Whenever I catch a headline reading something like “Russian Officials Charged with Corruption” I have to remind myself to not take it at face value, especially when the head of the investigative committee is not without his own allegations.  It is hard to see the siloviki making much progress on battling the $33 billion in corruption a year when the main focus of their investigations are simple political payback.  Today’s news in the Financial Times is just more of the same, kicking off a new high season, crisis-style, for the clan wars.

Russia’s prosecutor’s office accused senior members of Russia’s finance ministry of corruption yesterday as a battle within the cabinet deepens over how to share dwindling state revenues.

Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the investigative committee of the prosecutor-general’s office, named two individuals, one current and one former official at the finance ministry, in an investigation.