Russian bribes multiplied almost by 10 since 2001

Russians report paying almost ten times as much in bribes now as they did in 2001, according to a study published Wednesday that casts doubt on President Vladimir Putin's claims to be tackling endemic corruption.
The study by the Indem think tank found in a poll that Russians expected to have to pay a total of 319 billion US dollars (266 billion euros) in bribes this year - 315 billion dollars of this by businesses.
The study questioned 4,000 people, including 1,000 businessmen and women, Indem chairman Georgy Satarov told journalists.
Following a decade of shady practices by businesses and the government under president Boris Yeltsin, Putin promised on election to his first term in 2000 to install a "dictatorship of the law" in Russia. In April this year, Putin castigated "the inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy."
In an index compiled last year by corruption watchdog Transparency International, Russia ranked 90th in the world, alongside Mozambique.
The Indem report found that the biggest reported increase in bribe-paying was in the business community, where the estimated sum of 315 billion dollars for this year was up from 33.5 billion dollars reported in a similar study carried out in 2001.
Businessmen told researchers that in order to run effective companies the average size of the bribes they would pay this year would be 135,000 dollars, compared to just 10,000 dollars in 2001. Bribes ensure allow businessmen "to overcome administrative barriers, ... to get protection from officials," Satarov said.
Indem found that smaller-scale bribe-paying - often used to obtain better hospital treatment, to win university places, or to pay off traffic police - has seen only a small rise from 2.8 billion dollars to three billion dollars in total. "The market for day-to-day corruption is stable," Satarov said.
But a huge rise is reported in bribes paid to win young men exemption from obligatory service in Russia's military, which is fighting its second war in Chechnya in a decade and is plagued by human rights abuses and suicide. Satarov said such bribes were rising to 353.6 million dollars this year, compared to 12.7 million in 2001.