Russia Country Profile

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General Information

The Political Climate

Since the investiture of former President Vladimir Putin in 2000, Russia has centralised power in the hands of the executive branch of government. However, the principles laid down in the Constitution of Russia prohibited Putin from running for a third presidential term. President Dmitry Medvedev entered office in May 2008, having won more than 70% of the votes in the March 2008 presidential elections with a strong endorsement from Putin. Subsequently, Medvedev appointed the outgoing President as Russian Prime Minister. Both Putin and Medvedev maintain that they do not intend to shift any powers from President to Prime Minister. According to the Levada Center, only 9% of Russians believed in 2008 that Medvedev was in charge, 47% thought Putin and Medvedev were ruling together, while 36% believed Putin was still in charge. At the end of December 2008, Medvedev signed a law that extends presidential terms from four years to six. This new law will take effect after Medvedev's current term.

The strong executive institutional setup mirrors the official understanding of how to deal with corruption. Most of the time the approach is command style and top-down, where the President decrees that new state agencies be established to fight corruption. After being elected, Medvedev ordered anti-corruption steps to protect small companies. The President's first bill to be submitted to the Duma was a draft anti-corruption bill. In December 2008, the Duma passed a package of anti-corruption legislation in its third reading. A government representative in the Constitutional Court believes this new law will not solve the problem, but that it could mark a new beginning. In contrast, INDEM Foundation (INDEM), a Moscow-based NGO, criticises the set of legislation, and suggests that corrupt officials will be able to evade what it sees as overly simplistic legal measures. President Medvedev himself has acknowledged that progress in fighting corruption has so far been 'extremely modest' and that there is still no mechanism to check and verify the declarations that public officials make, as reported by The Washington Times. In August 2009, President Medvedev assembled top officials to discuss the red tape and corruption plaguing Russia's small and medium-sized business sector. Medvedev emphasised that such businesses devote a significant portion of their annual revenues to overcoming bureaucratic hurdles. According to the President, removing 'administrative barriers' is a key goal of his reform drive, as reported by Voice of America News. According to the GRECO Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008, the Russian government is currently undertaking a comprehensive reform specifically aimed at modernising public administration. The measures, as foreseen in the reform programme, aim at attacking the roots of the problem of corruption.

The state superposition extends to civil society and to the business community. Economic development has been prioritised, with the state increasing its ownership in the economy, while political opponents to the ruling administration have been marginalised or harassed. The mass media (especially national television) is controlled by the state or state-friendly organisations, and politically important NGOs are harassed through administrative inspections, such as by the tax administration, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010.

Administrative reform is underway in Russia, but state and local administrations remain only modestly competent and efficient. Limiting bureaucratic oversight and creating one-stop shops for companies and citizens to deal with public authorities are supposed to reduce propensity for corruption, as meetings between civil servants and companies decrease. The government launched initiatives that limited face-to-face contacts with bureaucrats and increased public servants' wages in 2005. Nonetheless, companies continue to report that they are faced with a complex business environment and a high volume of demands for bribes. According to a poll by the Levada Center in October 2008, 40% of Russians see bribery as a useful way to resolve problems. In a Gallup Russian public opinion poll 2008, 69% of respondents believe that the government's anti-corruption efforts are ineffective, while the majority believes that corruption in the public and private sector is widespread and that the level of corruption in the country is increasing. In Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2009, 29% of the Russian households surveyed report having paid a bribe the previous year, while 50% believe that the government's fight against corruption is 'somewhat/very' ineffective. Corruption in Russia permeates through all levels of government, including the regulatory bodies. For instance, according to Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2009, one of the most notable cases was that of the deputy head of the Audit Chamber Vasily Koryagin and the head of inspection of federal property Sergei Klimantov who were found guilty of extorting a bribe worth USD 120,000 from one of the top oil refineries in August 2009.

Business and Corruption

Russia has witnessed rapid economic growth over the past several years. According to the IMF World Economic Outlook 2010, the Russian economy grew by a rate of over 5% in 2008, followed by a substantial decrease of almost 8% in 2009, as a result of the global financial crisis. Encouraged by reforms, foreign direct investment rose by approximately 300% between 2005 and 2007, but declined sharply in 2008 due to a dramatic drop in the price of oil and the global financial crisis, contributing to a decline in investor confidence, a substantial pull-out of investor capital and a 70% fall of the Russian stock market. The Russian government has since come forward with a massive economic stimulus package, but corruption and lack of trust in institutions continue to hamper domestic and foreign investor confidence. An important part of Russia's economic recovery will have to come from seeing through the economic priorities outlined by President Medvedev, including improving infrastructure, innovation, investment, and institutions, reforming the tax system and banking sector, combating corruption, and improving the judiciary. However, the government continues to exert control on the economy's strategic sectors, such as energy, transportation and car manufacturing and to gear its economic policy towards a few major economic actors. Big business in Russia is thus vulnerable to political pressure. For example, the Russian government targeted the foreign owners of the development of the Sakhalin II project in Russia's Far East, of vital importance to Russia's future energy policy, forcing them to sell a majority stake to Gazprom in 2006. The Sakhalin I project has recently also come under some pressure to sell its gas production to Gazprom, according to the US Department of State 2009.

