Paul Goble
Staunton, Apr. 3 – Russians are pleased whenever a senior official is charged and then convicted of corruption. Such a series of events satisfy their desire for justice at least of a kind. But few notice that few of those charged or convicted actually serve full sentences or indeed any at all, the Versiya portal reports.
Instead, its survey of such cases finds that many are given suspended sentences, allowed to choose their conditions of punishment and then quickly and quietly released, an obvious example of a criminal regime taking care of its own (versia.ru/vysokopostavlennyx-chinovnikov-osuzhdayut-za-korrupciyu-i-tut-zhe-osvobozhdayut).
The portal provides example after example of this pattern, one that suggests the Kremlin has no intention of really punishing its agents much of the time but only giving the impression to a gullible population and perhaps even more gullible observers in the West that it is actually fighting corruption at the top.
No comments:
Post a Comment