A global survey published on November 19 has placed Russia in first place for the prevalence of economic crime.

According to the survey, conducted by the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, 71 percent of Russian companies have suffered from at least one instance of economic crime in the past year, and a 48 percent increase in the number of cases.

31.

That’s the number of countries on this planet, out of 180 surveyed by Transparency International, which just published its most recent results, that are more corrupt than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

31.

It’s a truly staggering number.  It means that 83% of the world’s nations are less corrupt than Putin’s Russia.  It means that Russia, which makes pretensions to international leadership and membership on the G-8 panel, ranks in the bottom quintile of all world countries, including the most backwards and least-developed African banana republics.  It means that, in terms of civilized behavior, Russia is a wasteland.

Police in Russia have arrested three homeless men suspected of killing a man, eating part of the body and selling other parts to a kebab shop.

The men were held in the city of Perm, some 1,400km (870 miles) east of Moscow, local investigators said.

Their statement said that the suspects had targeted the 25-year-old victim out of "personal hostility".

The "political scientist", who makes appearances under the pseudonym of Mr Kalashnikov, and whom the current formal leader of the Kremlin Medvedev holds in 'favorites', was forced to admit in an optimistic (for non-imperials) material, laid out in the Moscow's edition of the "political news agency" about the inevitability of the dismantling of Russia, resulting in a so-called "Russian" restoration of its national identity and once again become those people who they were prior to their enslavement by Muscovites.