President Dmitry Medvedev chaired a Council of Legislators meeting at the Kremlin on fighting corruption. The president said that the legal framework needed to effectively combat theft and bribery has been for the most part put into place now, Kremlin.ru reports. The Federal Law on Preventing Corruption was passed 2008, Mr. Medvedev recalled, and this was followed by the approval in 2010 of the National Corruption Prevention Strategy and a number of presidential executive orders. Russia now has for the first time a body of anti-corruption legislation that functions as a single legal institution, the president said.
Medvedev noted that all of the country’s regions have now approved anti-corruption plans, set up the needed organizational structures, and adopted targeted program.
But although Russia now has a solid anti-corruption legal foundation, there has been little headway so far in combating corruption, the president said. The existing legal instruments must be put to more active use, legislative bodies’ supervisory powers need to be strengthened, parliamentary investigations should be conducted if necessary, and draft laws must undergo anti-corruption expert examination.
Following the Council’s meeting, Medvedev gave the instruction to summarize all of the proposals made and prepare them for further work. The President said that the views expressed at the meeting could be incorporated into legislation and would be discussed too at the next meeting of the Council for Countering Corruption.
