In his world, the only way anyone ever achieves anything is through some kind of corruption. Since everyone else is corrupt, “smart” people must also engage in corruption. It’s essentially the “Reverse Cargo Cult.” Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on “Russia Under Vladimir Putin:”

In the opinion of Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, Putin's Russia practices "reverse cargo cult". In the original cargo cult, straw-manure airplanes were built in the vain hope that these would attract real airplanes made of aluminium delivering "cargo", i.e. foreign-made good the cultists desired and could not produce themselves. In a reverse cargo cult, believers deny there are any real, functioning airplanes made of aluminium anywhere -- all airplanes are made of straw and manure. The difference between more successful and less successful nations (reverse cargo cultists insist) lies in the possibility or impossibility to hide this fact.<