UNITED RUSSIA: CORRUPTION AND THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 000377

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DEPT FOR EUR/RUS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM RS
SUBJECT: UNITED RUSSIA: CORRUPTION AND THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN


Classified By: Pol M/C Alice G. Wells: Reason 1.4 (d).

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Summary
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1. (C) As the campaign for the December State Duma election
gets underway, the Kremlin-sponsored United Russia (YR) party
has announced initiatives to fight Russia's long-festering
problem of corruption. Observers expect that, as in past
years, the anti-corruption mantra will largely be used to
control or eliminate political opponents, and to fish for
votes in the upcoming elections. With corruption widely
believed to be on the increase, and YR-associated government
officials the chief offenders, the party is attempting to
seize the initiative on this key issue. End summary.

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Corruption in Russia
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2. (SBU) Corruption in Russia is widespread and deeply
rooted. Seventy-eight percent of Russians believe that
corruption is high and that government officials are the
chief offenders, according to a November 2006 poll by the All
Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM). United
Russia (YR) party officials have told us that their polls
have highlighted corruption as the voting public's single
greatest concern. While businesses pay the largest bribes,
ordinary Russians often pay as well in order to receive basic
services such as access to medical care, higher education,
and housing.

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United Russia's Anti-Corruption Program
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3. (U) In openly worrying about corruption (even while
dismissing it as "transitional," and "not unique to Russia"),
YR is closely following the lead of President Putin. (On
April 10, 2006, Putin told his cabinet that high-level
corruption must be eliminated. On May 10, 2006, in his
annual address to the Federal Assembly, Putin cited
corruption as a major drag on Russia's economy.) At YR's
December 2006 party convention in Yekaterinburg, Mikhail
Grishankov, United Russia member and chairman of the Duma's
Anti-Corruption Commission, outlined new, anti-corruption
initiatives, and the party termed the fight against
corruption a "priority." Initiatives described by Grishankov
included creating an independent anti-corruption body
directly controlled by the President and increasing
transparency in the reporting of earning and expenses of
public officials and their families. YR Presidium Deputy
Secretary Vladimir Katrenko announced plans to introduce

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anti-corruption legislation required for Russia's February
2007 accession to GRECO (the Council of Europe's
anti-corruption league) this spring. (Note: Russia has yet
to ratify the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, a requirement for
OECD membership.)


4. (SBU) YR Chairman Boris Gryzlov has spoken frequently
since the convention about the need to attack corruption, but
(perhaps sensing his party's vulnerability on this issue) he
has stressed that a public that offers bribes is as
responsible for the corrupt state of affairs as the
bureaucrats who take their money. Gryzlov has been at pains
to insist that the current, YR-controlled Duma's failure to
pass an anti-corruption law did not mean that his party was
not serious about attacking the problem. His party planned
to manage corruption, Gryzlov has said, by increasing control
over Russia's sprawling bureaucracy.


5. (SBU) In addition to making encouraging noises about
combating corruption, YR has been quick to expel YR officials
accused of engaging in corrupt behavior. In a recent
exchange, YR Duma Deputy Gennadiy Raykov rejected charges by
KPRF Duma Deputy Valeriy Rashkin that 107 members of YR's
local organizations have been charged with corruption by
arguing that, once charged, officials were expelled from the
party, and hence no longer the responsibility of YR.

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Cynicism Among the Experts
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6. (SBU) In a recent conversation, the Moscow Carnegie
Center's Nikolay Petrov was skeptical that YR's
anti-corruption measures were anything other than
election-year politics. He noted that government employees
-- YR's base -- were the main offenders and beneficiaries of

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corruption. Petrov allowed that everyone in politics agrees
with President Putin that corruption is a net negative for
the economy, but said the practice is too deeply embedded to
address without "completely changing the political order."
Petrov found some consolation in the YR's "lip service"
because "it at least shows that they are listening to the
electorate. Now, we just have to get them to act."


7. (SBU) Carnegie civil society expert Masha Lipman seconded
Petrov's pessimism. She told us it was unlikely that there
would be even a theoretical consensus for changing the status
quo as long as oil and gas prices remained high enough to
allow both corruption and a reasonable standard of living for
the majority of the population. Lipman maintained that the
degree of corruption was, if anything, increasing in advance
of the 2007-2008 national elections.


8. (SBU) The Public Chamber's Anti-Corruption Commission's
Chairman Andrey Przhezdomskiy told us that corruption was a
source of widespread concern among Russia's political
classes, especially as it seemed to be growing.
Przhezdomskiy told us that his Commission recently sent to
the Presidential Administration, the Duma, and the law
enforcement chiefs recommendations designed to begin the
difficult task of combating corruption. Still, Przhezdomskiy
acknowledged that a buoyant economy had meant that nagging
popular concern about corruption had yet to crystallize into
an imperative for immediate action. Also playing a role, he
said, was Russia's "tradition" of corruption. Przhezdomskiy
said, however, that the government had made an important
first step in acknowledging the problem, but agreed that it
lacked the will to make serious inroads.


9. (C) The head of Russia's branch of Transparency
International (TI),Yelena Panfilova, was also skeptical.
She viewed the recent calls to fight corruption as an
"unbeatable" theme for an election campaign, noting that it
appealed to Russian citizens while at the same time allowing
those in power to eliminate "corrupt" opponents. In her
opinion, this latest round in the corruption fight reprised
the 2003 Duma election campaign, when candidate Boris Gryzlov
(now the Chairman of the State Duma and President of YR)
crusaded against corrupt law enforcement officials. As with
that campaign, there would be no lasting results, she
predicted.


10. (C) Panfilova said her litmus test for a "sincere"
anti-corruption campaign would be the successful prosecution
of one of Putin's inner circle. Panfilova told us that the
websites www.kompromat.ru and www.vzyatka.ru posted
increasingly accurate information about all variants of
corruption and demonstrated there was ample information to
incriminate elected officials, prominent bureaucrats,
businessmen, and politicians. She thought that, at best, the
"elite's" efforts to remain in power might lead to an
unintended side-effect of an incremental and temporary
reduction in corruption. (Note: TI-Russia is cooperating
with USAID on a study that will monitor the abuse of public
resources in the 2007 and 2008 election campaigns.)

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Comment
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11. (C) YR's latest campaign can be seen largely as an
effort to insulate the party from charges its members have
enriched themselves. The newly-formed second pro-Kremlin
party, "A Just Russia" (SR),may seek to play the corruption
card against YR. However, many SR leaders have also been
senior officials and politicians, and thus are subject to
counter-charges.
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