The Eternal Question! What is Putin Doing About Corruption in Russia and is He Harsh

My question is as follows. In the mass-media, Russians frequently announce another corrupted person being arrested. I recall Zakharchenko, Arashukovs Sr., Arashukov Jr., and many others. Zakharchenko's 9 billion is a whole truck of bills. Could he obtain it without someone else's help? Answering previous questions, you talked about funding sources.

We're moving on. Natalia Yurieva is given the floor.

- Thank you. We're now in the control booth of our program. It's here that the technical pulse of the Direct Line beats. You can see that it's narrow and noisy here. People have a lot to do. All of the calls, video questions, and requests from social media go here. You can see how many people are now simultaneously waiting for their opportunity to ask the president a question. And here we can see the governors waiting. Some of them will have to report to the president. I'm guessing that all of them are nervous.

Guys, tell me, please, where is the request on this screen from?

- This man is from Saint Petersburg. This man is from Magadan.

- Andrei, can we play Magadan, please?

- Attention, Magadan. Let's go.

 

- Hello, Mr. Putin.

Vladimir Putin: Hello.

- I'm Vyacheslav Korchanov. My question is as follows. In the mass-media, Russians frequently announce another corrupted person being arrested. I recall Zakharchenko, Arashukovs Sr., Arashukov Jr., and many others. Zakharchenko's 9 billion is a whole truck of bills. Could he obtain it without someone else's help? Answering previous questions, you talked about funding sources. I'd like to ask where these billions come from and, most importantly, where will these confiscated billions go to? Who will be or is responsible for the rampancy of corruption? As the guardian of laws, do you feel a personal responsibility for this disgrace? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: First of all, I feel responsible for this disgrace. If I didn't feel it, you wouldn't know anything. It still happens in some countries. It used to be so in our country. You know, there's always an alternative. I'm often asked whether we should cover it up, hide something because there'll be questions like yours. And I always have only one answer for it "No." If we deal with crime, corruption, dirty money at the expense of people, then, firstly, we should always finish it, and secondly, this should be done publicly. And we'll keep doing this publicly. Where does this money come from? It's clear that they get it from corruption schemes, from business. By the way, as a rule, both parties are responsible here. One steals, the other takes. It means that there are those who bribe and those who take bribes. The law sets it forth.

Where will it go to? It'll become the state's income, of course. Of course, officials in general and employees of the law enforcement system have a special status. They'll always have a special responsibility.

- When you learned about those stored billions, with what words did you use to express your reaction?

- Sometimes, you'd better not say something out loud. It really isn't funny. When you learn about billions, you become speechless. At least, you can't find decent words. But I reiterate that it shouldn't prevent us from fighting this phenomenon. By the way... this exists in many countries, practically every country. Take the United States. They sentence businessmen and corrupted persons to 70-150 years of imprisonment. It's senseless. But it's pretty harsh and public. And we'll do the same in our country.

- By the way, they propose introducing life sentences for corruption in our country.

- Well, you see, if a person is of senior age, dozens of years of imprisonment can be enough. They can sentence him to dozens of years of imprisonment. The difference is small.

- It seems that officials are intensifying their fight against corruption.

- It isn't even about the number of years of imprisonment. The unavoidability of punishment is the main thing.

- The authorities seem to be intensifying the fight against corruption, but the latter seems only to increase.

- It seems so, but in fact, the number of corruption-related crimes is decreasing. And I think that it's decreasing mostly thanks to the fact that we act consistently and in an uncompromising manner, and we'll keep acting like this.