India is known to be a very corrupt country too, but in my personal experience and the experience of others I know well, the on-the-ground-reality can be quite good. India is a vast country, so all generalizations are very likely to be both right and wrong and many many times of each, but where we sit in India (Chennai in the deep south - but this applies to Bangalore as well), India is a good place to do business. The main thing to accept about India is the general atmosphere of chaos, the feeling that everything-is-breaking-down-but-somehow-running, but if you can mentally look past that, there are huge opportunities.
The reason I say all this about India is that a western journalist could write a similar story about India or China, yet there exist many versions of reality in which the story would be wrong.
Both India and China export a lot of people too. But normally you would not describe that as "fleeing corruption" but more of "seeking economic opportunity." Is Russia any different from that perspective? I don't know the answer, I am just asking the question.
From what I understood in India corruption is kind of societal. Government officials take a sort of 'cut' for doing things (this can be seen in France, however from what I understand in France it gets things done now rather than getting it done whenever), otherwise you're screwed.
From what I got in Russia the cut is an all level corruption, often with organized crime involved taking their own cuts.
Ex: Say in India you have to pay a bribe for a business license, in Russia you'd have to pay a bribe for a business license and then you have to pay for protection from the mob, then you likely have to pay protection from the crooked cops.
At least, this is how it's always been represented to me.
There is no doubt that France is overly bureaucratic — but having lived there for almost 25 years, I've only heard about a handful of corruption cases.
The corruption I've seen isn't actual corruption as it isn't inhibiting the proper processes, however a lot of the government officials seem to be prone to 'doing favors' in receipt of something. I've seen this in the UK and Canada, but France seems to be more accepting of it.
That's because in India at least, the corruption is mostly the "drag on business and the economy" sort, not the "life threatening" sort found in Russia.
The more successful regions in today's world seem to be the ones that are more united than other regions. Chinese civilization is united, apart from Taiwan, Singapore, and the overseas Chinese. The Indian subcontinent is (approx) 75% united into the nation of India, the rest splintered between Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, etc. Europe is more divided, but because there were 4 approx equal countries (60 million people in each of West Germany, France, UK, & Italy), they federated easily. North America is mainly the US, easily controlling Canada (and Australia/NZ). South America is 50% Brazil, so they can successfully electioneer in the "South American Union". The Muslim world is more divided, with a few equally sized players (Egypt, Turkey, Saudi, & Iran) who won't ever federate because of religion and foreign interference. And sub-Saharan Africa is the most divided of all. Unity and modern success seem to be correlated, though of course not necessarily one causing the other.
The reason I say all this about India is that a western journalist could write a similar story about India or China, yet there exist many versions of reality in which the story would be wrong.
Both India and China export a lot of people too. But normally you would not describe that as "fleeing corruption" but more of "seeking economic opportunity." Is Russia any different from that perspective? I don't know the answer, I am just asking the question.