It’s strange days recently at Russia’s Defense Ministry. Amid the replacement of the agency’s head, police have brought large-scale bribery charges against at least two senior officials in the Defense Ministry, raising questions about the state of corruption in Russia’s military and the Kremlin’s approach to the phenomenon in wartime.

Also earlier this month, the American Political Science Review published relevant new research by political scientist David Szakonyi, an assistant professor at George Washington University and a co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Data Collective. In the article, titled “Corruption and Co-Optation in Autocracy: Evidence from Russia,” Dr. Szakonyi explores if corrupt State Duma deputies “govern differently” and tries to establish what the governing costs of such corruption might be. The methodology he uses will be familiar to The Naked Pravda’s listeners who know the techniques of anti-corruption activists like the researchers at Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Dr. Szakonyi joins this week’s podcast to discuss his findings in the context of a major “anti-corruption moment” for Russia’s Armed Forces.

Timestamps for this episode:

(3:26) Is this a story about corrupt politicians writ large or specifically in authoritarian states?
(4:55) Explaining the paper’s methodology
(13:09) The demographics of State Duma corruption
(14:21) How the Kremlin co-opts corrupt officials and even welcomes them into politics
(17:35) The State Duma as a “rubber stamp” legislature
(19:53) “High politics” and “low politics”
(21:32) The role of Russia’s security services
(23:34) Exhaustion with anti-corruption revelations

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Corruption and co-optation in Russia’s autocracy

The Naked Pravda