This type of bureaucratic malpractice is particularly common in autocracies. The regime (top leadership) regime wants to know the problem and provide good policies to protect from overthrow. Their desire to avoid embarrassment is a bit lower. The bureaucrats are different. They care much less about the regime being overthrown but want to avoid embarrassment and hard work. So for bureaucrat the incentives to non-comply are strong. Democratic systems have the same problem, but have independent judiciaries and legislatures to share in overseeing the bureaucracy. To conclude:
This narrative is highly plausible. Our prior that mass data faking happens should be high.
We cannot assume that the regime (Putin) is aware of this.
Fun Autocracy Facts:
This type of bureaucratic malpractice is particularly common in autocracies. The regime (top leadership) regime wants to know the problem and provide good policies to protect from overthrow. Their desire to avoid embarrassment is a bit lower. The bureaucrats are different. They care much less about the regime being overthrown but want to avoid embarrassment and hard work. So for bureaucrat the incentives to non-comply are strong. Democratic systems have the same problem, but have independent judiciaries and legislatures to share in overseeing the bureaucracy. To conclude:
This narrative is highly plausible. Our prior that mass data faking happens should be high.
We cannot assume that the regime (Putin) is aware of this.
For a paper on similar problems in China see or my paper on Jordan