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corruption, and even the more successful ones were too often used as slush funds to support prestige projects, bail out court favourites and otherwise spend money on anything but their actual development mission. It remains to be seen whether the changes will manage to change this, as in part that depends on greater self-control by the government, but it is a worthwhile first step.
Russia’s established commitment to ‘techno-authoritarianism’ is also unchanged – although it is, in fairness, the flipside to a very successful campaign to move onto efficient and accessible online platforms such as the Gososlugi public service portal. Artificial intelligence-based systems are being rolled out to do everything from monitoring progress on the National Projects to collating police evidence.
Institutional change, and even fancy ‘techno-authoritarianism,’ is still hostage to the human factor. Individuals still have the capacity to cheat, lie, bribe, con, connive and backslide their ways around any such reforms, given the opportunity. And this may be where Krasnov comes in.
Bit by bit, Krasnov has been shaking up the Procuracy, in part to bring in his own allies, but also to purge some of the more notoriously corrupt or inefficient officials. Meanwhile, he has identified the struggle against kickbacks a priority and wants civil servants convicted on corruption charges – including accepting a bribe of less than RUB10,000, currently considered a petty offence and which may leave them with no lasting criminal record – to be barred from reemployment with the government.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Mishustin has instructed Krasnov with this role – there is no evidence he needed a push. Rather, the prime minister’s drive for administrative efficiency, as well as the political realities which keeps the kleptocrats safe from prosecution, means that there is an inevitable coincidence of interests, in going after the middle-level institutional profiteers
25 RUSSIA Country Report January 2021 www.intellinews.com
