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'So what if Putin is corrupt?': Russia remains unmoved by offshore revelations
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Quote... “Poor Putin is trying to fight these bloodsucking bureaucrats, but he can’t clean up everything on his own.”
Well before the Panama Papers revelations, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny released damning reports that provide convincing evidence against ministers and the political elite. However, instead of investigating, state bodies have instead gone after Navalny. The politician was under house arrest and his brother has been jailed.
But smaller towns such as Kimry, which has a population of about 50,000, saw little of the oil money. In the last two years, amid a faltering economy, things have worsened, as already struggling Soviet-era factories ceased production and paid salaries late. The local newspaper recently ran a competition offering a free car check-up for the reader who took a photograph of the biggest pothole in Kimry.
“Most of all we need to overhaul all our infrastructure,” says Kimry’s mayor, Roman Andreyev. “It’s in a completely unacceptable state: the water and heating systems are all Soviet projects that have not been repaired in years.” And this year there is no money at all for road repairs, he said.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Quote... “Poor Putin is trying to fight these bloodsucking bureaucrats, but he can’t clean up everything on his own.”
Well before the Panama Papers revelations, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny released damning reports that provide convincing evidence against ministers and the political elite. However, instead of investigating, state bodies have instead gone after Navalny. The politician was under house arrest and his brother has been jailed.
But smaller towns such as Kimry, which has a population of about 50,000, saw little of the oil money. In the last two years, amid a faltering economy, things have worsened, as already struggling Soviet-era factories ceased production and paid salaries late. The local newspaper recently ran a competition offering a free car check-up for the reader who took a photograph of the biggest pothole in Kimry.
“Most of all we need to overhaul all our infrastructure,” says Kimry’s mayor, Roman Andreyev. “It’s in a completely unacceptable state: the water and heating systems are all Soviet projects that have not been repaired in years.” And this year there is no money at all for road repairs, he said.
