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Russia's Medvedev launches anti-corruption drive
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-20 10:52

MOSCOW - Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, signed into life a programme aimed at tackling the corruption that has defied campaigns -- sometimes feeble, rarely fruitful -- declared by successive Kremlin leaders.

Dmitry Medvedev is sworn in as the new Russian President in the Kremlin throne room, May 7, 2008. [Agencies] 

Medvedev, a former corporate lawyer, was elected in March on promises to modernise the Russian economy and secure decades of social stability.

"It is obvious that corruption is a threat to any state," Medvedev told security and judicial officials in the Kremlin.

"It damages the business environment, weakens the state and hurts its image. But the main thing, corruption undermines popular trust in the government."

"The level of corruption remains extremely high," Medvedev said. "In 2007 alone, 10,500 criminal cases involving corruption were launched, and we understand perfectly well this is only the tip of the iceberg."

Bribe taking

In one of Medvedev's first moves after his inauguration, he ordered an end to arbitrary inspections of small firms by officials, a typical way for officials to extort bribes.

On Monday, he said he wanted to modernise legislation to close loopholes used by corrupt officials and to make government purchases more transparent, as well as campaigning to change Russia's widespread tolerance of bribe-taking.

A decree published by the Kremlin made the president head of the Anti-Corruption Council.

Medvedev's chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin, will now head the council's presidium and is charged with a task of presenting within a month Russia's national plan on fighting corruption, the decree said.