In Russia, accusations of corruption taint even Olympics mascot selection (The Christian Science Monitor)

Moscow – The biggest controversy gripping Russia today isn't explicitly political, but something Russians appear to get more passionate about – the choice of a mascot for the upcoming 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Charges of plagiarism, amateurism, and bad taste are flying, and some are even hinting that popular voting for the mascot may have been rigged to ensure the candidate backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would win.

It's not the sort of trouble the Sochi Winter Games needed, since they are already plagued by allegations of environmental recklessness and corruption as well as worries about deteriorating security in the northern Caucasus region.

Medvedev orders corruption investigation into Putin's Sochi Olympics

In the first-ever open election for an Olympic mascot, more than 1.4 million Russians cast their votes by phone, text message, and e-mail over the weekend. On Monday, the Sochi Olympic Committee declared the winner to be a sleek, wide-eyed, snowboard-toting leopard that Mr. Putin had publicly named as his personal "symbolic choice."

Two runners-up – a plump polar bear and a petit bunny rabbit – will serve as auxiliary mascots, representing the "silver" and "bronze" positions on the Olympic podium, officials said.

"All top three characters will become the Olympic Winter Games mascots," Olympic chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said in a statement. "The mascots are the choice of our whole country and will remain in the history of the Olympic movement."

The mascots were selected from a short list of 11 designs, culled from more than 24,000 ideas submitted by the Russian public over the past year. The voting was kicked off by a TV marathon hosted by the chief of Russia's state-run Channel One, Konstantin Ernst.

Some viewers began to suspect that all was not above board when one popular contender, a stylized version of Grandfather Frost (the Russian Santa Claus) was suddenly withdrawn in mid-vote over what organizers called a "copyright issue."

But when the three winners were announced, a storm of controversy erupted.

Ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, deputy speaker of the Duma, slammed all three designs as unworthy. "The bear is the dumbest animal," he said, "the leopard is vicious, and the rabbit is a coward."

Viktor Chizhikov, who designed one of the most popular Olympic mascots of all time, a cuddly teddy bear named Misha who symbolized the Soviet Union's 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, claimed that his idea had been recycled to create the polar bear, which won second place in the voting.

"It's exactly the same as mine – the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the smile, even though it's been distorted," Mr. Chizhikov told the independent Ekho Moskvi radio station. "I don't like it when people steal ideas; it's always very painful for an author."

Professionals sneered. "This is complete madness; out of nothing they created an event of popular excitement," says Vasily Tsigankov, head of graphic design at the National Institute of Design in Moscow. "These three wild symbols were made by amateurs. They are three clumsy designs, produced by people who don't know how to draw, and selected by people who are not professionals either. It looks like no trained artists even took part in the competition."

Some commentators suggested that Putin's public embrace of the athletic snow leopard, which had earlier been lagging far behind in public polling, may have ensured its victory – in much the same way the hyper-popular Putin easily engineered the election of his own successor, Dmitry Medvedev, to Kremlin leadership three years ago.

But it was Mr. Medvedev – he may have favored the polar bear design (the Russian word for bear is "medved") – who dropped the heaviest hint of all.

At a government meeting to consider the adoption of a new electronic national ID card, Medvedev said he hoped the process of selecting a design for the card would be "more equitable than the discussion of the symbols for our Olympics."

Medvedev orders corruption investigation into Putin's Sochi Olympics

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Egypt's Corruption Probes: Justice or a Witch Hunt? (Time.com)

While most attention has focused on the origins of the wealth of Hosni Mubarak and his family, allegations of corruption run far deeper into Egyptian society - and pursuit of the charges may result not only in the punishment of cronies but also a wider witch hunt against businessmen that may stymie an economy that needs as much growth as possible.

More than 1,000 cases of corruption, lodged with the government in recent years but largely ignored, will now be opened, according to Gawdat al-Malt, the director of Egypt's Central Auditing Organization. The breadth of potential exposÉs is staggering, poking into virtually every corner of the economy from agriculture to the financial mess that state banks have bequeathed by way of sweetheart loans that will probably never be paid back. The investigations may eventually touch foreign investors, if not foreign governments, in particular the U.S. (See pictures of Hosni Mubarak.)

