Peer Reviewer 1:
The report is factually correct. I would add the following:
Corruption is part of the so-called "vertical of power" imposed by the Putin administration to secure the unofficial flow of money upwards. Corruption in modern Russia is the mode of governing the country. Corruption in modern Russia is inevitable for everyone who is taking a public post in any official structure. You can't stay apart --you have to accept it or leave. Corruption nowadays is everywhere: in schools and universities, hospitals, public service, city administrations, courts, police, prosecutor's headquarters, legislative bodies, etc. People find it much easier and cheaper to solve their everyday problems through bribing officials at all levels. The existence of corruption in Russia is publicly acknowledged at all levels of society, up to the president.
Peer Reviewer 2:
The text is factually accurate. However, the amount of corruption is clearly misrepresented. On the first page, the reader is told that one of Russias biggest corruption scandals involves state losses of US$0.7 million. On the next page, we read that it costs US$5 million to secure a seat in Parliament through corruption. We also get a quote of the INDEM estimate of bribes equal to US$300 billion (!) a year. In light of the last two figures, US$0.7 million hardly make for a big scandal.
On the other hand, and much more importantly, I am not aware of any expert who believes the INDEM figures. They are based on a poll among companies. The poll is then assumed to be representative and the bribe figures reported in the interviews are then multiplied to account for the estimated total sum of active companies in Russia. The problem is that there is no reliable register of Russian companies, and it is technically impossible to draw a representative sample. Accordingly, it has been pointed out that the production figures reported by companies in the INDEM study, if taken as representative, would render macroeconomic statistics absurd. So, if you cannot even trust production figures, it is hard to argue for the reliability of corruption figures. However, this is only a marginal issue, which can be solved by simply dropping the reference to the figure.
My main problem with the text is that it lacks a line of argument. It starts with restrictions on the right to public protest. Then, with a very loose link (as the protests are first of all against authoritarian tendencies and not against corruption) it turns to bribery. Then, with a certain logic, it follows money laundering. But then the text turns to contract killings of opponents of Russias regime and continues with Russias democratic deficits. These topics can be logically connected, however this link is not made explicit in the text and the focus is then on problems of Russias political system (with corruption being one point) but not on (as demanded in the instructions) a street-level view of how corruption manifests itself in the day-to-day life of the average citizens.
Peer Reviewer 3:
1. The Reporter's Notebook does an excellent job in highlighting the means that Russian police use to suppress public demonstrations that are somehow directed against the current political regime and the impunity that the police themselves enjoy when their actions are obviously illegal. The notebook also shows many extraordinary cases (high level corruption, murders, criminal schemes, etc.,) which should become public scandals and be investigated on a wide scale, but which are never really investigated. This is all true: the rule of the written law is rather poor in Russia if it concerns the powerful and the wealthy.
2. At the same time, much of the scientifically-based research done by independent NGOs, such as Indem Foundation, TI-Russia, Strategy Center, etc., show how deep and pervasive corruption is. This makes it rather hard to present a full picture of this phenomenon through mentioning just a few cases from a small number of spheres. Corruption is found also in education, health care, trade etc., and there are plenty of examples that prove the existence of chains of corrupted individuals, groups, departments, institutions, etc. An expression in Russia says that solving each issue has a price.
3. The notebook mentions that the ruling elite in Russia is free to ignore electoral law when and where they choose to. Previously, for a period of more than 10 years, all candidates and all parties could ignore the political law, whereas now it is the Kremlins party(ies) only who can do so. In other words, there is a kind of monopoly of the powerful over minorities in all spheres.
4. The notebook did not comment on the massive support that the policies of the current government receive from citizens.
5. There are no reliable facts and enough information to make a thorough analysis of the Politkovskaya or Kozlov cases.
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