Posted on 02/19/2004 7:26:27 PM PST by RussianConservative
MOSCOW - In an interview on RBC TV, Viktor Makushin, President the MAIR industrial group, expressed doubt that the Russian government is intelligent enough to effectively sort out the problem of corruption. He was commenting on the setting up of the Anti-Corruption Council headed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.
In Mr. Makushin’s opinion, it is necessary to “effectively review all laws” in order to root out corruption. He said all of Russia’s key laws were ineffective in this respect.
“That is why corruption has become a business, and people make money at it,” Mr. Makushin stressed. In his opinion, a system should be created whereby “it would be uninteresting and not beneficial for businesses to offer bribes”.
Businesses vary greatly, and when large businesses push through some laws, it is unclear whether they will be beneficial to smaller businesses and the state as a whole, he says. According to Mr. Makushin, businesses pay about 7-8 percent of their product sales in bribes. For this reason Western companies didn’t want to work in Russia, he noted.
Earlier this week, Boris Gryzlov, Chairman of the State Duma, said a department would be set up in the Duma to examine bills in terms of corruption. The approval of the department will be required for all bills. “This will ensure that this or that bill is not used for the purposes of corruption,” he said. According to Oleg Morozov, Deputy Chairman of the United Russia faction, this measure will also help stop lobbying.
Now this is an interesting dilema. Bribes may be a standard or cultural way of doing business in Russia. But in the US, you can be charged with an illegal bribe, be sued, etc. Lobbying is OK as long as no paricular party or person has a personal financial gain. Perks are OK. There maybe just a thin line separating these two but it is discernable, especially in a court of law.
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