Putin cracks down on corrupt officials to buttress war machine

Russia, ranked the most corrupt of the world's biggest economies, is intensifying a crackdown on graft among officials that has risked undermining the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine and further straining state coffers.

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Data from the courts and law enforcement agencies shows a jump in the number of corruption-related criminal cases, sentences and asset seizures since war began.

In 2024 thus far, more than a dozen high-ranking military officials and three deputies of the former defence minister have been arrested. In total, around 400 people were convicted in the first half of the year under a bribery law, close to the total convicted in the entire year before the invasion, Supreme Court data shows.

An index tracking news coverage of major corruption cases, calculated by Bloomberg Economics using 2021 as a base measure, rose to its highest-ever level in 2024. The gauge shows the relative intensity of the news flow around corruption cases in the business media.

This probably means that "the regime sees that it is short on cash and needs to remind officials that they can't go too far" to enrich themselves, said Dr Noah Buckley, assistant professor of political science at Trinity College Dublin.

The intensifying focus on corruption underscores how deeply the practice is weighing on the Kremlin. Graft has weighed on the efficiency of Russia's fighting force, and with roughly 40 per cent of the state budget for 2025 earmarked for national defence and domestic security, misappropriated funds are also a problem for state finances.