On the Take

At the end of January, Russia got some surprisingly good news on the corruption front: the Transparency International Индекс восприятия коррупции (Corruption Perceptions Index) raised Russia from 136th place to 119th place, an improvement of 17 points. And while that is terrific news and what Russians call положительная динамика (a move in the right direction), there is still a long, long way to go.

In the meantime, there are a lot of phrases to know if you want to talk about corruption in Russia — or partake of it.

The basics are fairly easy: коррупция (corruption), a word that seems to have appeared in Russian before the nineteenth century, was not used much until the twentieth and really took off in the post-Soviet period. At first, folks seem to have talked about мзда (originally a payment, later a bribe), мздоимство (bribery) and мздоимец (the bribe-taker). Now folks say взятка (bribe), взяточничество (bribe-taking), and взяточник (the bribe-taker).

The other main form of corruption is откат (kickback) – the simple explanation for how a bureaucrat with a salary of $36,000 owns a villa that cost $3.6 million. It is also the simple explanation for why $1.4 billion was allocated for a highway, while it looks like only $14,000 was spent on it (see “villa” above).

But those are “official” words, not used often in colloquial speech. Like religion or sex, it’s в дурном тоне (in bad taste) to talk outright about corruption. It’s all done with winks and hints and code words.

Let’s say you are a medium-level bureaucrat, like the head of city district. A citizen comes in with a document that needs your signature — in this context called a виза, a sign-off — before the document can be finalized. The citizen doesn’t seem to grasp that signing off on the document costs money. You smile. You start out with a light touch: “Надеюсь, что вы отблагодарите меня.” (“I hope that you’ll thank me.”) No response. “Не забудьте меня.” (“Don’t forget about me.”) Still no response.

The would-be kickback-taker tries to make it more explicit: “С вас магарыч.” (“The bottle’s on you.”) Магарыч was originally wine drunk to celebrate a deal, and sometimes means some kind of celebratory treat. But it is also a way of saying: “Where’s my take?”

Lately, both sides of the kickback/bribe relationship have taken to using the charming phrase агентское вознаграждение (agent’s fee), which sounds like a perfectly reasonable expense – until you realize it’s being paid for a signature the bureaucrat is required by law to provide free of charge.

If the citizen still doesn’t get it – or pretends not to – the bureaucrat might sigh and ask: “А где конвертик?” (“Where’s my little envelope?”) And if that doesn’t work, a piece of paper with a figure on it and a bank account number might be passed across the table.

If the situation is reversed and the citizen wants to make it clear to the bureaucrat that a kickback or bribe is being offered, he or she usually asks невинные вопросы (innocent questions) such as: “Как можно договориться?” (“How can we come to an agreement?”); “Что будем делать?” (“What are we going to do?”); “Какие варианты…?” (“What are the options…?”)

When all is said and done, the citizen explains the rules to others: Там надо дать на лапу (You have to sweeten the deal, literally “put something in his paw”); Надо дать сверху (You have to give something on top); Подмазать надо (You need to grease his palm); or sometimes simply: Дать надо (You have to give).

Because everyone knows: Не подмажешь, не поедешь (If you don’t grease the wheels, you won’t get anywhere).