Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the increase in the number of people charged with corruption and bribery in Russia proves the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures in the country.
"The number of individuals punished for administrative crimes, corruption and bribery in Russia...is on the rise, especially in the past few years," Putin said at his annual Q&A session.
"But this is because we started to catch more of them [fraudsters] rather than because their numbers are growing," he added.
The Berlin-based non-governmental anti-corruption organization Transparency International has persistently rated Russia one of the most corrupt nations in the world. In the 2010 Corruption Perception Index, Russia was ranked 154th of 178, below countries like Kenya, Laos and Papua New Guinea.
MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti)