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Nov 20, 2009 10:38 EST

Russia’s shocking corruption belies Medvedev’s tough rhetoric

Everyone knows that Russia is corrupt, but did you know just how corrupt? The short answer is: more than any other country. That, at least, is the conclusion of a survey just published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which examines the level of economic crime around the world.

 

PwC canvassed more than 3,000 companies in 55 countries, 89 of them in Russia. It asked them if they had been the victim of frauds such as embezzlement, bribery and crooked accounting. Russia topped the list, with 71% of respondents reporting at least one instance of fraud during the previous twelve months.

 

The PwC report makes alarming reading for potential investors. The extent of fraud in Russia is even worse than in Kenya (67%) or South Africa (62%), the next countries down the list. Russia’s score was also far above the global average (30%), as well as the averages for Central and Eastern Europe (34%) and BRIC countries (34%). What’s more, there has been a “shocking” rise in the prevelance of fraud in Russia since the last PwC survey in 2007. 

 

COMMENT

How can you precisely measure the level of corruption all over the world. East and West are totally different and the corruption level is measured by western measurements. Also hard to believe that West is not corrupted. To be specific I mean the United States. How many shady businesses here? I know that majority of people are suckers here and they don’t even noticed that they get fooled. How many times the landlords were stealing money me. I asked around and everyone had the same problem. But they steal $25 which doesn’t worth to fire a law suite and they know it. How about all those car shops in small towns? When they charge you X dollars for a spark plug, you go online and every store sells that specific spark plug including shipping for X/4 dollars. Maybe this is not considered a corruption but it would be nice if they post specific definition of it.

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