[alexro]

Russians prefer a cleptocratic government with Putin than a cleptocratic government without Putin. There are no non-cleptocratic governments in the world. Power corrups ... you know the rest of this, right?

[vdaniuk]

Just stop this craptastic argument of "every government is the same". Another favorite argument taken directly from putinbots social media guidance.

And stop using strawman arguments. No government is perfect but there are degrees of corruption in the government. Russian government is extremely corrupt, Iceland government is a little bit corrupt. One is better than another. God, do I really have to post trivia on HN?

[alexro]

Don't think trivial and you'll be safe. There are degrees of corruption between of the biggest countries and the tiny ones, but not so much inside the group. The methods vary, of course.

[mercurial]

You have plenty of small, extremely corrupt countries as well.

[Schwoisser]

But smaller countries tend to do better.