Bloomberg has an editorial today entitled “Strongman Putin Is No Match for Corruption.”  I’m not sure what to make of it.  The editors acknowledge corruption is “an integral part of the state-based economic system Putin has built since he took power in 2000.”  Yet they also refer to Putin as “the anti-corruption campaigner-in-chief” and act as if he is serious about tamping down on corruption.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  He is not only an enabler of the corruption which the editors decry, but is one of its chief beneficiaries.