Political Risk:
High
Score:
37/100
Defence and Security Policy and Policy Transparency
Q1
33/100
Is there formal provision for effective and independent legislative scrutiny of defence policy?
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The federal law ‘On Defence’ grants both houses of the Russian parliament some power to overview, amend or veto the defence budgets, laws, and…
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According to the 2018 progress report, the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Committee on Defence and Security drafted, reviewed, and voted on 72…
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In 2015, the Federation Council approved the president’s order to send troops outside of Russia [1]. In 2019, the State Duma and the Federation…
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Q2
35/100
Does the country have an identifiable and effective parliamentary defence and security committee (or similar such organisations) to exercise oversight?
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Both houses of the Russian parliament have special committees on defence. The State Duma Committee on Defence has the power to conduct preliminary reviews…
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In the State Duma Committee on Defence, 10 of 13 members have higher military education [1]. This State Duma Committee on Defence has the…
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Major Russian defence policy is called the ‘military doctrine.’ It takes into account major documents on strategic development, including the national security strategy, which…
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The Federation Council Committee reports that it participated in 23 sessions of the Federation Council and reviewed 72 federal laws throughout 2018 [1]. The…
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Federal Law No. 196 ‘On Parliamentary Investigation’ entitles members of both houses of parliament to initiate and conduct investigations (up to one year) regarding…
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This indicator is marked Not Applicable because, although the progress reports demonstrate quite active work of both committees [1,2], there is no publicly available…
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Q3
31/100
Is the country’s national defence policy or national security strategy debated and publicly available?
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The Military Doctrine is signed once every 5 years. The current doctrine is valid up to 2020. However, there are neither any active discussions…
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Whenever there is a debate about defence policy, it mainly concerns either threats, such as the expansion of NATO or new US weaponry, or…
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The federal law ‘On Defence’ does not provide the public with the power to participate in the definition or reviewal of military policy [1].…
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While the full content of the military doctrine, as well as the maritime doctrine and national security strategy [1], is available to the public,…
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Q4
50/100
Do defence and security institutions have a policy, or evidence, of openness towards civil society organisations (CSOs) when dealing with issues of corruption?
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As of January 30, 2014, the Declaration of Openness of Federal Executive Agencies requires all federal agencies to be open towards CSOs in their…
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There are numerous CSOs operating in the country but the authorities impose strict sanctions against independent CSOs that criticise the official policies or even…
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The defence sector rarely engages with the CSOs that uncover human rights abuses in the army and any interactions are usually limited to bureaucratic…
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Q5
50/100
Has the country signed up to the following international anti-corruption instruments: UNCAC and the OECD Convention?
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Q6
63/100
Is there evidence of regular, active public debate on issues of defence? If yes, does the government participate in this debate?
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The Ukrainian crisis, several scandals involving the distribution of military supplies [1,2], corruption in the state corporation ‘RosCosmos’ [3] and the most recent news…
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The Russian MoD has a very active website with regular news updates, information about its structure and regulations [1]. There are several channels for…
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Q7
63/100
Does the country have an openly stated and effectively implemented anti-corruption policy for the defence sector?
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All ministries and state institutions are subject to the national anti-corruption strategy, signed by the president on April 13, 2010 [1] and the federal…
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The MoD anti-corruption plan does not identify any institutional weaknesses or priority items but rather general actions that it stipulates reflect the basic problems…
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Q8
50/100
Are there independent, well-resourced, and effective institutions within defence and security tasked with building integrity and countering corruption?
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The anti-corruption department in the MoD Main Personnel Directorate is a permanent unit tasked with developing internal anti-corruption regulations, maintaining anti-corruption training in the…
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The ACC, the MoD Commission on Complainace and the anti-corruption department in the MoD Main Personnel Directorate report directly to the Minister of Defence…
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The ACC and the Commission organise regular reports about their internal anti-corruption work. All personnel report their revenue and the results are published on…
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Q9
NS/100
Does the public trust the institutions of defence and security to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in their establishments?
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. Research by the state-sponsored Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTSIOM) shows that a low…
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Q10
33/100
Are there regular assessments of the areas of greatest corruption risk for ministry and armed forces personnel, and are the findings used as inputs to the anti-corruption policy?
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Corruption risks, such as conflicts of interest, lacunae in procurement contracts and bribes and gifts to officials, are identified and defined in the biennial…
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There is no clear information on the exact frequency of the reports. However, an analysis of the MoD website shows that a report about…
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An analysis of the previous anti-corruption plans suggests that the risk assessment findings are either the same from year to year or they are…
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Defence Budgets
Q11
33/100
Does the country have a process for acquisition planning that involves clear oversight, and is it publicly available?
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The federal law ‘On State Defence Order (GosOboronZakaz – GOZ)’ [1] defines the acquisition planning process in the Russian defence sector and regulates the…
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The public has very limited access to both the GOZ and federal defence spending. GOZ is very much classified. The Ministry of Finance publishes…
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There are a couple of oversight mechanisms that, however, exclude parliament from the process. Control over budget spending during the placement and implementation of…
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Q12
63/100
Is the defence budget transparent, showing key items of expenditure? And it is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion?
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There are just eight top-line parts of the defence budget that are publicly available: 1) national defence, 2) army, 3) mobilisation and paramilitary training,…
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The State Duma Council is the first to receive budget proposals developed by the government and that happens no later than October 1, i.e.…
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Q13
50/100
Is there a legislative committee (or other appropriate body) responsible for defence budget scrutiny and analysis in an effective way?
