Thursday, May 22, 2014

Corruption Russian Style



Billion-Dollar Medical Project Helped Fund “Putin’s Palace” On The Black Sea -- Stephen Grey, Jason Bush and Roman Anin, Reuters

Two associates of President Vladimir Putin profited from a state scheme to buy expensive medical equipment - and sent money to Swiss bank accounts linked to a property known as “Putin’s palace”

MOSCOW - In 2005, President Vladimir Putin personally ordered up a vast programme to improve Russia’s poor healthcare facilities. Five years later, authorities found that suppliers were charging some hospitals two or even three times too much for vital gear such as high-tech medical scanners.

Dmitry Medvedev, serving as Putin’s hand-picked successor at the time, went on national television to denounce the alleged scam. The perpetrators, he said, had engaged in “absolutely cynical, loutish theft of state money.” Medvedev instructed Russia’s top law enforcement agencies to make sure that “everyone who participated in this is seriously and sternly punished.”

Read more ....

My Comment: The above video is from a BBC report in 2012 (the link is here). As someone whose nationality is Russian .... I cannot say that I am surprised by this expose Kudos to Reuters for doing this report.

On a side note .... I am actually familiar with this part of Russia .... especially along the Black Sea.It is one of the most beautiful spots in the world .... and whoever decided to build this "palace" .... they definitely have taste .... albeit (if Reuters and the BBC are accurate in their reporting) financed through corruption and theft.

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