Page 8 - UKRRptApr19

Since the 2014 economic crisis the cash strapped Russian government has been vigorously cracking down on lower level corruption in the hunt for fresh capital. There has been a revolution in the tax service that saw tax revenues jump by 20% in 2018, despite the fact that the tax base remains unchanged.
By comparison Ukraine performed very poorly according to the WSJ survey with a score of 0.33 and rank 108, putting it near the worst in the world.
Belarus did remarkably well with 0.55 and 47, while Kazakhstan was again in the middle of the global rank (0.47, 61), but ahead of its peers in Russia and Ukraine.
Russia’s strong showing stands in stark contrast with Transapecny International most recent ranking that handed the “most corrupt country” in Eastern Europe title back to Russia after it slipped three places to 138 out of 180 surveyed, which Ukraine improved rising ten places to 120, as bne reported in January in “ HEATMAP: Russia and Ukraine battle it out for title of most corrupt country in Europe .”
The difference could be attributed to the fact that the TI survey is a “corruption perception survey” that simply polls panellists impressions rather than trying to objectively measure corruption.
Amongst the other subfactors the contrasts continue. In the limited scope of “fundamental human rights” the countries scored: Ukraine (0.61, 50), Belarus (0.47, 94), Kazakhstan (0.46, 95), and Russian (0.45, 104) in that order.
Shockingly several of the countries out performed even the US in the “order and security” category. However, this should not be a surprise, as Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group argued in his book “The J Curve” that authoritarian societies often produce more stability and security but under perform on economic potential thanks to the heavy policing of their states. The democratic societies, by contrast can be more chaotic, but they allow for more innovation and prosperity. To highlight the point Uzbekistan, which is only now emerging from its pariah status under the boot of its dictatorial former president Islam Karimov, has emerged as the ninth best country in the world (0.91, 9) for order and security.
The US scored (0.76, 49) on order and security, well behind Belarus (0.81, 27) and Kazakhstan (0.78, 37) but ahead of Ukraine (0.73, 60) and Russia (0.66, 86).
On “regulatory enforcement” Kazakhstan leads (0.51, 63) with Belarus close behind (0.5, 65) – both in the middle of the global field. Russia (0.49, 72) is not too far behind but Ukraine is down near the bottom of the list (0.42, 103).
8 UKRAINE Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com