Why Corruption Rots Countries Like Russia

Putin’s war only happens because of the decay he enables.

by Sean Kernan | Former financial analyst turned writer

Medium

Corruption is the atomic unit of Putin’s invasion.

When you break everything down, how he came to power, why Russia’s lagging economy drove him to this disastrous impulse — that’s all it is.

Corruption operates on a spectrum but eventually becomes cancerous. It blinds and enriches those in power while withering all others.

But how does corruption actually work?

Here’s where it starts

Imagine there’s a new contract to build a bridge across a giant river.

In a perfect setting, you’d like this bridge to be stable and made from great materials.

It should require minimal maintenance and last many years. Hopefully, it won’t be an eyesore.

Let’s say the bridge costs $200 million. That’s what our Skyway Bridge here in Tampa Bay costs. So your $200 million should roughly equate to this:

Author via TBTimes (Open use)

Typically, there is a bid process.

You allow a group of construction companies to come in and make a formal presentation. They show examples of their work and history.

They make a compelling argument on why they should get the job. You ask them questions to test their knowledge.

But, sadly, the government agent chooses his buddy's company, Shoddy Construction.

Shoddy Construction starts building but, very quickly, says “Hey there. Sorry. But this is going to cost $50 million more than expected.”

The government agent says, “No problem, buddy. Here’s that extra 50 million.”

As soon as the door closes, they split the money — but it gets worse.

The government agent kicks $10 million of his “bonus” up to the corrupt Mayor. Let’s call him Tim Scaminova.

Tim Scaminova goes on a spending spree with that tax-payer money. First, he bribes the voting ballot company to keep him in power for another term or three.

Then he hires a high-end dominatrix to whip him and call him a sissy for $10,000 an hour. His wife finds out and threatens to tell the press.

He spends an obscene sum of money to buy her silence during their divorce.

A journalist catches wind of it.

Scaminova pays a few thugs to slash the journalist’s tires and scare him into silence.

And because there are no criminal charges, it reinforces the public belief that every government is corrupt. This is just how the world works, right?

Meanwhile, the bridge project isn’t going well

Why? Because Shoddy Construction sucks.

They are full of incompetent lards.

They haven’t had to compete in a fair market. Their internal processes and structure have rotted from within.

Corruption.

As they fall behind budget, they start screwing their contractors out of paychecks. They choose cheap materials and skip safety inspections to make up for delays.

In some cases, Shoddy Construction won’t even finish the bridge and keep the money.

Luckily, Shoddy Construction finishes the project. But instead of a grand and pristine bridge, it looks like a dead spider.

Within two months, this happens:

Because the corrupt mayor passed a bill allowing Shoddy Construction to operate without insurance, none of the dead victim’s families get a dime and they can’t sue the company.

While this happens, the good and motivated construction companies — who should have gotten the contract — go out of business.

And shoddy construction keeps making shitty bridges.

But it gets worse

This pattern repeats itself in other sectors. Shoddy Electronics gets the smartphone contract instead of the would-be Apple competitor — which has a much different side effect.

You need an export economy to truly grow and improve society. Because Shoddy Electronics’ phones suck, they can’t compete on a global market.

The only reason citizens buy them is because competitors are banned.

Corruption starts small.

Over time, it pools money and power in an increasingly smaller group of hands.

All of Russia’s economic problems can be boiled down to a small group of men holding an obscene amount of wealth. Full stop.

Creeping normalcy is how corruption becomes accepted. At some point, people stop thinking that rigged elections are a major problem, or that they are even rigged in the first place.

People assume roads are supposed to be full of potholes, that buildings just collapse sometimes.

State-run media begins to feel like a non-biased source of information. This inefficiency bleeds into every aspect of society and it’s strikingly hard to undo.

This also creates a problem that backfires on those in power — and in this case, why Russia has a dysfunctional military.

Corruption tends to stifle useful information, and especially criticism from within.

For context, the annual corruption index ranks countries from least to most corrupt. Russia placed 125th — but that will likely worsen.

Platon Photo (Open Use)

There are leaking reports of long-standing problems in Russian military ranks.

One soldier said they’d been trying to report a lack of fuel, training, and rations for years (hence Ukrainian defense forces finding rations on soldiers that expired in 2015— and Russian prisoners of war eating as if they’d been starved for months).

Russia’s military management didn’t listen and downplayed these actual issues.

Why? Because shit can’t roll uphill if a manager kicks it back down the hill.

Constructive information stops at the person it might damage.

The takeaway to remember

Everything happening in Ukraine only further validates the importance of free speech and holding politicians accountable.

We have anti-corruption and transparency laws in place for a reason. Corruption is cancer to the most basic freedoms.

It breeds political hubris — the kind that leads to a catastrophic invasion and countless war crimes.

Journalists are the front line in this battle.

As soon as you see a government censoring journalists and stopping them from asking politicians tough questions, you should be afraid for your future.

It’s as the saying goes, power tends to corrupt, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Incremental losses of transparency and freedom are how a country slides into decay.

Honesty and hard work should underpin any prosperous society. Success should be determined through merit, not bribes.

Otherwise, you end up with shitty bridges.

But usually — much worse.

Keep fighting, Ukraine.

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