According to widereurope.org, Putin referred in his address to the corrupt bureaucracy that allegedly uses Russia’s wealth to further their personal interests. In the address, Putin stated: “... Russia will be prosperous only when the success of every individual will depend not only on his material standards, but also on his decency and his culture.”

Two days after the address, the Moscow Times carried a story of ten senior law enforcement officials who were fired as a consequence of the new anti-corruption drive. “The work is not over, and not only within Customs,” the Russian president is quoted as saying, suggesting that more officials could lose their jobs.

Criticism for Putin’s drive came from Georgy Satarov, the Director of Indem, a Russian think tank dealing with corruption. He told the Moscow Times: “It’s battling corrupt individuals, not corruption.” In the same article, political analyst Vladimir Pribylovski added: “The corruption will remain, but the money will be going to a different clan”.

The Moscow Times further reports that the Federal Security Service played a central role in the termination of the officials, and that some of the fired officials’ successors are former KGB colleagues of Putin. The paper reports that the new anti-corruption drive demonstrates the influence of the president’s secret service clan.