Addressing a regional academic gathering, Dmitri Kozak said, "This is a phenomenon that distorts all social processes and the overall situation, preventing the constitutional and democratic principles of national development from being realized. This phenomenon is the main factor hindering economic growth in southern Russia."
Kozak said the federal government is working to attract private investment in the troubled region, which, among other provinces, includes Chechnya, but that it will be impossible to make real progress with development until corruption is wiped out.
"We have already started dialogue with large investor companies, and as practice shows, no one is particularly scared off by terrorist activities or the crime rate, which [by the way] is lower in the south than the national average," Kozak said. "But what everyone finds really intimidating is the bribes solicited by government officials, as well as [local] authorities' lack of objectivity and impartiality."
