Kremlin relies on criminals and rewards them with political patronage, while top officials collect bribes ‘like a personal taxation system’ US and other western diplomats believe the Russian government is a corrupt ‘mafia state’, according to WikiLeaks cables Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA Russia is a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a “virtual mafia state”, according to leaked secret diplomatic cables that provide a damning American assessment of its erstwhile rival superpower….
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WikiLeaks cables condemn Russia as ‘mafia state’