Yeltsin targets corruption, but some are skeptical

May 20, 1997
Web posted at: 4:26 p.m. EDT (2026 GMT)

From Correspondent Betsy Aaron

MOSCOW (CNN) -- In a single year, Russian Deputy Defense Minister and Chief Military Inspector Konstantin Kobets received official praise from President Boris Yeltsin -- only to be fired, charged with abuse of power, taking bribes, and misappropriating tens of billions of rubles.

Kobets' firing is one example of Yeltsin's latest crackdown on corruption, announced with great and prolonged fanfare by the president and other officials. The message is packaged -- it's slick and it's clear. The government will be honest and will fight corruption, and Yeltsin's closest aides are delivering the message.

"For the first time in the history of the defense ministry, there will be open bidding for contracts to supply sugar and fuel to the army," said Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov.

There are skeptics, those who don't believe Yeltsin's commitment to rooting out corruption.

"In today's system, the fight against corruption from above is absolutely impossible because the high echelons of power are corrupt from inside out," said investigative journalist Alexander Minkin.

For a start there has been no control over government spending. Just give your friend a lucrative oil deal, and you'll make him an instant millionaire.

"In order to get anything through sometimes you have to bribe, sometimes you have to co-opt a bureaucrat," said political analyst Andrei Kortunov. "There is no clear dividing line between business and state, between what is legal and what is illegal."

This is clearly illegal: In the army, many officers in Chechnya sold guns, ammunition and information, pocketing the huge profits.

In peacetime, some generals build their dachas -- weekend houses -- using questionable money, while many soldiers and officers have no places to live.

Yeltsin is right to tackle corruption. But his credibility is in question because he's been campaigning on the cleanup issue for almost a decade.

For centuries Russians have been unsuccessfully fighting corruption. But optimists believe now that Yeltsin is serving his last term, he'll have the guts to take on his own government -- along with many of his best friends.

 

Related stories:

• The Sexy Russian Mafia - a study from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime - May 16, 1996
• Russian mob gaining U.S. foothold with Italian help, senators told - May 16, 1996
• Yeltsin pledges to improve Russian living standards - July 11, 1996

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• Russia Today

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