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This arrest was part of a crackdown on corruption in the Moscow police force -- in this case, traffic police importing stolen cars from abroad. But police corruption is only one aspect of a multifaceted problem that has become, for Russia, "not just a collection of criminal activities" but rather "a perverse system of governance," according to watchdog group Transparency International. In November 2003, President Vladimir Putin identified corruption as the greatest risk to Russia's national security and announced an effort to combat it at all levels. Some observers note progress in the form of increasingly numerous commissions, investigations, and other attacks on corruption. Others fear that these efforts may indicate a swing of the pendulum from the organized crime of the last decade back toward the equally pernicious centralized power of Russia's past.
Photo: Itar-Tass
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