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Russia is not corrupt in the same sense the US is.

In Russia, the bureaucrats can bend and break local laws, siphon out some funds, etc. But they are pretty strictly controlled by the "power vertical", up to the quasi-tzar who is Putin. This structure does not tolerate breaking its internal rules, not keeping promises, etc, and is quick to unseat a bureaucrat which failed to conform, no matter how high in the hierarchy.

This is why a number of things in Russia can be done quickly and relatively efficiently, when the higher-ups demand it. It, of course, is not very democratic and does not always align with the desires of the population, but in many cases it does.

I suspect China has a similar structure: a bureaucrat may engage in corruption as long as he fulfills the orders of CCP; if corruption interferes with it, it is eliminated.

This is the well-known efficiency of authoritarianism, e.g. of monarchy: if the monarch desires something good, that good thing can be completed very quickly and allocation of resources won't be a problem. (The trouble is, of course, that when a monarch desires something bad, the bad thing gets implemented as efficiently, for there's no counterbalance.)




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