Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

A Culture of Corruption Defies Efforts at Reform

The Moscow Times

Wounded in Afghanistan and an 18-year veteran of the elite Alfa counter-terrorist forces, Sergei Vasilenko considers himself a patriot.

Which is why, when his bosses at the Federal Security Service asked him in 2010 to investigate corruption, he jumped at the chance.

The problem, Vasilenko now says, was that his new chiefs at the Federal Tax Service didn’t want him to do his job properly.

Vasilenko’s experience opens a window into what even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, bidding for a third Kremlin term, calls Russia’s “systemic” corruption. It’s a malaise that Putin’s political opponents say has flourished during the prime minister and former president’s 12 years as the country’s most powerful leader.

Vasilenko says his investigation, into suspected fraud involving tax officials in Moscow, met a wall of silence and he was soon out of a job. The Federal Tax Office said it had investigated Vasilenko’s allegations but declined further comment.