Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Russian corruption may decline this year as the slumping price of oil reduces the amount of “easy” money available to pay bribes, said Evgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Troika Dialog in Moscow.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows corruption rises and falls with the price of oil. Russia had its best-ever score on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index in 2004 when the price of Urals crude, Russia’s chief export blend, averaged $34.18 a barrel. The country received its worst score last year since 2001 when Urals surged to a record $142.94 a barrel and averaged $95.10.

“If money is cheap and easily available, as it is when oil revenues are flowing in, people don’t mind paying bribes,” Gavrilenkov said in an interview from New York. “When the cake is growing everyone wants a bigger piece, but when it’s shrinking, people concentrate more on survival. If you have nothing to pay you don’t pay and that’s what we’re seeing in Russia.”

Russian officials take about $240 billion in bribes a year, based on data from the Prosecutor General’s office in 2006. President Dmitry Medvedev pledged a national plan to combat corruption last July.

Urals crude, Russia’s chief export blend, slumped 68 percent since its all-time high in July to $45.56 a barrel, below the $70 average required to balance this year’s budget, as the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression cut demand. The government expects Urals to trade at an average $41 a barrel this year, Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina said last week. Russia may be in recession, Medvedev’s economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich, said in an interview last month.

Berlin-based Transparency International’s annual corruption index ranks countries by their perceived levels of corruption by talking with businesses and officials. The index rates the country on a scale of “highly corrupt” to “highly clean.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma O’Brien in Moscow at eobrien6@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: January 26, 2009 06:34 EST