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New Reports Highlight Russia's Deep-Seated Culture of Corruption

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - New reports from Transparency International and the Russian
   Academy of Sciences on education highlight a pervasive culture of
   corruption in Russia that persists despite efforts by the government
   and opposition activists.

   The country scored 137th out of 180 countries in the [1]Transparency
   International corruption index published last week.

   Every year we have to find new words to describe the same thing," Anton
   Pominov, the organization's Russia director, told VOA.

   "Russia tries to introduce anti-corruption measures without any will to
   implement them, without understanding why they should be done," Pominov
   said.

   Meanwhille, recent attention has focused on Russia's education system;
   the Academy of Sciences investigation made international headlines this
   month when it found widespread plagiarism in Russian academic journals,
   with more than 850 articles rescinded from 263 journals after an
   initial review. "

   "There will be more papers retracted," said Andrey Zayakin, a physicist
   who served as the scientific secretary of the commission issuing the
   report.

   "We didn't have enough time to read and systemize the responses before
   our'¦ deadline," he told VOA, adding the commission had requested more
   than 2,000 retractions.

   He said the worst offenses are driven by "dissertation mills" selling
   academic writings and a market that rewards government funding for
   published works.

   A recent university graduate in Moscow who began writing academic
   papers for other students to make extra money told VOA she would tailor
   each paper for the target university, "even the professor."

References

   1. https://www.transparency.org/cpi2019?/news/feature/cpi-2019

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