Support The Moscow Times!

Russians Charged Over $27M in Bribes in 2018, Prosecutors Say

Pixabay

Russians have accepted 1.8 billion rubles ($27 million) in bribes that the authorities have cracked down on in the first nine months of this year, federal prosecutors have said.

Anti-corruption activists say official figures vastly underestimate the prevalence of bribery in a country that ranks low in transparency and high in corruption.

“The total amount [of money taken as bribes] totaled 1.8 billion rubles” between January and September, Alexander Kurennoy, a spokesman for the General Prosecutor’s Office, said Tuesday.

He noted that bribe-giving and taking rose by 3 percent to 10,179 cases this year.

Prosecutions for facilitating bribery grew by 16 percent, Kurennoy added.

Moscow and the regions of Rostov, Moscow and Chelyabinsk led in a rating of bribe-taking between January and October, according to the prosecutor’s office’s data. 

Bribe-giving cases were most prevalent in the Moscow region, Moscow, and the Krasnodar region.

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just 2. It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more