Features of national corruption

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The topic of corruption in modern Russia is extremely interesting, since it has a special character, weakly associated with classical corruption schemes. And we are used to the fact that corruption is when officials receive bribes for certain actions.

In this case, there are two options. The first option is when officials receive money for committing acts that are contrary to the law. Well, that is you can't do something, but officials do it for money. This is a bribe. And another option is when officials receive money for what they have to do in their service. Such a completely classical corruption.

But in modern Russia everything is different. The fact is that the modern Russian elite was created in the early nineties - in the process of privatization. For those who tried to create a system of external control over Russia, the easiest way (which, by the way, was used in many countries) is to create a corrupt elite. And as a result, the privatization system itself was made as corrupt as possible.

That is, in other words, all privatization transactions were carried out in violation of the law, and the violators of the laws received money for this. But in our specific, Russian case, an elite has also emerged, for which the only way to increase its wealth is privatization. Since in the nineties it was privatization that created the largest financial flows, the representatives of this privatization team gradually spread their influence throughout the country.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in most countries of the world, entrepreneurs are one group, and corrupt officials are another. And they usually do not overlap, because entrepreneurs are engaged in their exclusively entrepreneurial activities. In Russia, the corrupt officials, officials and owners of the largest capital created in the process of privatization are either the same people, or they are very closely connected through affiliated structures.

Those. in other words, this corrupt privatization, carried out by Russian officials, but under the control of mainly American advisers, has created a very specific elite, which generally views the state and its parts as its own structure, which should generate commercial income.

Thus, Russia is a very specific country in which the functions of a formal business owner (I don’t want to say “entrepreneur”, I will talk about this a little later) and an official are the same. These are two business representatives. Only for one business is associated with some kind of activity, roughly speaking, economic, while for the other - with control over the budget or other administrative functions.

But I repeat once again: these are the same business elements from the point of view of the modern Russian elite. They view the position of an official as a business project. At the same time, since people who are formally businessmen have never been involved in business themselves and have never been entrepreneurs, for this reason in business they, to put it mildly, are not very successful.

And, accordingly, firstly, in order to ensure their status and preserve opportunities, they need to eliminate competition from real entrepreneurs at any cost. And it is for this reason that small and medium-sized businesses are being deliberately liquidated in Russia.

And secondly, they need to constantly cover losses at the expense of budget money. Only we are not talking about the privatization of assets, but about the privatization of budgets and administrative functions. Those. in fact, all bureaucratic administrative positions in Russia have been privatized.

Within the framework of such an elite scheme, first of all, constructive development is impossible, because no one is developing. An entrepreneur will never develop, because he understands that he is defenseless against arbitrariness on the part of officials who begin to impose "tribute" on him - well, this is their business!

If there is someone who receives some money on the territory under their jurisdiction, either tax, or administrative, or some other person, then they naturally have to partially redistribute it in their favor. Well, and quite quickly, this additional load will make the business unprofitable.

In addition, since there are already oligarchs, i.e. large political figures in their respective fields, they begin to view such an entrepreneur as a competitor. And they begin to liquidate it simply so that there is no threat to their oligarchic business empires.

Those. development is in principle impossible. And, in fact, any kind of maintenance of the existing system and the living standards of the population is possible only if there is a very powerful incoming stream. In the 2000s, this inflow was supported by rising oil prices. Today there is no such flow, so the situation is constantly deteriorating.

Moreover, the privatization of administrative functions continues. Those. If earlier it was believed that the functions of deputy prime ministers and ministers could be privatized, but at the level of, say, mayors of cities or those responsible for housing and communal services in cities it is better not to privatize, today this is no longer the case. Those. there, to the natural corruption that has existed since Soviet times and which is always there (just because you need to repair pipes, dig pits, etc., a completely normal economic activity), a powerful corruption superstructure was added, associated with the fact that they are considering positions as a business structure.

As a result, all more or less meaningful activities - like preparing for winter - were completely eliminated. Simply from the point of view of a person who considers the position of the head of housing and communal services as a business project, spending money, which is his net profit, on all sorts of digging holes and feeding workers is idiocy.

