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A
leftist Russian lawmaker wants to amend the criminal code to target non-monetary
bribes, saying there is a growing wiliness by corrupt officials, according to RT.
Oleg
Mikheyev of the center-left party Fair Russia told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily
that the definition of bribe should include all possible benefits – from cash
to promotion, sex services or even dining out at someone else’s expense.
Mikheyev
suggests “intangible bribes” should be punished with fines of between 25,000
rubles ($650) and a hefty 500 million rubles (over US$13 million).
The
motion is very similar to proposals made by Russia’s Prosecutor General’s
Office back in 2012. The prosecutors’ draft was prepared in cooperation with
the Group of States against Corruption, or GRECO, and also sought to recognize
various services and advantages as bribes.
The
2012 bill was immediately met with strong resistance from experts. They claimed
that it would be very hard to implement, as the only way to for the police to
prove the bribery charges would be to ensure the full cooperation from the
suspect and the bribe-givers, which was unlikely.
However,
the experts are showing more understanding of Mikheyev’s suggestion. The Dean
of Russia’s Higher School of Economics, Pavel Kudyukin, told reporters that
bribery must be redefined in Russian law so that the country remains in line
with modern European thinking. He acknowledged the possible difficulties, but
said that solutions could be copied from international experience.
Russia’s
anti-corruption drive has intensified over the past years.
Various politicians and
state agencies have already submitted bills to order the courts to publicly
disclose the names of people convicted of corruption, and obliging the
relatives of convicted bribe-takers to report their property and income. Other
bills proposed to charge with bribery those who take money for promises to
influence some decisions in the bodies of power; currently such people can only
face a much softer charge of fraud.
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