If one has the financial resources, then freedom of action is nearly limitless in Russia. It is a country of libertines; there is no moral mortar to bind people to the law.
That is not to say that Russians are immoral or amoral, just that the law, the state, and the government has no moral authority in the eyes of the folks on whose back it stands. In the United States we typically think of our laws as just because they generally reflect popular opinion and are written by freely elected representatives. People usually try to follow the law, however unpopular or antiquated, if not just to avoid the legal repercussions.
The problem in Russia is that no law has moral authority, even the ones that should (and few have legal authority). Laws designed to protect have been muddled with laws that are little more than red tape so that the moral considerations given to breaking either are the same.
A friend of mine totaled his car driving drunk. On paper, driving drunk results in the loss of one’s driver’s license and a hefty fine. My friend got off paying the police 10,000 rubles (about $350).
But, it’s not my friend’s duty to uphold the law. The fact that the police were willing to overlook a drunk driver who was obviously endangering any hapless pedestrian who he may have passed shows that the law has no moral weight for those tasked to enforce it (let alone legal weight).
This mindset was explained to me by an acquaintance of mine:
“When I was studying in Europe, they didn’t understand my mindset. I want to party and have fun but they were always like ‘no, that’s against the law.’ Europe is the worst, then America. In Russia we don’t care whether it’s against the law. A lot of people talk about the bad things in Russia but I can ride my motorcycle at 200km/h and if the police stop me I just slip them a few hundred rubles and I’m off.”
I’m quoting from memory, but it went something like that.
Of course, this is not every Russian’s mindset. Most abhor the lawlessness and want things to change but don’t know where to start.
What is the root of the problem?
The offenders? One can’t be expected to volunteer for punishment. If the legal environment is such that jail time or large fines can be avoided by paying a relatively small bribe, then who wouldn’t pay?
Are the police at fault? Partly. People have to eat and that is difficult to do on the pittance of a wage that Russian police earn. Unless an officer engages in entrepreneurial law enforcement there is no way he can own a car, live in a decent flat or provide much of an upbringing for his children. There is virtually no punishment for soliciting bribes but there is everything to lose for opposing corruption or speaking out against one’s fellow officers.
The problem is the wider legal and political culture. The Russian government is rotten through and through, with officials at the highest levels actively reinforcing the good ol’ boy structure whereby the country is ruled by oligarchs and low level bureaucrats are given free reign as profiteers.
I’m afraid that things will only change with the death of the older generation. Politicians are still caught in what Solzhenitsyn described as the thief’s mindset: “you today, me tomorrow.” Today I will do whatever I need and screw whomever stands in my path to reap the short-term benefit. Tomorrow, the same will be done to me. Until this thief mindset is purged from Russian political thought, bacterial corruption will continue to fester in the wounds of the country.
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