Russia has followed less than half of the European Council's Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) recommendations, an official from the Kremlin told the Vedomosti daily on Monday.
Shortly after coming to office in 2008, current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared corruption threat number one to modern Russian society and vowed significant tightening of anti-corruption laws in order to eradicate this vicious practice.
Two years have passed since then, but Russia has not achieved any significant success in this area yet. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent a report on the recently taken anti-corruption measures to GRECO, from which follows that only 12 of its 26 recommendations have been entirely implemented.
Among the most substantive changes is that Russia has adopted a strategy on fighting corrupt practices and passed a law on fighting corruption as well as broadened access to information on court proceedings and state organizations for citizens.
On the other hand, six recommendations were not carried out at all and eight were followed only partially.
Russia has not established a system of administrative courts to consider the appeals of authorities and state organizations. A draft law on establishing this court was passed in a first reading in 2008, but then was shelved for a follow-up revision.
The list of individuals granted immunities to criminal prosecution was also not shortened. However, the Prosecutor's Office reported that prosecutors, investigators and local deputies were almost completely stripped of immunity in 2008.
Russia has not yet prohibited presents for officials. "It's absolutely impossible to imagine that this measure will work for example in the Caucasus," an official from the Kremlin said, expressing his concerns.
The report also said that the number of articles stipulating the forfeiture of property as punishment has not been increased.
Russia runs the risk of being negatively evaluated by GRECO because the organization is not interested in listening to promises, an official close to the Presidential Council on Fighting Corruption said. Russia has to implement at least 18 recommendations in order to receive a good evaluation, he added.
MOSCOW, July 12 (RIA Novosti)
