'Russia more corrupt' under Putin's rule

RUSSIA'S bureaucracy has significantly expanded and is perceived as more corrupt under Vladimir Putin's presidency, according to a study released yesterday.

The research, conducted by the Russian Academy of Sciences and Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation was based on a random nationwide poll of 1,500 Russians and a focus group of 300 civil servants.

Its authors urged Russian authorities to increase public scrutiny of government officials to make them more accountable and efficient and less corrupt.

"The image of bureaucracy is horrible and keeps getting worse," said liberal lawmaker Vladimir Ryzhkov, who attended the results presentation.

In the poll, some 38 per cent of respondents said Putin's era saw the biggest expansion of officialdom since the tsarist times, while 22 per cent said the rule of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, witnessed the biggest bureaucratic increase. The rest of respondents named other Soviet and pre-Revolutionary periods as suffering from excessive bureaucracy.

Russia has 1.3 million civil servants, compared with 660,000 for the whole Soviet Union, Mr Ryzhkov said, adding that Russian bureaucrats consider themselves a "privileged caste".

The study found that an average Russian official was much more likely to be satisfied with his income, living conditions and health care than the rest of the population.

The study also found that many Russians perceive officials as indifferent to state interests, rude, dishonest, incompetent and disrespectful of people.

Asked about the efficiency of state officials' work, 71 per cent of respondents said bureaucrats were hampering Russia's development, while only 27 per cent said their activity was indispensable for the country's functioning. Two per cent were undecided.