MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) – Russia ranked 127th out of 177 countries on a 2013 corruption perceptions ranking published Tuesday by anti-graft organization Transparency International, showing little change since last year.
Russia received the same score (28 points of a possible 100) as it did in 2012, but moved up from last year’s 133rd place as other countries fell down the list.
Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which compiles surveys and other public assessments of graft to rank how corrupt a country is perceived to be, allowed users to compare year-on-year results for the first time this year.
The Berlin-based NGO changed its methodology in 2012 to rank countries’ perceived levels of public sector corruption on a 100-point scale, where 0 represents highly corrupt and 100 means very clean.
The best and worst of the list proved the same in 2013 as last year. Denmark and New Zealand tied for first with 91 points out of 100, while Somalia, Afghanistan, and North Korea all tied for last place with 8 out of 100.
Transparency International said two-thirds of the surveyed countries scored less than 50 points, indicating a serious corruption problem.
Estonia, Greece and Myanmar showed the largest improvement since last year, while Iceland, Libya, Spain and Syria were among the countries most prominently getting worse, the organization said.
The Russian government has in recent years conducted a high-profile anti-graft drive, but opinion polls show it has had little apparent result on the public's perception of corruption.
