy for him to open a credit line - after all, he is in the civil service, where his salary is guaranteed. The prestige of the civil service is very high. He has insurance, and when he retires, he will receive from $250,000 to $500,000 to live comfortably. He has housing provided by the state, which he will also receive as property. It is not profitable for him to take a bribe: if he is caught, he will lose it all. But any of these systems can be launched only if the rules of the game in the economy are clearly formulated.

Kirill Kabanov,

The fight against corruption can be preventive and repressive. The repressive method is fully demonstrated by China, which practices the death penalty for corruption, which, however, does not reduce the number of sentences under the relevant articles. The preventive method requires long, hard work, a change of a couple of generations - in general, 40 years of wandering in the desert. The example of Scandinavian countries is illustrative: in Sweden, the law on disclosure of information was adopted back in 1783. At first, few people followed it, but over two centuries it managed to soak into the blood of people, as well as the institution of civil control. These are not public control commissions, but first of all real elections and transparency of power. Estonia, following the example of the Scandinavians, is now establishing a system where all orders of officials appear in an electronic system open to citizens. You can monitor the actions of an official in real time, or you can retroactively understand who is responsible for this or that decision and demand an explanation from him. I also like the example of Slovakia, where all initiatives related to ensuring transparency of power took place from the bottom up: they started with a discussion of the main theses in the media. As a result, the country developed an understanding of how one can and cannot act.

Elena Panfilova,

In China, the death penalty has been introduced for corruption. But the fight is of a campaign nature, reminiscent of our pre-election identification of "werewolves in uniform". After the party congress in the fall of 2002 and the change of power, the campaign died down. Corruption remains, and the people do not believe that anything will change in this regard. But they fight bribes well in Hong Kong. The Independent Commission for Combating Corruption alone is worth something - it is a strong and effective body that has the right to listen to conversations and provoke people to take a bribe.

Evgeniy Verlin,

Where is corruption successfully eradicated?