The average bribe paid to a government or corporate official rose to 293,000 rubles ($10,573) in the first half of 2011, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
Officials at the ministry's economic crimes and corruption department undertook "large-scale operations to prevent crimes related to the procurement of medical equipment, corruption and theft of state funds," the ministry said in an e-mailed statement.
The anti-corruption drive pushed up the average bribe, the ministry said, without giving a figure for comparison or the total number of bribes uncovered.
The "everyday" bribes, which exclude commercial and official corruption, averaged 5,285 rubles last year, Deputy Economic Development Minister Oleg Fomichev said last month.
(Bloomberg)
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