Today our President Dmitry Medvedev once again spoke out against the scourge of corruption and the lack of rule of law in the Russian Federation.  It was typical kind of speech we come to expect from him:  forthright, unobjectionable, but insincere only from the perspective that other elements of the system around him continue to refuse reform in favor of preserving self-interest.

But Medvedev has a special, if not complicated, relationship with the corruption problem.  For example, a few months ago he met with chief of the control administration of his administration Konstantin Chuychenko, who reported that about $860 million had been lost to corruption on housing and utilities in the Central Federal District in the past two years alone. 

If we do some math, taking into account all eight federal districts, then we get closer to understanding the sheer immensity of corruption under the Putin-Medvedev governance model.  And as such, we might understand the value of Medvedev’s words about the necessity to fight back.