Dmitry Medvedev has begun work on developing an anticorruption standard of behavior for Russians.
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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President Plans to Combat Corruption
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed an order yesterday on the preparation of a national plan to combat corruption. Today he will hold a meeting on strengthening the authority and independence of the courts. Experts call these initiatives the president’s first independent political projects. Medvedev first spoke of fighting corruption as a candidate at a meeting with supports in Nizhny Novgorod on February 27. He said then that “It is necessary to create a national plan to fight corruption that will include timely changes to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. That plan will be prepared in the coming months.”
Chief of the presidential staff Sergey Naryshkin stated that the president will create and head a presidential commission and Naryshkin will head an interagency commission on combating corruption. The Prosecutor General’s Office and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika will supervise anticorruption measures. Medvedev’s plan calls for updating legislation, since “there are a number of questions about” current anticorruption legislation,” the president said. A second angle of attack will be the creation of preventative measures and a third public education. “We are talking about the atmosphere in society,” Medvedev said. “We must create an anticorruption standard of behavior. Without that, nothing will work. In developed countries, as we say, countries with a high legal culture, they do not take bribes not only because they are afraid, but because it is not profitable.”
Mikhail Vinogradov, general director of the Center for Political Technology commented that “the topic of combating corruption will allow rather wide and free citation of the results of the work as needed, without tying anyone’s hands or looking confrontational in relation to the government or Putin.” Deputy director of the Institute for Social Systems Dmitry Badovsky suggested that Medvedev will choose several such projects to concentrate on during his term.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 20, 2008
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