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The State Duma Committee on Defence has the power to conduct preliminary reviews of and deliver opinions on bills concerning defence policy, activities, and…
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The State Duma Committee on Defence does not seem to have any impact on defence budget decision-making. Its conclusions regarding the defence budget for…
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Q14
17/100
Is the approved defence budget made publicly available? In practice, can citizens, civil society, and the media obtain detailed information on the defence budget?
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The Ministry of Finance publishes the approved budget, including defence expenditure, on its official website. It provides the major expenditure areas including the subsequent…
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63.9% of the national defence budget is classified [1]. For example, areas such as economic mobilisation and nuclear weapons complex are totally secret, while…
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The federal law ‘On Providing Access to Information About the Work of State Agencies’ [1] and the law ‘On Media’ do allow citizens to…
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Q15
33/100
Are sources of defence income other than from central government allocation (from equipment sales or property disposal, for example) published and scrutinised?
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There is no information about non-central government sources of funding [1]. The MoD departments of fincancial procurement[2], financial planning [3], social guarantees[4], military-economic analysis…
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The Accounts Chamber audits the incomes of the MoD [1] and, in particular, has created a methodology to calculate the incomes within the Ministry.…
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Due to the high level of secrecy of the MoD budget in general and its incomes in particular, the public’s ability to scrutinise non-central…
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Q16
31/100
Is there an effective internal audit process for defence ministry expenditure (that is, for example, transparent, conducted by appropriately skilled individuals, and subject to parliamentary oversight)?
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The MoD has financial audit units for its territories (in West, South, Central, and East military command regions) [1] and several departments with auditing…
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In December 2017, the MoD Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit was granted full powers to oversee critical financial procurement issues within the…
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The Accounts Chamber is the main external auditing agency tasked with overseeing the MoD’s financial activities. It conducts annual, in-depth assessments of the effectiveness…
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No details were found as to whether and how the MoD addresses the results of internal audits. However, there are details on how the…
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Q17
50/100
Is there effective and transparent external auditing of military defence expenditure?
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The Accounts Chamber has a wide range of power to conduct financial and performance audits. Besides forwarding orders to the MoD itself to alleviate…
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The Accounts Chamber is an independent external audit agency. Its head, however, is appointed after the president approves the candidates proposed by the State…
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The Accounts Chamber conducts an annual audit of military expenditure and publishes the findings on its website. When it comes to the MoD, there…
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Following the two latest reports from the Account Chamber, it seems the MoD addresses the findings on a regular basis, though not in full.…
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Nexus of Defence and National Assets
Q18
35/100
Is there evidence that the country’s defence institutions have controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation and, if so, are these interests publicly stated and subject to scrutiny?
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It is mainly the Ministry of Natural Resources that manages natural resources in Russia. The MoD is excluded from controlling the extractive industries, but…
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Major oil, gas, mineral and metal companies are either state-owned, vertically-oriented or personally related to the inner circle of President Putin [1,2]. One therefore…
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In accordance with the national anti-corruption strategy, signed by the president on April 13, 2010 [1] and the federal law ‘On Anti-Corruption’, signed on…
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Although the MoD would, if neccessary, like other federal agencies, intervene in cases where the state-controlled mining industry is jeopardised [1,2], the direct control…
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Although there is random information about MoD involvement in protecting natural resources, and therefore mining [1,2], there is no information indicating that such cases…
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Organised Crime
Q19
13/100
Is there evidence, for example through media investigations or prosecution reports, of a penetration of organised crime into the defence and security sector? If no, is there evidence that the government is alert and prepared for this risk?
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There are regular media investigations and prosecution reports about cases with individual MoD officials being caught participating in organised crime. Cases are related to…
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The fight against organised crime is generally regulated under Article 210 of the Criminal Code [1]. There are three major agencies that are responsible…
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Q20
75/100
Is there policing to investigate corruption and organised crime within the defence services and is there evidence of the effectiveness of this policing?
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In the defence sector, there is a military police department that has full powers to fight all crimes in the army, including those related…
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If we consider the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office as the main policing body that investigates corruption and organised crime within the defence services, we…
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Every year, each of the four territorial units of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office provides a report about the work done within its territorial…
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Control of Intelligence Services
Q21
38/100
Are the policies, administration, and budgets of the intelligence services subject to effective and independent oversight?
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Articles 24 and 25 of the federal law ‘On Foreign Intelligence’ provide legal grounds for the oversight of intelligence services’ policies, administration and budgets…
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The above-mentioned agencies have access to classified information. However, there is no information available about the regularity of their meetings, which are held mostly…
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Q22
8/100
Are senior positions within the intelligence services filled on the basis of objective selection criteria, and are appointees subject to investigation of their suitability and prior conduct?
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The criteria for the selection of senior positions are unclear. The federal law ‘On Foreign Intelligence’ provides no specific requirements for the candidates. Article…
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Article 12 of the federal law ‘On Foreign Intelligence’ states that the director of the Foreign Intelligence Office is appointed by the president’s decree…
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The federal law ‘On Public Civil Service’ stipulates that civil servants are appointed on a competitive basis according to their professional qualities [1]. There…
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Export Controls
Q23
0/100
Does the government have a well-scrutinised process for arms export decisions that aligns with Articles 7.1.iv, 11.5, and 15.6 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)?
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Russia has neither signed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) [1], nor is it planning to do so in the near future. In 2017, acting…
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This indicator is marked as Not Applicable as Russia has not signed the ATT.
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The federal law ‘On Military and Technical Cooperation with Foreign States’ does not provide any opportunity for parlliamentary control or debate about arms control…
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Lobbying in Defence
There is no framework for regulating lobbying activity – neither generally nor in the defence sector [1,2]. However, the public, the media [3] and…
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ because there is no law on lobbying in Russia.
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ because there is no law on lobbying in Russia.
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ because there is no law on lobbying in Russia.
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