David Satter, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, penned a very helpful article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal titled "Why Putin is Tottering." I hadn't realized the extent of corruption in Russia.
After the chaos of the 1990s, during which many government institutions barely functioned, Mr. Putin succeeded in establishing the authority of the state. But criminality didn't decline—it merely migrated to the organs of the government.
It is normal in Russia to bribe bureaucrats for routine approvals. Within the system of state procurement, kickbacks account for as much as 50% of the cost of purchases. Russians pay bribes to register property, fix a traffic ticket, avoid the draft, and secure places for children in school. According to Transparency International, Russia ranks 154th out of 178 countries in corruption—on a level with Cambodia and the Central African Republic.
Russia faces many other problems also.
Russians are also plagued by a fear of terrorism. . . . Russian insecurity also derives from the absence of the rule of law. . . .
But Russia's unfair legal system touches ordinary citizens too. The acquittal rate in Russia is less than 1% (compared to 15% in U.S. federal courts and 15%-40% in state courts). Many convictions are obtained with the help of beatings, intimidation and blackmail. For this and other reasons, Russians file more complaints with the European Court of Human Rights than people from any other of the 46 countries in the Council of Europe. . . .
The prospect of Mr. Putin in power for another 12 years is one reason, according to a recent poll from the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, that 22% of Russians want to leave the country. In the 18-24 age group, the number was almost 40%. . .
Concluding paragraph:
The weakness of today's Russia is that Communist values were never succeeded by genuinely democratic norms. Without these norms, Mr. Putin's desire to rule forever is unrealistic. Even the effect of relative prosperity begins to wear off for a population forced to live with rampant lawlessness. This is the reason that the waves of protest in Russia will continue—and that, 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians have another chance to gain the democracy that they sought but didn't achieve after Communism's fall.
Read the whole article for much more.