But some observers warn that the zeal to clean house may cause significant collateral damage. "It's an important step and it's a necessary process that the country needs to move forward," says Khairi Abaza, a former Egyptian politician who is currently a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., "but I think they have opened a real Pandora's box by starting this process." "This is going to be a big deal and is part of the reason emotions are running very high now in Egypt," says an Egyptian-American academic who has asked not to be identified. "There was certainly serious, serious corruption, but one worries about it widening to include people who were fairly honest businessmen, and I fear it portends a kind of willingness to backtrack on some of the necessary economic reforms that got Egypt out of the command state and are in part responsible for some of the growth that have we have been seeing there. " (See what Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris thinks of the new order.)

Stifled reforms and a return to some form of state socialism, Abaza says, could result from the merged interests a "resurgent left" and the military, which has never been keen on reforms. Paul Sullivan, an economics professor at National Defense University who taught in Cairo for six years, says, "My sense is that there could be extensive expropriations of assets of those found to be corrupt, but this may cause greater capital outflows and harm Egypt's abilities to attract foreign investments." Sullivan adds, "This is a peoples' rebellion, and they are looking for some way to tax those ill-gotten gains."

The importance of wasta, or connections, makes it difficult for investigators to know where to draw the line - especially if the purge against corruption is largely a continuation of the military's behind-the-scenes campaign against the regime faction led by Gamal Mubarak, the former President's son, whose economic-liberalization policies were tarred by extensive crony capitalism. "Anyone who has [lots of] money in Egypt had to deal with corruption, had to be involved in one way or another with a degree of corruption - because that's how the system functions," argues Abaza, who for a decade was associated with the long-established liberal political party Wafd. "This started in the last days of Mubarak, mainly to have a few scapegoats, but I think this process has gone a little bit out of hand, from a regime perspective." There are already long lines of people seeking to register complaints with the attorney general's office, and many observers say that a cascade effect will occur when those accused of corruption in turn expose others higher up in the food chain. (See a video of the celebration in Egypt.)

The business community is now frantically trying to reconnect with a new and still emerging hierarchy of power - and the efforts can be frustrating. Naguib Sawiris, one of the richest businessmen in Egypt, says he has stopped providing advice to the regime after being part of the committee that tried to mediate between the Mubarak regime and the opposition. He says the junta could clearly benefit from consulting with business leaders but adds wearily, "You know, they need to see that for themselves. It's not for me to tell them that." Sawiris does not fear for himself, despite alleged ties to Gamal Mubarak. (Sawiris also happened to bankroll the country's best independent newspaper and TV network, which both covered the protests extensively.) But at the same time, Sawiris says he is uneasy about the new zeal displayed by prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmoud. "He did not take action [when the cases of corruption were brought up in the past]. Now he is taking action. How can I trust a man like that?"

Another potential result of the corruption probes: a chilling effect on business and economic reform. "The cause of economic reform in Egypt is over for a long time, maybe the next 10 years," says an Egyptian-American academic who prefers not to be named. "I mean, come on, how are you going to privatize now in this atmosphere? Forget about it - it's a dead letter." Instead, he foresees the government - even a democratically elected one - falling back on policies to try to guarantee full employment with an artificially boosted minimum wage, embracing the socialism that he points out has been around since the military first took power in 1952. "Liberty does not bring economic liberalization, but that's the price you have to pay in the short term." (Comment on this story.)

There may, however, be some military-imposed limits on prosecutions. Recent Egyptian government requests to foreign governments to freeze assets of high-placed former regime officials notably did not include any Mubarak family members. The logic there, says the anonymous academic, is that if the former President could be prosecuted, then high-ranking generals could be too. The top brass presides over a fount of military wealth, which includes control over huge swaths of public land, much of which was converted in recent years into malls, upscale housing and resorts.

While potential witch hunts concern many observers, Samer Shehata, a Georgetown University professor, says his principal concern is that the investigations go far enough and "not simply to placate public opinion momentarily." He says they should include not just the financially corrupt but also the most zealous regime defenders, particularly its chief propagandists in the state media. Says Shehata: "I think they certainly need to be held accountable [and] I just want to make sure that these investigations really are thorough, that they are unbiased and professional, fair and so on. But you have to remember, we have been dealing with a government that has not been the most efficient or transparent or credible for some time now."

