Anti-corruption action in Russia increasingly ineffective – prosecutor general

MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) – Russia’s prosecutor general has accused law enforcement agencies of increasingly ineffective action against bribery.

“It is for the second year running that we have been expressing anxiety at a decrease in the number of registered instances of bribery. Instances of offering bribes have not only been going down in number – by 21% – but also instances of accepting bribes, which is one of the most dangerous corruption-related crimes,” Yury Chaika said during a State Duma session.

“This reflects obvious shortcomings on the part of investigation services,” he said.

Chaika said those convicted of corruption last year included 889 federal state and local government officials, including “244 heads of municipalities and local administrations.” Also, 114 members of various tiers of the legislative branch and 1,159 law enforcement officers were convicted of corruption, he said.