Magic Statistics

That’s the view of Andrei Illarionov, former chief economic advisor to President Vladimir Putin.  Kenneth Whyte’s interview with him is posted at Maclean’s website.

What have you seen in the last two years in Russia that gives you cause for concern?
It's a long list. What is the most important is Russia ceased to be a democratic country, ceased to be a politically free country.

But it's still holding elections, and the current administration seems to be quite popular with the Russian people.
You know, during the former Soviet Union there were also regular elections, and at that time the governing party — Communist party — was also extremely popular among the illiterate.
. . .
[Y]ou say it's no longer democratic. What evidence do you have for that?
There is no free electoral process, there is no free access to the mass media, there is no free mass media, almost no free mass media in the country, there is no independent judiciary, there is no way to express different views. Political parties that are not in favour of the administration have been denied access to the electoral process, and so on and so on. And some of the prominent critics of the regime have been beaten, harassed, or even killed.

Yesterday Reporters sans frontières released its Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2006.  In the ranking of 168 countries, Russia has slipped to 147th place—lower than Zimbabwe.

Russia, which suffers from a basic lack of democracy, continues slowly but steadily dismantling the free media, with industrial groups close to President Vladimir Putin buying up nearly all independent media outlets and with passage of a law discouraging NGO activity.

The Russian constitution forbids Mr Putin from seeking a third consecutive term as president in the 2008 election, but he says he’ll “retain influence over Russia even after leaving office”.

Is that a threat?

h/t for Reporters sans frontiers: Times Online News Log

Previous related posts:

• Russian mob killing for control of economy
• Democracy not on the agenda at meeting of world’s largest democracies
• Europe beholden to Russian energy supplies

Are you pleased when intrusive strangers ask about your opinions?

The one question pollsters never get around to asking us is: “Do you enjoy being stopped and interrogated in opinion polls? Please answer (a) Yes (b) No (c) What do you think?” (Giving the answer (c) produces the Holy Grail of pollsters: a poll question that generates its own poll question in a never-ending, self-referential circle. It’s the polling world’s version of a Möbius strip, making it impossible to see the join where one poll ends and the next begins).

Times of London columnist Joe Joseph has that last bit wrong, actually.  Asking open-ended questions sends analysis costs through the roof.  It’s far cheaper to ask multiple-choice questions that can be fed into a computer for fast results.

Mr Joseph also thinks public-opinion polls give contradictory answers to pointless questions.  I won’t disagree on that one.

Previous related post: Ways of asking threatening questions

Last week I blogged the abrupt removal of China's former chief statistician Qiu Xiaohua.  The outspoken critic of Chinese economic policy had been on the job only seven months when he was mysteriously replaced.  It was later announced that he is under investigation in connection with the massive Shanghai municipal pension fund scandal.  Many observers, including this blogger, speculated that he'd been sacked for displeasing powerful Communist Party apparatchiks.

No such luck.  He took the money to spend on his mistress and their child.

China's top statistician, Qiu Xiaohua, allegedly used Shanghai's state pension fund to lend 50 million yuan ($6.3 million) to his lover, the South China Morning Post reported, citing people it didn't name.

Qiu received the money from Zhu Junyi, the former head of Shanghai's social security bureau who managed the fund, the Hong Kong-based newspaper reported. Investigators found a ledger that listed illegal loans made by Zhu to Qiu's lover, among others, the English-language newspaper said.

No doubt we'd have heard the naughty details much earlier if China only had a functioning tabloid press.

Qiu is a small fish in the ongoing Shanghai graft investigation that has already implicated more than 50 leading politicians and businessmen. One of China's richest men was arrested last weekend.

Zhang Rongkun, believed to be the 16th richest man in China with a $600m fortune, was arrested by "relevant law enforcement authorities", his own firm Fuxi Investment said in a brief statement on Saturday.
. . .
As the anti-corruption investigation continues, it seems likely the number of people involved will grow still further, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Shanghai says.

The Shanghai pension scandal is only one instance of a widespread anti-corruption campaign started about four years ago.  Over 17,000 party officials are said to have been disciplined so far this year alone. The vice mayor of Beijing was busted last June amid rumours of a country estate filled with his personal harem.

Paramours crop up so frequently in these investigations that someone has compiled a list of the best of concubinage in twelve categories and posted it at a Chinese internet bulletin board.  Here are the winners in the first category, Quantity:

Zha Jingui, director of Nanjing City Automobile Administration. Despite his age - almost 60 years old - Zha kept thirteen mistresses, to show that he's still at the high of his power. With such a shiny treasure trove of love affairs, director Zha couldn't stop bragging to his friends: "There are twelve beauties in the novel, Dream of the Red Mansion. But I have thirteen beauties." He also thought his record unbreakable, and looked down upon officials with fewer than 13 mistresses. But he reckoned without: Xu Qiyao, the ex-chief of Jiangsu Provincial Construction Department, who snatched the record with over 140 mistresses.

Richard Spencer, Beijing correspondent for the London Telegraph, has thoughtfully arranged to have the list translated and posted at his blog.  Tabloid aficionados can read the lot by scrolling partway down this page.

Previous related post: China’s chief statistician sacked in corruption scandal