Anti-corruption campaign in Russia remains on paper: survey

The fight against corruption in Russia remained on paper only and the number of bribe-takers has not decreased for the last three years, a survey of Russia's Ministry of Justice showed.

Anti-corruption operations have been on the rise, judging from media reports, Moscow's business daily Vedomosti reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said reports exposing the corrupt officials published by media across the country once reached 125 within a day.

However, the Ministry of Justice found out that the real situation remained unchanged. Before the anti-corruption campaign started, there were 21,842 cases registered in 2007 and 23,518 cases registered in 2009. Most of the offenders got away with the minimal punishment, the survey said.

In the survey, researchers compared data from the Interior Ministry and the Supreme Court for 2007-2009 relating to bribery, abuse of office, illegal participation in entrepreneurial activities.

Source: Xinhua