This is the basic problem of Russia. Strictly speaking, from the point of view of the privatization elite of the nineties, this is not corruption at all. What kind of corruption are we talking about? They have privatized the function; this is their private property. Yes, unlike classical private property, it is given for a time. But it doesn't matter at all. It can be considered that this is a lease of a certain commercial position, or a contract, or something else.

How is it going in business? A person is appointed by contract to the position of general director. In the same way, a person under contract is appointed to the post of an official, head of a department in a ministry, or a deputy minister, or somewhere else. And he is in business, i.e. makes a profit from the position that he received.

By the way, this is another remarkable property. Sorry, but today in Russia it is almost impossible to be appointed to a position for free. Just because this position is a business. And even if the state of affairs in a certain sphere is catastrophic and there it is necessary to "dump" a person who will be able to understand and save the situation, then all the same, people from parallel connected structures, people who are under him, people who are above him, will demand from him to continue here is this business activity.

And thus this position - it requires money. Because he will have to pay some kind of tribute there, he will have to provide income for his subordinates, otherwise they will not work, and so on.

At the same time, if in the nineties the vital activity of all systems was supported at the expense of the old Soviet professionals, now they are all fired. This, by the way, is very clearly seen in personnel appointments. Even in very functionally specific positions, effective managers or lawyers are found to be. people whose task is to do business. Who do not know at all what is going on under them. For example, how is this very housing and communal services arranged. They are not interested in this, they have different functionality.

In conditions when the incoming economic flows are not enough even for simple reproduction of the economy, this inevitably leads to all sorts of disasters. We see the situation in the space industry and in many others. And, in general, only one thing can be said: today we cannot ensure the normal reproduction of the Russian economy. And not only economically, but also managerially. Because people come who don't know at all, they don't even have anyone to learn from.

Those. even if suddenly, contrary to expectations, there is a person who wants to do something besides business, he cannot. Because he not only does not know how what is arranged there, he does not even have anyone to ask. And for this reason, we can safely say that the existing system is doomed to certain death.

If everything was fine in the neighboring countries, it would quickly lead to total destruction, to a situation similar to the one now in Ukraine. In fact, we are moving in the same direction as Ukraine, only more slowly. But since everyone else has similar problems - for different reasons, but the scale is comparable, in the European Union, in the United States of America, in China - then theoretically we have a chance. But I doubt more and more that this chance can be realized through some evolutionary mechanisms.

Evolutionary - this means changing, for example, the regulatory framework so that it is possible to train real specialists so that they gradually replace businessmen - and return to the normal practice of public administration. Because in today's situation, all laws, all bylaws, all lower-level regulations are built under the logic that any position is a business project.

And even if today even an absolutely honest and absolutely normal person finds himself in some place, he cannot do anything, because he is bound hand and foot by these business schemes. I draw your attention to the fact that even those things that are, as it were, considered anti-corruption (for example, legislation on state competition) are aimed at one and only thing: to minimize the commercial benefit that an official can give to the side.

At the same time, no one talks about how to achieve a certain result. They don't talk about the result at all! And thus, the only way to deal with this somehow is to radically change the entire regulatory framework and the entire management model. And this is possible only in a revolutionary way, when it is said: everything, from this moment on, all legislation (in some area) does not work at all, period, we are changing. This is a revolution, but, as it were, in such a narrow sense of the word, let's say, it is "not evolution."

This is the situation we have today. I believe that we have already crossed the red line, and in this sense, it is no longer possible to get out of the dead end that the system has entered with evolutionary methods.

Saltykov-Shchedrin, through the lips of his hero, said a wonderful phrase: "Enlightenment in Russia should be introduced in moderation, avoiding bloodshed as much as possible." Moreover, in the broadest possible sense of the word "bloodshed". Those. if we want now to truly "enlighten" our society (in terms of a real fight against corruption), then we will not be able to avoid "bloodshed" …