Can corruption in Russia ever be defeated?

Russian news agency Interfax reports that the vast majority of Russians believe the amount of corruption in Russia to be excessive, but they also feel that the nation’s leaders cannot or will not do enough to stop it.

Some 81 percent of the respondents to a national poll conducted mid-March said the level of corruption in the country is “high,” up from 75 percent in 2010. Forty-three percent believe corruption cannot be eradicated, as opposed to 39 percent who said it can be eliminated one day.

Meanwhile more than a third (35 percent) of the Russian electorate said they could not judge the work of President Dmitry Medvedev after nearly four years. (Imagine a third of the U.S. population not being able to judge a president’s job after even four months.)

Even more telling, 72 percent of the respondents said they saw no difference between the policies of Medvedev and his presidential predecessor / successor, Vladimir Putin.

Read more about the polls here.