Russia is a criminal organization run by a mafia propped up by a nuclear arsenal. Vladimir Putin pursues a return to Imperial greatness, but rules over a culture of corruption that permeates every aspect of Russian life. This will be its undoing as Russia’s oligarchs, politicians, government officials, and military leaders undermine and skim off the government, the people, and the military. Russian graft grows, according to a new Moscow report, and extends from the Politburo to the boardroom and all the way down to recruitment efforts and the trenches. Generals bilk the system, and Russian soldiers try to avoid the frontline by bribing officers who, in turn, “bought” their military commissions. And three recent events underscore the extent of the “rot”. On July 1, Putin's pal, playboy Timor Ivanov, was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for bribery and embezzlement after years of skimming tax dollars. Three days later, on July 4, yet another oil executive fell out of a window in his house to his death. And on July 7, Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt was found dead with a gunshot wound in his car just after Putin fired him. Commented corruption watchdog OCCRP: “A wave of accusations of corruption, arrests and unexplained deaths among Russia’s top officials appears to be a silent internal purge.”
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