Russia is the largest country in the world, containing a diverse landscape with forests, rivers, a frozen tundra and deserts. Pyotr Iliych Tchaivosky was a famous composer and Rudolph Nureyev was an extraordinary ballet dancer from Russia. At first glance, it's a great country-however, like every other country, it does have its flaws. In this article, I will be focusing on one specific problem(that resides in other countries, too)-corruption.
Once corruption in Russia's army is understood, it's a lot easier to understand the rest of the corruption across the rest of the country; so I'm going to start by explaining that.
Let's look at the war between Russia and Ukraine. If you've been reading the news, watching informational videos about current events in Russia, you may know that Russian tanks and military vehicles are breaking down and older Russian tanks are being used. Why? Corruption. People are pocketing the money that's supposed to be used for maintaining their equipment. Not only that; the money's also supposed to be used for paying and teaching people how to maintain it!
Here's another example of corruption in Russia. Let's say you're an officer in the Russian army. You've had a bad day and taken more losses than you thought you would. You barely managed to take down one Ukrainian tank, and now you have to report your progress today. What would you do? Well, you would lie, of course; that's how it works in the Russian army. You would say that you destroyed-let's say five tanks. Of course, you're doing this to 1. keep the higher-ups happy- and 2. keep your life.
I’m going to go a bit more into detail about what happens if you’re honest about taking losses or making less progress than you were expected to or should have. Doing so will cause the people around you to look bad(in the eyes of those in the Russian army). However, if you have a higher rank, there’s even more pressure. You would be expected to participate in more corrupt acts such as stealing and pocketing money that would otherwise be used for things like maintenance, equipment or funding. Being honest would still cause others to be suspicious of and lose any trust in you. Let’s use an analogy. Imagine you’re at school, and instead of doing work, the class decides to goof off and do their own thing. One day, you rat everyone out to the teacher. Of course nobody would trust you after that. Now, imagine corruption across the whole entire country of Russia. Money's being pocketed, items are sold for one's own selfish reasons, and people are being lied to-constantly; obviously a significant problem.
It is important to remember; Russia’s not the only country that is corrupt-there’s still others like Iran. In fact, China’s is much worse. Just understanding a bit about corruption can help you learn, and in general, it’s good to be aware of this problem. Thanks for reading!