Two state agencies began internal investigations into allegations of corruption linked to purchasing cars fr om Germany's Daimler after three weeks of official silence, media reported Friday.
Daimler on April 1 agreed to pay $185 million to settle charges of violating U.S. anti-bribery laws brought by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Daimler's German and Russian units each agreed to plead guilty to two counts of violating U.S. anti-bribery laws.
RIA-Novosti quoted an unidentified spokesman for the Federal Guard Service, which provides security for senior officials, as saying the agency's head had ordered an internal investigation into media reports about corruption.
"Specialists and experts from related units are studying documents linked to preparations and signing of contracts for car purchases for the Special Purpose Garage," the spokesman said, RIA-Novosti reported.
The Special Purpose Garage provides transportation services for the president, prime minister, speakers of both chambers of parliament, former presidents of the U.S.S.R. and Russia, as well as foreign leaders on official visits to Russia.
Both President Dmitry Medvedev, who has made fighting corruption a priority, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, ride in Mercedes cars. Neither has made public comments about the Daimler allegations.
Berlin-based group Transparency International rates Russia a joint 146th out of 180 nations in its Corruption Perception Index, with a higher number signifying a higher perception of corruption.
Separately, the Interior Ministry has initiated its own internal investigation.
"The internal security department is carrying out an investigation in connection with possible instances of corruption during purchases of Mercedes cars," ministry spokesman Oleg Yelnikov said, Russian media reported.
In the SEC case, Daimler was accused of making some $56 million in bribes related to more than 200 transactions in 22 countries, including Russia, that earned the company $1.9 billion in revenue and at least $91.4 million in profits.
According to the charges, the alleged bribes were frequently made by overinvoicing customers and paying the excess back to top government officials or their proxies — a practice commonly known as "kickbacks."
Several Russian commentators said three weeks of official silence on the Daimler case undermined the anti-corruption effort. On April 6, Medvedev chaired a meeting of his anti-corruption committee wh ere the case was not even mentioned.
"The worst thing they could do was to call this meeting — what was there to meet about? Here is the corruption, the Americans are spoon-feeding everything, they just have to open their mouth," wrote columnist Alexander Privalov in the influential magazine Expert.
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