Translated material
"Everywhere they can ask for money"
Russians consider law enforcement agencies to be the main corrupt officials
The level of corruption in Russia is not decreasing . The authorities' attempts to combat this social evil do not impress Russians. The majority of Russian citizens do not believe that any victories should be expected on the anti-corruption front. Which is understandable: compatriots consider those who are called upon to fight corruption - law enforcement officers - to be the most corrupt. These are the results of a survey conducted in June-September 2007 by the national branch of Gallup International commissioned by the international public organization Transparency International.More than 1,500 people from different regions, representing different walks of life, participated in the survey. The survey revealed, as Elena Panfilova, director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Initiatives Transparency International - R, said yesterday, that “there are no absolutely non-corrupt areas of life left. They can ask for money everywhere.” At the same time, according to her, Russian reality is fundamentally different from global trends (similar surveys were conducted in 60 countries around the world). Abroad, it is mainly the poor segments of the population who encounter manifestations of corruption, as they say, at the everyday level, but in our country everyone pays bribes - both the poor and the rich.
Bribes in Russia are already divided into two categories: a “comfort” bribe and a “survival” bribe. The first is given when, for example, they want to quickly leave the scene of a traffic violation, without waiting for a protocol to be filled out, or they want to speed up the passage of documents in any government agency. The second type of bribes is common where, say, without a bribe you can simply lose your health. It is enough to recall the situation in Russian hospitals.
According to the survey results, law enforcement agencies are the most corrupt in Russia. 40% of Russians surveyed with high incomes, 17% with average incomes, and 26% with low incomes paid bribes to their employees. (It is noteworthy that businessmen also have the biggest complaints against law enforcement agencies. According to the results of a survey commissioned by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs presented on Wednesday by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, 43% of respondents named law enforcement agencies as the main source of corruption.)
The education sector ranks second among Russians in the corruption rating. Bribes were given by 19% of respondents with high incomes, 14% with average incomes, and 11% with low incomes. At the third stage is medical care. 8% of Russians with high incomes received medical services in exchange for bribes, the same number with average incomes, and 6% with low incomes.
Judging by the survey results, Russians are skeptical about the actions of the authorities aimed at curbing corruption. Their “uncompromising” struggle is considered effective by only 12% of respondents (while a year ago 20% held this opinion). 38% believe that the fight against corruption is being carried out “neither way nor that way”. Exactly half of those surveyed are confident that the authorities’ actions in this area are ineffective.
However, there is nothing surprising in such an assessment. In fact, in all 16 years of the existence of the new Russia, only one significant step has been taken in the fight against corruption: last year the State Duma ratified the UN conventions against corruption and the Council of Europe on criminal liability for this type of crime. Until now, Russia has not even adopted a basic anti-corruption law. Not to mention the creation of a special body to combat this social evil.
Apparently, due to the inaction of the authorities, Russians look to the future with pessimism. Only 15% of respondents believe that the situation in the fight against corruption will improve, 40% are confident that everything will remain as before, and 45% believe that corruption in Russia will become even greater.