Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

One Year Before Russia’s Presidential Election, Systemic Corruption Subverts Reform

Freedom House

One year before the pivotal presidential election in March 2012, Russia confronts an immense and growing corruption problem at all levels of government and society that severely threatens chances for reform, according to a special report released today by Freedom House and the Latvian policy institute Providus.

The report, The Perpetual Battle: Corruption in the Former Soviet Union and New EU Member States, describes the extent to which Russia’s entire institutional apparatus—including the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, security services, and news media—now conspires to fuel state-led corruption. In addition, the study finds that despite the passage of two decades since the collapse of the Soviet system, most of the non-Baltic former Soviet Union remains mired in institutionalized graft.