Russia’s Anti-Corruption Drive

Peter Finn of the Washington Post has an interesting piece today on President Dmitry Medvedev’s anti-corruption efforts:

On the way to the apartment, the professor and the student settled on the terms for everyone, recounted Alexander, 22. Each student would pay 500 rubles, or approximately $22, for each missing piece of work, and an additional $170 for a 4 — the Russian equivalent of a B — on the final exam. Alexander said he ended up paying about $280. “It was reasonable,” Alexander said. “You have to pay for your own stupidity.” From birth to death, corruption courses through the lives of Russians — a phenomenon that newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev recently said has become “a way of life for a huge number of people.”