Systematic approach

Deputies and security officials were satisfied with the plan to combat corruption

Yesterday, a parliamentary hour was held in the State Duma dedicated to the implementation of the “National Anti-Corruption Plan” adopted last year at the initiative of President Medvedev. What has changed since then was told to the deputies by the head of the SKP Alexander Bastrykin, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev. Based on the results of their speeches, it turned out that the security forces had little success. However, the deputies did not worry, noting that it was too early to expect drastic changes. Everyone called the main achievement that the fight against corruption is now being carried out “on a systematic basis.”

Mr. Chaika gave the most extensive speech to the deputies. He said that over the past year, “thanks to joint efforts, a modernized anti-corruption legislative framework has been created,” “a lot has been done organizationally,” which “made it possible to systematically approach the solution of the assigned tasks, expand work across the entire breadth of the legal field and achieve concrete results.” Mr. Chaika also paid attention to the work on anti-corruption examination of laws and regulations, noting that it has become “such a large-scale nature that a full analysis of all the work being carried out is necessary.”

It turned out that over six months, prosecutors examined over 6 thousand cases of corruption, which is 1 thousand more than before. 532 officials and 764 law enforcement officers were convicted of such crimes, including three prosecutors, three officers of the Investigative Committee, 204 police officers and six customs officers. Mr. Nurgaliev, for his part, reported that this year 20% more crimes committed by police officers were identified than before. No specific examples were given. Only Mr. Chaika said that his department identified a certain deputy minister (name and department were not mentioned) who was involved in business, being the sole founder of the LLC.

Some liveliness was brought into the discussion only by questions from deputies who reported on corruption situations in the departments of the speakers. Thus, deputy Alexander Khinshtein reminded Mr. Bastrykin about his article last year, which reported that the head of the UPC had a business in the Czech Republic. The deputy then called on Mr. Bastrykin to either sue him or resign. But the head of the UPC said that he would do neither one nor the other, and according to the “form of defense” he had chosen, he simply told the Prosecutor General, the country’s leadership and journalists that he had not violated the law.

Alexey GRISHIN