Dear Log,
«Ironically, the size of Russia's bureaucracy has doubled since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, there are about 1.2 million officials -- up from 600,00 in 1990. That's a lot of mouths to feed.That article is simply... breathtaking.According to a poll carried out by the InDem think tank, the Russian bribe market saw an eleven-fold increase from 2001, vastly outpacing economic growth and inflation. It now floats somewhere around 319 billion dollars, annually. That amount equals half of Russia's GDP and exceeds the country's national budget by 2.66 times. The poll also found that something like 30% of all international credit given to Russia goes to grease the palms of the chinovniki.»
--"Bribe to Live, Live to Bribe": An eXile guide to who costs what in Putin's Russia
