Russia’s Average Bribe Was $10,573 in First Half, Ministry Says
The average bribe paid in Russia to a government or corporate official rose to 293,000 rubles ($10,573) in the first half, the Interior Ministry said.
Officials at the ministry’s economic crimes and corruption department undertook “large-scale operations to prevent crimes related to the procurement of medical equipment, corruption and theft of state funds,” the Moscow-based ministry said today in an e-mailed statement.
The anti-corruption drive pushed up the average bribe, the ministry said, without giving a figure for comparison or the total number of bribes uncovered.
President Dmitry Medvedev is trying to clean up Russia’s image as what Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index calls the world’s most corrupt major economy. The index, issued in October, ranked Russia 154th among 178 countries, alongside Tajikistan and Kenya. This week, Russia detained Yevgeny Yevstratov, a former deputy head of state nuclear holding Rosatom Corp., on suspicion of embezzling 110 million rubles in state funds.
Russian citizens paid at least 164 billion rubles in bribes last year to settle everyday issues such as fixing a traffic ticket, avoiding the military draft or entering a kindergarten, up from 84.8 billion rubles in 2001, according to an Economy Ministry report presented in June.
The “everyday” bribes, which exclude commercial and official corruption, averaged 5,285 rubles last year, Deputy Economy Minister Oleg Fomichev said on June 14.
To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Rose in Moscow at rrose10@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net.
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