Empire of corruption : the territory of the Russian national pastime

The fight against corruption is Russia’s national sport. Everyone is fighting corruption. But judging by the fact that every new leader identifies this as one of his main goals, corruption inevitably wins. Why? Is it some sort of awful ailment, which, despite all our efforts, it is impossible to cure. Or maybe we are trying to fight something which is not, in the broadly accepted sense, corruption at all, but something altogether different. Meaning that all our efforts are always doomed to failure. As soon as Dmitry Medvedev became president, he set up two Commissions. The first was aimed at improving the operation of the justice system, the second was tasked with the fight against corruption. All of the leading experts were summoned. Several years passed, and, as I understand it, the fight against corruption still remains one of the main goals of the government — even if a lot has been achieved in the field. Government officials have been obliged to complete income declarations which are then publically discussed, a number of generals were dismissed for providing inaccurate information in their declarations, and one of them was even subject to legal proceedings. However, there was no breakthrough in the public consciousness. Asides from everything else, Russia’s rating as a country to do business with is offensively low, and Russia maintains a stubbornly high position in the lists of countries which are dominated by corruption. Everyone talks about corruption. But there are several fundamental misunderstandings at work. The main one is that when a policeman, or a traffic policeman, or a doctor, or a teacher, or a journalist take bribes, then they are all corrupt. But then what we see at the next level up we don’t perceive as corruption — heaven forbid! — but administrative rent-seeking. It seems that we see those people sitting in the higher positions not as thieves, bribe-takers or criminals, but rentiers, who are just making...

Empire of Corruption is Vladimir Soloviev's attempt to share his opinions on Russia's ways of dealing with corruption. With a certain irony, Soloviev calls the issue 'the Russian national pastime', explaining why in the country where everyone is supposedly fighting corruption, corruption still rules. The author's detailed research into the corruption structure in Russia, with concrete examples and historical references, is now available to the reader in the English language. Soloviev goes further than just talking about the basics of this evil phenomenon; the author suggests a method, a personal path each citizen of Russia may follow to avert corruption in their country. Vladimir Soloviev is a famous Russian journalist, TV and radio host and public figure. His career began after graduating from one of Russia's main institutes of technology and obtaining a PhD degree in economics. At first, he taught science in high school, then spent two years teaching economics at Alabama State University. Upon his return to Russia, Soloviev went into business. Since the late 1990s he has been a popular host on Russian radio and television, has worked in the theatre and in cinematography, has led corporate training, and has given many lectures. Soloviev's bibliography consists of more than two dozen titles on the hottest topics in modern Russian society.