Corruption System against Russia

Abstract

Today the corruption has become a major threat for the national security. Not only individual corrupted officials and embezzlers turn against Russia, but also a huge and powerful corruption system. Analysis of the corruption as a negative social phenomenon shows that it implies the totality of all corruption acts, all corrupted officials, as well as an entire independent corruptogenic system. This system often lacks the attention of analysts. Corruption has now acquired a systemic character in Russia. The institutions involved in the study of the corruption phenomenon in Russia include the Law School of Far Eastern Federal University, where in June 1997 the Vladivostok Centre for the Study of Organized Crime was established as part of a wider initiative of American University’s Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) to create and support United Research Centres on Organized Crime in Eurasia. The Centre researchers study the patterns and development of organized crime as well as methods of defeating the socially devastating manifestation of organized crime and the closely associated phenomena of corruption, money laundering, contract killings, illegal narcotics trade, etc. The Vladivostok Centre has produced a large body of research, analysis, translated international literature and popular scholarly works; it has prepared a number of books, textbooks, and academic articles, including many concerning corruption. The inefficiency of the state’s efforts to combat corruption is explained by the fact that the main corruption-causing factors remain unaddressed. They include deformation of the political sphere (privatization of the state, the absence of a real separation of powers, the dominance of the executive branch of government over all others, lack of necessary rotation, irreplaceable officials, lack of transparency, the presence of “shadow” power and “shadow” law)