Anti-growth city planners can make outrageous demands in this country, but I don’t think it’s gotten as bad as in Russia.
After several years of fantastic growth in Russia, IKEA is bogged down on expansion plans because of the demands of officials for bribes:
While its sales in Russia have been growing beyond expectation, problems seemed to have been piling up even faster; IKEA has publicly raged again against “blackmail, sabotage and pressure for bribes†from Russian officials. If Kremlin’s latest slogan have been “fight with corruption†and “attract foreign investment,†can someone help me understand if it’s really that hard to imprison the gangsters with government titles who are not only killing the foreign investment (which fell by 45% in 2009), but also are hurting Russia’s employment, economic development, and image abroad.
