‘Zero Corruption’: feasible or fantasy?

A court in Bishkek has ruled to freeze the bank accounts of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, locally known as Azattyk, its correspondent, and the Kyrgyz news site Kloop following their joint investigation about possible widespread corruption in the country’s customs service and massive outflows of cash.

RFE/RL’s office in Bishkek received a letter from the Sverdlov District Court on December 12 saying that, according to a December 10 ruling by Judge Ibraimova J.B., bank accounts belonging to RFE/RL correspondent Ali Toktakunov, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, and Kloop must be frozen. Another independent news website, 24.kg, which published a summary of the joint investigation, also had its bank accounts frozen.

The majority of Armenian citizens are optimistic about the country’s future, according to a new nationwide survey conducted by the Center for Sociological Surveys of the International Republican Institute (IRI).

Some 70% of respondents are optimistic about the future of the country, and 62% of respondents said that the country is moving in the right direction. At the same time, 66% believe that the government is doing enough to fight corruption, and 70% believe that the fight was effective. However, citizens also want to see further action in the area of socio-economic issues and transitional justice.

“The recent allegations against former senior officials show how serious the corruption problem was under the previous leadership,” said Stephen Nix, IRI Regional Director for Eurasia.