Although there is an anti-corruption network of non-state actors in the making which builds around a small core of activists, assessing the real importance of these initiatives is no easy task. The general weakness of civil society encourages a ‘topdown’ approach, as does the structure
of some anti-corruption groups who are connected to elite interest groups rather than being broad-based popular movements. The current appeal of an ‘iron hand’, however, is problematic in an environment where anticorruption campaigns may also serve as a political weapon against opponents.
Marina Savintseva (TI Russia) and Petra Stykow (Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Germany) Further reading Bogdanov and Kalinin, Corruption in Russia: Socio-Economic and Legal Aspects (Moscow: Russian Science Academy, Institute of the Socio-Political Researches, 2001) (in Russian) Vladimir Shlapentokh, ‘Russia’s Acquiescence to Corruption Makes the State Machine Inept’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 36(2) (2003) Fond Indem, ‘Diagnostika Rossiiskoi Korruptsii: Sotsiologicheskii Analiz’ (2001), www.anticorr.ru/awbreport/index.htm Timothy Frye, ‘Capture or Exchange? Business Lobbying in Russia’, Europe-Asia Studies 54(7) (2002) Richard Sakwa, ‘Russia: From a Corrupt System to a System with Corruption?’, in Robert Williams, ed., Party Finance and Political Corruption (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000) TI Russia: www.transparency.org.ru Notes 1. Moscow Times (Russia), 26 November 2003. 2. Interview with Georgy Satarov, Gazeta (Russia), 9 April 2004. 3. See www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/Cabinet/p.67340.html and www.chuvashia.com/cap_xp/ main.asp?prev=9151&pos=153 4. Public Opinion Foundation, http://bd.fom.ru/report/map/projects/finfo/of0416/of041603 5. Briefing Report: ‘Corruption, Biased Media Turn Russian Election Into “Farce”’. JRL 8108, 9 March 2004, www.cdi.org/russia 6. Financial Times (Britain), 6 August 2003. 7. www.iamik.ru/15674.html 8. See: www.stopcor.ru, www.nakhodka.info, http://coalition.tomsk.ru, http://a-corruption. irkutsk.ru/index.htm
Serbia NB: This report does not cover developments in Montenegro or Kosovo Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 score:1 2.7 (97th out of 146 countries) Conventions: Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption (not yet signed) Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (acceded December 2002)
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