Putin furious over customs officers’ corruption joke on YouTube
By ANIThursday, February 17, 2011
LONDON - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has slammed a group of customs officers over a video clip they posted on YouTube celebrating the lavish lifestyle they say comes with their government jobs.
The mock rap video made in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok shows customs officials in sunglasses driving a Rolls Royce and drinking champagne surrounded by scantily clad women, reports the Scotsman.
“You can’t even imagine how the customs officials have fun,” officers sing in chorus as a topless woman clutches customs forms to her breasts.
No disciplinary action has been taken to date against the officers who posted the video, but the PM yesterday condemned the video’s tongue-in-cheek look at corruption.
“Discipline is needed in several of the divisions, we have to raise it a little,” Putin said at a meeting with the head of the Federal Customs Service.
“I like to joke and laugh a little myself, but this kind of creativity should be saved for a talent show,” he said.
The average monthly salary for customs officials - 1,000 dollars - is also the size of the average bribe in Russia, according to a recent report in financial daily Vedomosti. (ANI)
