Not only are there approximately 40-60% more bureaucrats in Russia that there were in the USSR, there are more bureaucrats in contemporary Russia than there were in the entire Soviet Union. So much for capitalism streamlining the government.
The typical Russian response to any given problem over the past ten years was to say, "Let's establish a committee x to deal with problem y." Then a sum of money is thrown at x, which, instead of using it to address y, simply pockets it. Once the failure of x is evident to everone, a second committee z is formed to investigate the problem. And so the story continues...
Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 20:18:54 -0800 From: michael perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> Subject: Re: Russian take on Bush's State of the Union blather
I am still wondering. Are you saying that even with the decline in economic growth and the emigration and the growth in privatization, that there is still 60% more bureaucrats.
Chris Doss wrote:
>
> Yep. Being a bureaucrat is a guaranteed way of enriching yourself via
> bribes, so you make lots of extra bureaucratic posts for your friends...
>
> Putin is attempying to cut down the bureaucracy. The number of businesses
> transactions requiring government licenses -- which usually means paying
> bribes -- has dropped from something like 1,000 to under 100 (numbers
pulled
> from my ass, but they're something like that).
>
> Chris Doss
> The Russia Journal