May 27,2008: A former chief of the Bangladesh military, retired general Mustafizur Rahman, was arrested on corruption charges. Nine years ago, Rahman and several other senior government officials, split about a hundred million dollars of bribes paid by the Russians to ensure the sale of eight MiG-29 fighters. This didn't cost the Russians anything. They just increased the price of the aircraft, to cover the bribe costs.

For the last 17 months, a caretaker government has been running Bangladesh, because the two major political parties were deadlocked over forming a government. The caretaker government has used this opportunity to launch an anti-corruption campaign, since the caretaker officials are relatively immune from political retribution.

In much of the world, defense spending is the part of the national budget most susceptible to corruption. The result is either too much money is spent, and/or the wrong equipment is bought.