One thing in particular that I have been interested in lately is the corruption problems that Russia has been facing since the fall of the Soviet Union. One of the most common jokes you hear about Russian people is that they are all either criminals or corrupt in some way and I have always wondered if there is any validity in these jokes. This led me to become interested in the Alexei Navalny case that is currently being attended to in Russia.

I had never really believed that Russian corruption was as bad as people had led me to believe it was until I saw this case. Now I don’t know the truth behind the accusations against Mr. Navalny but to me it seems incredibly suspicious that a strong anti-Putin advocate was suddenly arrested on charges of embezzlement and fraud. I feel like in the United States, and arrest like this may have drawn more attention to the fact that it seems a little odd that he was charged out of nowhere. Yet in Russia it appears there is nothing that can be done about it short of Mr. Navalny fighting the case on his own.

While I am more informed know about the severity of the corruption in Russia, I am still unsure as to what has caused it. Was it just the fact that Russia is still getting used to their new system of capitalism/democracy? Or is it just that there are corrupt people in power? Either way, I believe that this would be an excellent and interesting topic to study in the future.