Rebecca Kesby described why it has become risky to be an entrepreneur in Russia. Highlights include:

• 10 million entrepreneurs have been jailed in the last 10 years.
• Business rivals often bribe the police to frame their competitors for crimes.
• Once charged a businessman is unlikely to be acquitted. Less than 1% of cases that make it to court result in ‘not guilty’ verdicts.
• One judge said that in the thousands of cases he presided over, he only found seven individuals not guilty, and five of those verdicts were later overturned.
• The best strategy for entrepreneurs is to bribe the officer who first arrests them. As the lowest ranked in the system they will also be the cheapest to bribe.
• $84 billion in capital left Russia last year – a record amount – in part due to the hostile business climate.
• The President has taken note. Putin created an “ombudsman for business rights” last month.

To read more including a profile of this new ombudsman, some of the steps he’s taking, what he hopes to achieve, what the going rate for a bribe is, the fate of Russia’s richest man, the policeman who felt no guilt, the assumption that the courts operate on, who prosecutors rely on, why it’s risky to find people not-guilty, and the role that blackmail plays, click here.

Source: BBC