What, to whom, how much? On corruption in Russia

Corruption infiltrates all spheres of social life in Russia – from politics through business to everyday life. Although the authorities have repeatedly announced their willingness to fight the scourge of abuse, many politicians and officials are still eager to upsize their estates or find financial peace in the tax havens. The slogan that "corruption in Russia is systemic” repeats like a mantra in the discourse. What does this exactly mean? How do Russians regard this phenomenon? Do they really not care, because in the end "everyone steals", or maybe they just realize that survival and success depend on adapting to the current game rules? How to understand the latest protests and the consolidation of the anti-corruption movement around the opposition leader Alexei Navalny? Those are some questions that we tried to answer.

GUESTS

Grażyna Kopińska – an expert of the Responsible State program at the Stefan Batory Foundation. She ran a program for supporting small and medium enterprises in the Foundation for the Development of Local Democracy, was a Ford Foundation consultant for Central Europe, a member of the anti-corruption group at the World Bank, and a member of the Public Procurement Council. She is the author of industry studies devoted to the fight on corruption and transparency issue in electoral finances and the law-making process.

Artem Torchinskiy – an activist of the  Alexei Navalny’s Fight against Corruption Foundation, runs the TV program Dengi [Money] on the Dozhdʹ Television. Torchinskiy is graduate of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Russian Academy of Economy. He worked at EvroSibEnergo,  RAO UES (Unified Energy System of Russia) and the Federal Energy Agency.

Dariusz Rosiak – journalist of the Polish Radio Three since 2006, runs a Report on the state of the world program. He used to report from Africa and the USA. He began his career at the Radio France Internationale in Paris, then, throughout the 1990s he worked at the BBC in London. He wrote, among others, to Życie Warszawy, Życie, Tygodnik Powszechny and Architektura. After returning to Poland in 1999, he was the deputy editor in chief of  PAP, Newsweek, Forum, supervisor of a department in Przekrój, he created and managed the weekly Ozon. Author of the book Faces of Great Britain.