Well, you know why they still do business here?
The answer is M O N E Y.
So, they bribe to make it happen, thus feeding the corruption loop, and don't see any problem with that! Until they do. Then, they brag the "ikea generation" crap in newspapers.
If you need to pay bribes, you need to raise your prices to still make a profit. Your customers, i.e. you, need to pay more. Corruption hurts the population of a country, as every cent comes directly out of their pockets. That is partly why people in properly democratic countries have, and keep, a higher standard of living.
It's much worse. The cost of bribes is bigger then the actual sum, and incomparable for the economy as a whole.
A bribe-based economy has very high barriers of entry, especially when the main client in your industry is the state. Which means low competition which means... lots of bad things.
> Well, you know why they still do business here? The answer is M O N E Y
I thought this was quite insightful. No matter how bad the conditions, there will be companies willing to make a profit there. After all, the choices are enter the market and make some money, or don't enter the market and make none. And Russia is a _big_ market, therefore a potential profit hard to dismiss.
This all means the system there will not run out of fuel very soon. It is less productive though, but their natural resources will probably make up for it. The biggest loser is the population. I read recently in a study of happiness per country Russia is very near the bottom. But as long as there are enough money to move the wheels, the system will go on.
What you described is unethical but quite a rational strategy in a corrupt political system. Pay up as long as the bribes are tolerable, use political leverage otherwise. Add a risk bonus (and bribe bonus) to your prices.
That is exactly something to be expected from a corporation. You don't expect corporations to take the moral high ground and heal Russia's political system at the expense of their own profits?
With respect to corruption there's bad news and good news. The bad news is that only Russian people can do something about it. The good news is that Russian people can do something about it.
So, they bribe to make it happen, thus feeding the corruption loop, and don't see any problem with that! Until they do. Then, they brag the "ikea generation" crap in newspapers.