Large companies cite corruption as a major obstacle to doing business in Russia. In February 2008, the Institute for Public Projects (INOP) together with the Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI) compiled a price-list of bribes. According to a CDI 2008 report on this price-list, large private companies can expect to pay USD 1-5 million to get a licence, and to pay one-third of the order price to win a government contract. Foreign companies establishing themselves in Russia regularly encounter demands for bribes. The Economist reported in late 2008 that the size of the average business bribe has increased from USD 10,000 to USD 130,000. According to data from the Interior Ministry, the average amount of a bribe has increased by 250% in the past year, as reported in a November 2009 article by RIA Novosti. Among business executives surveyed in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, corruption is identified as the most problematic factor for doing business in Russia. A 2008 survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation reveals that 56% of the businesspeople polled pay bribes. Foreign companies say corruption and a weak rule of law deter both trade and investment in Russia, according to a July 2009 article by Reuters. An example of the difficulties faced by multinational companies when setting up operations in Russia is the Swedish furniture company IKEA, which tried to build a store in Krasnodar in 2006. According to officials, the local administration demanded 30-50% of the project costs in kickbacks. IKEA consequentially chose to build the store only a few kilometres away in the neighbouring Adygea region. This saved IKEA around USD 100 million in total project costs. As a result of unattractive conditions for business, investments are far from sufficient to satisfy the modernisation needs of the Russian economy, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010.

Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) rarely have a say on economic policy and have to fight for their right to be heard, according to INDEM Foundation 2006. Many SMEs choose to operate in Russia's sizeable informal sector. Smaller companies, in general, have short-term business strategies, since long-term perspectives are regarded as too uncertain due to changing and incoherent business legislation and selective application of these rules. According to the price-list of bribes mentioned above, a small company can expect to pay a third of the value of a given transaction in bribes and 10% of its total profits to get 'help' from officials. According to the World Bank & IFC Enterprise Surveys 2009, over 29.4% of companies make unofficial payments to 'get things done'. However, a 2007 study conducted by INDEM & OPORA shows that bribes today are less likely to ensure the resolution of an issue. Thus, bribing does not necessarily ensure that a problem is solved or a case is processed faster. INDEM reports that 80% of all Russian companies pay bribes and, according to the Transparency International Bribe Payers Index 2008, Russian companies are most likely to pay bribes when doing business abroad. Companies are recommended to develop, implement and strengthen integrity systems and to conduct extensive due diligence when planning to invest and when already doing business in Russia. View the special page on information on obtaining business licences and permits in Russia.

Regulatory Environment

The Russian business regulation generally consists of very detailed regulations for the smallest activities. A manifestation of this is the excessive amount of time required to obtain and renew licences as reported by the World Bank & IFC Doing Business 2010. Regulatory restrictions on foreign direct investment are present, especially in sectors deemed of strategic importance by the Russian leadership, such as energy, insurance, electricity, banking and transportation. In these sectors, the state has discriminated against private, and especially foreign, investors, as reported by the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010. In banking, for example, foreign banks are allowed to operate, but only in the form of subsidiaries and not as branches. In the sector of air and freight transport, 49% foreign ownership is permitted. Other sectors, such as business services, hotels and restaurants, construction and distribution, have been opened up for foreign investment.

A further problem is the inconsistent application of laws and regulations on a non-transparent basis, and the weak enforcement of laws and court decisions. Companies surveyed in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 identify tax regulations and inefficient government bureaucracy to be among the most problematic factors for doing business in Russia. According to the EBRD & World Bank BEEPS Russia 2005, around 8% of senior management's time is spent dealing with public officials about the application and interpretation of laws and regulations, and to maintain access to public services. Nearly 60% of the companies surveyed said that regulatory policies were a problem for doing business in Russia. Both figures greatly exceed the regional average of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Regulatory changes are a particular problem for foreign investors. Some foreign companies have claimed that they have seen no real change in an opaque system which tends to favour Russian companies, as reported in a July 2009 article by Reuters. According to the OECD Investment Policy Reviews 2006 (in Russian) of 102 companies operating in Russia, 52% operating at the national level considered information on regulatory and legal changes a medium to serious problem for doing business. At the regional level, this figure reached 65%. In general, Russia's body of laws are conflicting, overlapping and rapidly changing, and the interpretation and application of these laws varies between central, regional and local authorities. For example, IKEA suffered delays opening a store in Novosibirsk in November 2007 because of a dispute with the local authorities which demanded that the company construct road links in the surrounding area, away from the store.

According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, the protection of property rights in Russia is especially problematic because of its weak legal base. Furthermore, the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010 reports that although the legal provisions related to the acquisition of property are practical, they are not, however, consistently implemented nor adequately safeguarded by law, especially against state intervention. For example, in 'strategic sectors' such as the oil industry, the state seems to systematically reduce the share of private owners through administrative pressures, which leads either to confiscations or to negotiated sales.

