19:27, 10 February 2018

Economists link future of Dagestan with success of cadre cleansings

Natalia Zubarevich, screenshot of a video by the user NewsMix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d656PqucltU; Mikhail Delyagin, photo RFE/RL. Collage by the "Caucasian Knot"

The Dagestani anti-corruption campaign will be only fruitful, if the cadre cleansings break the existing system. Its results could be assessed after the real socio-economic statistics is published, economists believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Artyom Zdunov, who was appointed, on February 7, to the post of Prime Minister of Dagestan, has announced a large-scale fight against corruption.

Since January, investigators have been checking the data on Dagestani corrupt officials and law enforcers. The checks are accompanied by arrests.

Dagestan receives more budget transfers than any other republic of Northern Caucasus, said Natalia Zubarevich, Professor at the Geography Department of the Moscow State University.

"The republic mostly lives on these transfers; it's clear that they are spent extremely inefficiently," she said.

According to Ms Zubarevich, the real situation in Dagestan is much worse than can be judged from statistics; and measures to combat corruption do not guarantee the improvement of the situation.

It is impossible to estimate even approximately the scale of the Dagestani shadow economy, says Mikhail Delyagin, Doctor of Economy and Director of the Institute for Globalization Problems. According to his version, the level of corruption in Dagestan is "exceptionally high" even for the region.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Gor Alexanyan

Source: CK correspondent