President Dmitry Medvedev has said the fight against corruption is a priority, and the government is under pressure to find ways to root it out.
Under the Criminal Code, any money or gift given to a bureaucrat in the performance of his or her duties constitutes a bribe, but Article 575 of the Civil Code allows for the acceptance of gifts worth up to 11,500 rubles ($485).
An Investigative Committee official said Sunday that the "legal contradiction" created by the articles hindered investigators in their attempts to fight corruption, Interfax reported. The Investigative Committee is under the Prosecutor General's Office.
"In legal practice, and in particular when you investigate a crime linked to corruption, you often run into problems linked to the interpretation of these," the unidentified official said.
The lack of a clear legal definition of what constitutes corruption poses one of the most difficult obstacles when trying to battle the problem.
The initiative by the Investigative Committee, which is the main body responsible for battling corruption, is an attempt to downplay the magnitude of the problem, said Kirill Kabanov, director of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, an advocacy group.
"It seems that the $300 billion market for corruption in our country consists of gifts," Kabanov said, sarcastically.
"This is to soften the problem in the eyes of the population," he said. "It is like treating a very ill patient with iodine."
Calls to the Investigative Committee went unanswered Monday.
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