Alexander Baunov Says High Level Corruption Still Exists in Russia

Russia isn't simply corrupt.

It's violently corrupt.

Putin has poisoned his rivals, imprisoned them, stripped them of all of their wealth etc.

This has gone on in Russia since the Czar and has continued throughout the 20th and 21st century.

Trotsky was murdered in Mexico by a man wielding an ice pick.

There are numerous extra judicial killings in Russia of those who the state has deemed a threat to its power.

This has not happened in the United States, just as one example.

One of the truly remarkable things about America is that in it's 200+ year history, the US has always had a peaceful transfer of power.

ALWAYS.

The closest we came to not having one was obviously the Civil War but even there Lincoln was allowed to assume office and the war did not commence until months later.

Political killings happen in the United States but they are rare and are always the work of one disturbed individual (please spare me your theory as to how LBJ ordered the assassination of JFK).

In Russia, they are commonplace and are often the work of criminal enterprises that operate either with the sanction of government or with government turning a blind eye to their actions.

The United States has problems with corruption that urgently need to be addressed, but to compare it to a thugocracy like Russia is extremely misguided, to put it as charitably as I can.

The same answer would hold for all Western democracies.