In the wake of the 2016 Presidential Election, one of the constant narratives in American media and politics has been the prospect of Trump-Russia collusion and the potential role of the Russian government in influencing the outcome of the election. While the Russian government has long been viewed as a vaguely nefarious force by many Americans, it is only recently that the power of Putin’s Kremlin has been brought to the forefront of the American main stage. Just as scandals and partisan feuding is elemental in American politics, corruption has been a long-standing and widely accepted part of life in Russia.

History of Russian Government and Corruption

In order to understand the prevalence and pervasiveness of corruption in today’s Russia, one must look briefly at Russian history. Corruption and people’s erosion of trust in the government throughout Soviet times is well-documented. Primarily, the use and abuse of the secret police – the KGB – caused widespread fear throughout the USSR, and resulted in the withdrawal of the average citizen from civil engagement.

If one did want or need something done during Soviet times, bribery was seen as a necessary evil, and realistically, it was the only way of getting anything accomplished. In 1991, the Iron Curtain fell, and the Cold War officially ended. The Soviet Union dissolved, and Russia and its former satellite states were brought into the 20^th century. The assimilation of a fractured, loosely communist system fraught with bribery and corruption to the increasingly democracy-led world of the 1990s challenged long-held Russian political traditions of legal nihilism.

The Russian people saw how western populations trusted, to an extent, their leaders and political systems. Westerners valued democracy, and believed that they, the people, were in control of their own destiny. These notions were then, and are still, completely foreign to Russians. The distrust of the average citizen in Russia goes back to imperial times, when the Romanov family ruled over the Russian Empire. With the promise of democracy following perestroika in the 1980s, Russians were cautiously optimistic for real change. There was, for the first time since 1918, hope.

That hope eventually dissipated and returned to distrust and then despair as Russia watched itself go from a world power to a second-rate country in the 1990s, while the American economy surged and American power grew. Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB agent from 1975-1991, was elected President in 2000, after Boris Yeltsin, and has since sought to return Russia to her former power and glory – at the expense of any political system which would beget the trust of the people.

In contrast, Yeltsin sought to build confidence in the political system by establishing anti-corruption campaigns and reforming his own cabinet. He brought in Boris Nemtsov, a young reformer and liberal to focus on the reformation of the Russian economy from a quasi-communist system to a capitalist system. Yeltsin required all government purchases and services to go through a bidding process – a massive change for a system in which nepotistic privilege was the norm throughout Soviet times.

Bribery and Corruption in Russia Today

From the 2017 perspective, this was all doomed for failure. Bribery has managed to work its way into all aspects of Russian life once again, from politics to higher education, health care to law enforcement, to business and even foreign investment. Any westerner who has visited Russia knows to have several hundred rubles on himself at all times as the ‘militsiya’ – the police force – will often stop individuals for no apparent reason, conduct a search, and demand payment for their troubles.

The person stopped will be asked for identification, and a valid visa. Often, visitors do not have a visa on them, so they will usually be given an option to “deal with the situation,” rather than having to undergo a formal process. The officer will quote the person stopped a figure – usually between 500 and 1000 rubles – and the individual will likely pay the officer and go on their way. This is accepted and expected as normal in Russia – part of the secondary “shadow” economy, with these bribes considered to be part of the annual income for police officers.

While a seemingly small issue, this is indicative of the larger system in Russia: Transparency International ranks Russia at 131^st out of 176 countries in their Corruption Perceptions Index. This index links corruption and inequality, showing how people are deprived of basic needs as a direct result of corruption at high levels in official governments. For reference, Iran, Paraguay, Moldova, Pakistan, and Egypt all have better rankings than Russia.

Bribes in Russia are becoming more pervasive – according to the Interior Ministry’s Department for Combating Economic Crimes, the average bribe amounted to 9,000 rubles in 2008, but 236,000 rubles in 2011. Rosstat, the state statistical bureau, has estimated that the Russian shadow economy stands at 3.5%-7% of the total economy, while some World Bank estimates put the shadow economy at as much as 48% of the Russian GDP.

Salaries are unreported, and businessmen, both Russian and foreign, are able to pay smaller amounts or do favors for officials, allowing them to skirt taxes or other fees to which they would normally be subject. As such, the average Russian has seen a sharp increase in housing taxes, electricity, water, gas, and other necessities – all of which outpace normal inflation, but are suspiciously at the same exponential increase as the bribe amounts.

There is a notable increase in pushback against this system of bribes and corruption. In March of 2017, there were widespread protests across Russia, beginning in Moscow and organized by political activist Alexei Navalny, against corruption in the government. These were prompted by the release of the documentary He is Not Dimon to You, which claimed that Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has embezzled more than $1.2 billion by abusing his position as a public servant. The government did not issue any formal response, and the state-owned media largely ignored the film, even as it garnered millions of views. Dissatisfied with the response (or lack thereof), protesters began gathering to voice outrage. The police detained around 1,000 protesters, including Navalny.

Despite this, Russian activists and citizens alike continue to speak out against corruption using social media and other platforms which allow them to reach large audiences quickly. When surveyed by the Levada Center, an estimated 38% of Russians supported the protests, 79% of Russians believed that corruption had fully permeated or significantly taken hold in the government, and 67% of Russians held Putin entirely or largely responsible for corruption in the country.

The willingness of Russians to answer openly that they felt that the head of state was responsible for corruption is a step forward, and indicative of a larger change and unrest in the country. Younger generations in Russia seem unwilling to accept the status quo, and are energized and prepared to take action in their quest for sustained change in their country.