Alexei Navalny rightly asks: “If corruption is preventing us from finding solutions to the problems of the ‘big agenda’, has the time perhaps come to raise it to a priority on that agenda?” (Only action against corruption can solve the world’s biggest problems, 19 August). In respect of the UK, this seems unlikely to happen because corruption – “the exploitation of an official position for personal gain” – is rife in the UK government also, albeit in a slightly less serious form than in certain other countries. For what is the funnelling of government contracts to manifestly incompetent companies run by cronies, or by political donors, if it is not corruption? What is the exercise of ministerial prerogative to benefit some individual, who shortly thereafter makes a donation to party funds, if not corruption? The pot, being aware of its own blackness, will keep quiet when attending a summit with the kettle. Henry Law Manchester • Alexei Navalny makes so many apposite points about corruption in Russia and other states in his letter dictated from his prison cell. I was particularly interested in his suggested five steps to help combat global corruption, as he has highlighted several that need to be applied to our own government. These include creating a special category of countries that encourage corruption, enforced transparency, combating corrupt individuals and enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. So until all four of these steps are applied to the UK government, it can hardly begin to tackle corruption in other countries. But it seems unlikely that there is any realistic hope of tackling homegrown corruption, let alone that happening elsewhere. David Felton Wistaston, Cheshire • The problem confronting Alexei Navalny is where does he go from here? It’s all very well attacking Vladimir Putin, but where will he find a country to match his noble demands? I hope he wasn’t thinking about the UK flying the flag for him. Perhaps he’s unaware that “Clean Britain” is anything but. When he looks at the west with rose-tinted glasses, he may find they are constantly fogged up by the very things that he thinks only happen in one-party states. To paraphrase a well-known song: “Corruption makes the world go around, the world go around.” Michael Newman Shefford, Bedfordshire • To Alexei Navalny’s five steps to combat global corruption should be added Polly Toynbee’s call to end the “failed drugs prohibition” that “breeds corruption” (The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris, 17 August). Both are right to highlight corruption as the next biggest threat to civil society after climate change. Harold Mozley York • We read Alexei Navalny’s letter with great admiration for his immense bravery and clear-sightedness. Particularly now that we are facing such a difficult future, clarity, honesty and openness become ever more essential, as does the secure direction of monies to effective life-saving measures. The climate crisis demands no less. We should no longer tolerate selfish and self-serving corruption, whether moral or financial. Navalny’s five steps are a good practical start. Judy Liebert and Julian Marsh Nottingham • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.