More corruption in Northwest Russia
The Northwest Russian law enforcement authorities’ fight against corruption in insufficient, the Russian General Prosecutor maintains. So far this year, the number of reported corruption cases involving regional authorities has increased with more than 40 percent year-on-year.
The situation is worst in the Arkhangelsk and Kaliningrad Oblasts, Sankt Petersburg and the republics of Karelia and Komi, Bclass.ru reports with reference to Itar-Tass.
In the course of the nine first months of the year, the number of registered corruption cases against state authorities increased 42 percent compared with the same time last year, Deputy General Prosecutor Aleksandr Gutsan says. Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities have solved only 5,2 percent more cases of bribe-taking and 21,6 percent more cases of bribe-giving.
The General Prosecutor now calls on the law enforcement authorities to take new measures against the problem.
According to last year’s corruption index from anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Russia is number 143 of 170 ranked countries.
Meanwhile, President Medvedev has the corruption problem high on its agenda and is preparing a set of anti-corruption measures. Several legislative bills have been handed over to the State Duma for approval. In addition an Anti-Corruption Council has been established and a National Anti-Corruption Plan is to be elaborated, Kremlin.ru reports.
