On Subregional Differences in Attitudes towards Petty Corruption in Far East Russia

This study examines differences in experiences with petty corruption and attitudes toward it among residents of four major urban centers in Russia’s Far East, the country’s largest but understudied macro-region. Analyzing our own survey data, we find that one subregion stands out from the other three considered in the study. Residents of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) demonstrate more negative attitudes toward corruption and report less frequent occurrences of petty corruption. Our qualitative findings confirm the existence of a distinct subregional pattern in perceived petty corruption. We hypothesize that the detected difference in attitudes may be rooted in the national composition of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), which, in contrast to the other regions under study, is dominated by native people. As an extension of our main analysis, we explore the conditional correlations between individual characteristics and perceptions of corruption (while accounting for region of residence) and observe several interesting patterns.