Estonia ranked the least corrupt nation in the former Communist bloc, according to an annual corruption index released on September 13 by the Transparency International.

Estonia ranked the least corrupt nation in the former Communist bloc, according to an annual corruption index released on September 13 by the Transparency International. Estonia ranked 27th out of 90 countries surveyed, while Lithuania and Latvia were 43rd and 57th. The respected anti-corruption watch-dog talked to business people, analysts and members of the general public in the nations surveyed to come up with their list. In its points system, a score of 10 is considered "highly clean" and 0 is considered "highly corrupt." Estonia received 5.7 points, Lithuania 4.1 and Latvia 3.4. Finland, Estonia's neighbor to the north, topped the list as the least corrupt country in the world with a perfect 10 score. Nigeria appeared at the bottom of the barrel with 1.2 points. The focus was on perceptions of how corrupt countries are, not on actual incidents of corruption. Spokesmen for the company have said that any score under 6.0 should be cause for concern a country.