The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

by Masha Gessen

Putin had responded to the pensioners’ protests by announcing mammoth government investment in social services. The investment was divided into four different “priority national projects.” The first year, Russia invested about $2 billion in the four projects, and the following year the amount went up. The largest share of the money went to National Project Health. It was designed to radically modernize Russian medicine.19 Health care and research institutions began importing vast amounts of medical equipment and the chemicals and parts required for it to function. Because the funds were federal, all purchases had to go through the health ministry, where kickbacks accounted for 80 to 90 percent of the expenditures. But foreign suppliers, bound by their national laws, could not accommodate the kickback schemes or pay the bribes at customs. This was where the “distribution company” stepped in. It was Masha’s job to ensure that the corruption premiums were paid but the paperwork looked clean. She got an excellent salary.