Russia’s National Anti-Corruption Committee has seen a tripling in bribe-taking in the past year to nearly $119 million.
Transparency International anti-corruption charity’s global survey said that every third Russian paid a bribe for public services in 2017. Russia ranked 135th out of 180 countries in the NGO’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index.
“The total amount of bribes received for all reported crimes under Article 290 of Russia’s Criminal Code amounted to 6.7 billion rubles [$119 million],” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday, citing the anti-corruption committee’s bulletin.
In 2016, the committee recorded 2.3 billion ($41 million) rubles in accepted bribes, the news agency reported.
The RBC business portal cited Transparency International Russia’s deputy head Ilya Shumanov as saying that 7 billion rubles in accepted bribes was the “tip of the iceberg.”
“Approximately the same amount was found in the apartment of Interior Ministry colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko,” Shumanov said, referring to a continuing high-profile case involving the former anti-corruption cop.
