Is Russia a corrupt country
Executive summary
Russia ranks very poorly on objective global measures of public‑sector corruption: Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index gave Russia 22/100 and placed it 154th of 180 countries—its worst result in history [1][2]. Multiple reporting and analyst profiles describe corruption in Russia as widespread across public administration, business and the judiciary and say enforcement is politicized [3][4].
1. Corruption by the numbers: where Russia stands globally
Transparency International’s CPI—widely used to compare countries—records Russia at 22 out of 100 for 2024 and ranks it 154th of 180, a historic low for the country and a clear quantitative signal that experts see Russia’s public sector as highly corrupt [1][2].
2. How experts and indexes describe the problem: endemic, systemic, political
Analyses and encyclopedic summaries describe corruption in Russia not as occasional graft but as entrenched across economy, politics, public administration, law enforcement, health and education; commentators have used terms such as kleptocracy, oligarchy and plutocracy to capture the scale and political character of that corruption [3]. Country‑risk and compliance firms add that enforcement mechanisms exist on paper but are weak in practice because the judiciary and anti‑corruption institutions are politicized [4].
3. Business and legal risks: corruption’s practical effects
Private‑sector risk profiles say corruption raises transaction costs, distorts competition and creates unpredictable legal outcomes for companies operating in Russia, with bribery, irregular public procurement and interference in courts flagged as recurring risks [4]. Those practical impediments align with the CPI score and with reporting that the problem reaches both high‑level elites and low‑level officials [3][4].
4. What Transparency International and local activists say—and their warnings
Transparency International’s Russian‑language reporting and affiliated commentators emphasize a vicious cycle: weak democratic institutions enable corruption, which then further weakens oversight and civic remedies; TI’s 2024 CPI analysis and follow‑up commentaries call for support for independent NGOs and media that expose wrongdoing [1][5].
5. Competing narratives and official responses
Russian official discourse—as captured in state and pro‑government outlets represented among the search results—often frames corruption as a universal problem or as an issue exploited by geopolitical rivals, and stresses that “corruption exists everywhere” to relativize criticism [6][7]. Those sources imply Western hypocrisy or selective attention; reporting and indices cited above present a countervailing empirical case that Russia’s perceived corruption is unusually high for Europe [1][3].
6. Limitations of the evidence and what it does not say
The CPI measures perceived public‑sector corruption using expert and business surveys; it does not measure private morality, every instance of graft, or the full causal chain that produces corrupt outcomes—nor do the cited sources provide exhaustive recent case lists of prosecutions or convictions in Russia [2][1][4]. Available sources do not mention comprehensive domestic conviction data or a counterfactual analysis proving that scores fully reflect current on‑the‑ground trends beyond perception indexes [2][1].
7. Context: why this matters for geopolitics and everyday life
Where corruption is concentrated in public procurement, courts and the security apparatus, it shapes both foreign investment decisions and the lived experience of citizens—raising costs, skewing public services and concentrating wealth in politically connected networks. Analysts and country‑risk firms warn investors and policymakers to treat Russia as a high‑corruption environment when assessing legal and reputational exposure [4][3].
8. Bottom line and alternative viewpoints
The balance of the sources presented is clear: Russia is widely described by indexes and policy analysts as a country with very high public‑sector corruption (CPI 22/100, rank 154/180) and with weak, politicized enforcement institutions [1][2][4]. Pro‑government narratives argue corruption is a global problem and push back against selective criticism [6][7]. Readers should weigh both the quantitative index evidence and the political framing used by different actors when forming judgments [1][6].