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Will a Corruption Scandal Slow Down China's High Speed Trains? (Time.com)

The Feb. 12 announcement of the dismissal of China's railway minister has been an embarrassment for a transport system that has been a symbol of the country's rapid growth. Liu Zhijun was sacked over the weekend for "severe violation of discipline," according to the state-run Xinhua news service, and is under investigation by the Communist Party for suspected corruption in rail building contracts.

Liu, who was appointed to the position in 2003, helped lead the country's development of its internationally lauded high-speed rail. Since the opening of its first high-speed line in 2003, China has built 8,358 km of high-speed tracks that can carry trains at over 200 km/h. One month before his dismissal Liu said that China would reach 16,000 km of high-speed rail by 2015. During his state of the union address in January, U.S. President Obama cited China's fast trains in announcing his goal to give 80% of Americans access to their own high-speed rail system within 25 years.

Chinese companies have begun competing for rail projects abroad, and last year the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation completed a metro line in the Saudi holy city of Mecca. The project was a technical success, but the pressure Beijing exerted on its company to complete the project resulted in a $600 million loss for the firm. China is also in talks to build a rail line through Colombia that would serve as an alternative to the Panama Canal, the Financial Times reported Feb. 13. /Users/kmahr1271/Desktop/LINK GUIDELINES_NEW_JUNE.txt:888: (See pictures of China's high speed rail.)

At home, China's rail building binge has been met with both satisfaction at the improvements in speed and quality and doubts about whether the massive investment is necessary for a developing nation. The expensive high-speed tickets did little to ensure smooth travel during this year's Spring Festival travel period, when some 200 million migrant workers travel home from China's cities to celebrate the holiday. This year saw the season's usual explosion of complaints from people who were unable to get a cheap train ticket, with travelers again forced to buy from scalpers or end up with tickets that only permit them to stand for long distances. Others had to buy the pricier high-speed rail tickets or even fly, an expensive prospect for average workers. (See pictures of China's great spring migration.)

The ticketing system, which sets aside seats for government officials, has created ample opportunities for graft, especially during periods of high demand. So has the massive size of the railway ministry, which employs 2.5 million staff, and the size of its expansion plans. In 2009 spending on railroad construction climbed more than 80% to reach $88 billion, and it is expected to surpass $700 billion this decade. "Whenever you have a very large project with a lot of money invested, and in the Chinese railway sector investment has exploded with huge amounts of money funneled in without significant supervision sometimes, it's hard to imagine there wouldn't be rigged bids," says Dali Yang, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

Liu has yet to be charged with a specific crime while he is under investigation by the Communist Party's disciplinary body. He is the highest level official to be dismissed for corruption since disgraced Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu was removed from office in 2006. Chen was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2008. As with Chen, Liu's prosecution would have been approved by high level officials. Allegations of Liu's corruption have circulated online for months. His younger brother, a railway official in Wuhan, was given a suspended death sentence in 2006 for taking more than $3 million in bribes and hiring assassins to kill a man who ran a lodging house. So far the elder Liu hasn't been linked to such violence. In an article published this week and since removed from its website, the groundbreaking Chinese business publication Caixin reported that he was connected with Ding Shumiao, a Shanxi businesswoman whose empire includes railway construction and coal hauling. She is also under investigation, the magazine reported.

Rail officials have responded quickly to the Chinese public's concerns that the alleged corruption may have affected the quality of the newly built lines. In a Feb. 13 teleconference with rail ministry employees, Liu's replacement, General Administration of Customs chief Sheng Guangzu, stressed the need to ensure safety, eliminate corruption in railway construction and pursue the government's rail development goals, the rail ministry reported on its website. Given that development targets have already been approved, it's unlikely that Liu's dismissal will immediately slow down China's high-speed push. But that may change after China begins a leadership transition next year, says Yang. "As the new leadership takes on this issue, it may be thinking of how to justify this spending," Yang says. "When that reckoning comes, it may affect further investment."

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