Russian officials steal a third of the budget

Posted By Blake Hounshell Friday, June 6, 2008 - 12:13 PM Share

Corrupt officials are raking off a sum equivalent to one third of Russia's annual budget, or $120 billion, a senior prosecutor was quoted as saying Friday.

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ANTALDANIEL

5:53 AM ET

June 8, 2008

A fair guess for transition countries in general

I am afraid this is a very fair estimate for all transition countries. Privatization, contracts between formerly state-owned companies and the state after privatization, subcontracting government or state-owned companies, monopolizing some elements of foreign trade are key factors to this as well as a massive rebuilding of the basic transport infrastructure according to the needs of a more open economy. As a (former) regulator of a Hungarian former state monopoly I cannot prove but understand that this may be a very good guess. Dániel Antal

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