Kremlin chief of staff upbeat on Russia’s fight against corruption

(Interfax – Vienna, 29 November) The Kremlin hopes that the draft bill on controlling officials’ expenses will take effect this year.

“Among anti-corruption stories, I would note the draft bill on controlling officials’ expenses,” the head of the Kremlin (Presidential) Administration, Sergey Ivanov, said at the International Anti-Corruption Academy’s (IACA) first Assembly of Parties in Vienna on Thursday (29 November).

He recalled that the bill requires state officials to report the sources of funds for large transactions or purchases, “and if there are no such sources, makes it possible to give these funds to the state budget, that is to say, to confiscate them, by a court decision”.

“We hope that this bill will take effect before the end of the year,” Sergey Ivanov said.

The Russian leadership views effective fight against corruption as “a basis for the successful development of our country”, Ivanov noted.

“We need prompt and coordinated actions, measures that outlaw corruption and put it outside morality,” the head of the Kremlin administration said.

He stressed that “cleansing the authorities of corrupt officials, effective civil control, transparency of all state procedures, including procurement, expert analysis of legislation – all these issues are on the Russian state and public agenda”.

At the same time, according to Ivanov, the Russian leadership realizes that only state efforts cannot defeat corruption.

“Success in this difficult struggle critically depends on the stance of the public, on the state of public morality and legal consciousness, on the stance of the mass media and civil institutions,” the head of the Kremlin administration said.

He stressed that methods of cooperation with civil society in the fight against corruption “have been tried and are already widely used, and most importantly, they deliver tangible results”.

(Passage omitted: background)