The governance of anti-corruption on the Polar Silk Road

ABSTRACT

As China and Russia discover common ground in exploring the Arctic, the changing spatial dynamics create the possibility for new styles of governance in the area of combating corruption. This paper will ask whether the configuration of collaborative projects between Russian and Chinese partners will open up avenues for a shared governance of anti-corruption or whether, perhaps alternatively, there is the possibility of a non-state and post-sovereign governance model emerging. As there is little empirical evidence yet, this paper will focus on the case of “Arktik LNG-2” as the most substantial Russian-Chinese project in the Arctic to date. It argues that the set-up of this project expresses neither a shared governance nor a post-sovereign governance approach to anti-corruption. On the state-to-state level, there is no sign of China engaging with Russia. On the non-state level, there are no stakeholders that would articulate demands for anti-corruption. Instead, it is through corporate compliance policies that anti-corruption rules become applicable. But these rules are not “private” in the conventional sense. They represent a sub-state policy in the case of Russia and Party rule in the case of the Chinese counterparts.

KEYWORDS:

• Belt and road initiative
• corruption
• rules-based governance
• infrastructure development
• procurement
• trade

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The phrase was first used by President Putin in a remark to the Chinese delegation when attending the ceremony of the first shipping of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the “Yamal LNG” plant in early 2018. See Полярный шёлковый путь. Дмитрий Лекух (news-front.info).

2. Para 17 of the Joint Declaration of the Russian Federation and the Chinese People’s Republic of 8 June 2018, available at Совместное заявление Российской Федерации и Китайской Народной Республики • Президент России (kremlin.ru).

3. Указ Президента РФ от 29 июня 2018 г. № 378 “О Национальном плане противодействия коррупции на 2018–2020 годы” (garant.ru).

4. ОСНОВЫ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ В АРКТИКЕ НА ПЕРИОД ДО 2035 ГОДА / КонсультантПлюс (consultant.ru)ю.

5. l6DePkb3cDKTgzxbb6sdFc2npEPAd7SE.pdf (government.ru).

6. Public procurement – OECD.

7. WTO ¦ Government procurement – The plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA).

8. ПАО НОВАТЭК Компания : Тендеры и реализация ТМЦ | Информация для претендентов | Информация для претендентов (novatek.ru).

9. Available at Anticorpol.pdf (novatek.ru).

10. Указ Президента РФ от 07.05.2018 N 204 “О национальных целях и стратегических задачах развития Российской Федерации на период до 2024 года” (с изменениями и дополнениями) | ГАРАНТ (garant.ru).

11. ЕМИСС (fedstat.ru).

12. The numbers are taken from the Arkhangelsk Sea Trade Port’s forecast of port developments. See Главная страница (ascp.ru).

13. China | TFAD – Trade Facilitation Agreement Database (tfadatabase.org).

14. Decision No. 19 of 08.05.2015. To enforce this Action plan, the Russian Government adopted Decision No. 561 of 12 May 2017 “On realization of major directions for the development of the single window mechanism within the framework of foreign economic activity regulation.”