Henry Kirby in London -
A recent poll by Russia’s Levada Centre shows that 39% of Russians believe corruption has got worse in the last 15 years, down from 60% in 2010, while 20% of those polled believe that levels of corruption have improved.
As the first bne:Chart shows, those who believe that corruption has worsened is at its lowest level since the poll was first conducted in May 2007.
Asked directly whether or not they believe that President Vladimir Putin has ever abused his power, only 6% of respondents said that he undoubtedly had. Nearly a fifth of respondents said that he had never abused his power, and over 30% said that if he had, the overall improvement in Russia under his presidency is more important than any corruption he engaged in.
When asked to rate various types of public officials on their levels of corruption, Putin was judged to be the least corrupt, with only 8% characterising him as very corrupt. Members of the State Inspectorate for Traffic Security (Russian traffic police) were judged to be the most corrupt (43%), followed by the Russian police force (39%) and customs officers (35%).
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