Today a senior Russian prosecutor, Alexander Bastrykin, has been quoted as claiming that corrupt state officials are bleeding the state of a whopping 1/3 of the annual budget - an equivalent of $120 billion.
This astonishing figure is hard to believe, but the very fact that the government is willing to make such a public push on these statistics is a good sign that the new president is gearing up for a much needed crackdown on the undisciplined bureaucracy.
