A recent Sunday Times op-ed on corruption by New York photographer Misha Friedman is essential reading for anyone who lives or runs a business in Russia.
"I have been working on this project for the past six months," Friedman writes. "I see corruption as more than something done to people; it is something they participate in. It involves both a resignation to and a justification of a state of iniquity, insecurity and mistrust."
Are these just two friends having lunch? Corruption is such a part of daily life that it's hard to tell what might be going on in dark places.
According to Transparency International, Russia under Vladimir Putin has been sliding back dramatically in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index. In 2004, Russia was 90th out of 146 countries. By the beginning of 2012, despite government claims that it had been fighting corruption, the country dropped to 143rd place (out of 182 countries). As Vladimir Putin's campaign manager Stanislav Govorukhin unwittingly noted in a February 10, 2012 interview with Trud newspaper, "Under Putin, Russia has developed a normal, civilized corruption." Russia ranked alongside Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Comoros Islands, Mauritania, Nigeria, East Timor, Togo and Uganda.
Bychiy Island on the Neva River has long been home to a children's ecological school and student yacht club. It is now being developed by St. Petersburg's elite judo club "Yawara-Neva" into a private, 100 million USD judo mega-complex. The club is headed by Arkady Rotenberg, President Putin's childhood sparring partner. President Putin, himself a black belt, serves as the club's honorary president.
Corruption has penetrated virtually every aspect of life. By becoming an inevitable part of the daily routine, it eats away at Russia’s core. And the first step in fighting it is to expose it.
A traffic policeman stands in his booth on an intersection in St. Petersburg. According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2010-2011, the Russian police, along with the country's public officials, are the most corrupt state institutions of the country. Drivers are accustomed to tucking money in with their documents when they are pulled over.
That is why IMR has launched a project that visualizes corruption’s impact on Russia and collects evidence of the ongoing deterioration. Later this year, IMR will hold an exhibition of Misha Friedman’s photographs, many of which did not appear in the New York Times.
