>There was lots of corruption in the Soviet Union. But we're talking about orders of magnitude difference here. Soviet corruption revolved around small bribes for services, lies on official documentation, etc. For 30 years now, Russia's resources have been looted to enrich several dozen people. We're talking about one of the largest shifts in wealth inequality in the history of the world.

This is how Russia has been under the communist rule. Everyone was "equal" and yet of course party members were "more equal" enjoy many prestiges which the common proletariat could only dream of. The meta culture was that of corruption and has been for a long time. You were never going to undo that.