According to the US Department of State 2009, it can be difficult to obtain independent dispute resolution in Russia due to the still developing judicial system, political pressure on and widespread corruption within the courts, and weak enforcement. Reportedly, many attorneys refer their Western clients with investment or trade disputes in Russia to international arbitration in Stockholm or to courts abroad. Russia accepts binding international arbitration and foreign arbitral awards are legally enforceable in Russia, even without a reciprocal treaty between Russia and the country where the order was issued. Russia is a member of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and a signatory to the New York Convention of 1958. Domestic arbitration avenues are available through the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICAC). The ICAC will hear claims if both parties agree to refer disputes there. Similarly, an Arbitration Tribunal at the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been established. However, the enforcement of both domestic international arbitral awards ultimately requires action from Russian courts and follow-up by bailiffs, which, according to the US Department of State 2009, has yet to consistently and effectively enforce court judgments. Access the Lexadin World Law Guide for a collection of legislation in Russia.

Licences and Permits

Special information on obtaining business licences and permits in Russia

Having good relations with the relevant public authorities is very important when doing business in Russia. Opening up a store, registering a company, procuring office space, obtaining an allotment of land, or winning a government or municipal contract becomes considerably easier when a company has good relations with key persons within the relevant authority. According to the World Bank & IFC Doing Business 2010, dealing with licences is a major problem in Russia. For example, it takes 704 days on average for a company to obtain all the licences required to set up a warehouse. Despite political attempts to facilitate this process, no significant progress has been made in this field since 2005. According to Global Integrity 2008, businesspeople report that business inspections constitute one of the most corrupt sectors of civil service. Many companies in the EBRD & World Bank BEEPS Russia 2005 cite licences and permits as the area where bribery is most frequent when dealing with public authorities.

New legislation on licensing was introduced in 2002, according to which business licences should be given on a five-year basis instead of for three years. However, according to a 2007 report by CEFIR, an independent Russian economic policy think tank, approximately 40% of licences issued have a shorter validity than the five years required by the legislation. Licence fees were set at RUB 1,400 instead of the previous RUB 3,000 and it was stated that inspection agencies are not allowed to inspect a company more than once every two years. The result was that the number of companies that had to apply for licences fell from 31% in the fall of 2001 to 14% in the spring of 2004. Fewer meetings between companies and licensing agencies entail fewer possibilities for corruption. CEFIR 2007 reports that, although the number of companies needing licences has declined, the average price for a licence is twice the amount set by law. According to the US Department of State 2008, SMEs have been reporting fewer difficulties in obtaining licences and getting connected to basic utilities than previously, especially in the Moscow region.

Business regulatory requirements are notorious for complexity, opacity and inconsistency. According to law, state bodies are required to make information on all standards public, primarily via their websites. However, it is reportedly very difficult and sometimes expensive to access this information. A known corrupt practice is for inspecting agencies to 'offer training' in, for example, fire fighting or sanitation procedures as a prerequisite for issuing a permit. The company must, of course, pay a fee for this training, though the training is not mandatory for issuing the permits. The agencies which most frequently interact with foreign companies are the police and the tax, fire and sanitation authorities. Reportedly, it is difficult in some cases to discern whether a licence is actually a legal precondition for business or whether it is a so-called illegitimate licence. According to CEFIR 2007, about 50% of all licences issued were issued for types of activities that are formally not subject to licensing. Authorities issue illegitimate licences at a rather cheap price, which of course increases companies' incentives to pay for a licence even though it might be illegitimate and unnecessary according to law. Companies choose to pay for illegitimate licences so as to avoid antagonising the local administration. Furthermore, many inspections are unplanned and unwarranted. Currently, police act as public health inspectors, building inspectors and tax police and can rightfully check almost anything. Businesspeople reportedly prefer to pay to get them away.

Companies reportedly often hire a special person to deal with various inspectors and spend a significant amount of money on bribes. Companies offering consultancy services for foreign companies wanting to establish business in Russia work closely with licensing authorities - sometimes out of the same building. Such companies offer to take care of the licensing paperwork, charging between USD 300 and USD 6,000, according to Global Integrity 2008. However, this practice can accurately be regarded in some cases as the 'outsourcing of corruption'. A grim example of this practice comes from a regional office of the State Construction Committee, where the head of the regional office simultaneously ran a private company performing expert analysis of licence applications. The two doors with the same name on it were just across the hallway from each other. Local business associations managed to stop this practice, and the person had to leave his public job. Use due diligence tools to avoid 'outsourcing corruption'.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the tens of thousands of officials accused of extortion and the thousands of criminal cases being pursued is dwarfed by the actual number of violations of the rights of businesspeople by corrupt officials. To promptly disclose and eliminate infringements of rights of businesspeople, the Prosecutor General's Office launched a special section, Prosecutorial Supervision over Observance of Rights of Business Entities and Entrepreneurs. This section contains a form for application of entrepreneurs to the Prosecutor Generals' Office of the Russian Federation by means of the Internet in relation to violations of their rights and legal interests. In the fall of 2008, the State Duma passed the first and second readings of a bill intended to reduce the multitude of inspections and red tape that companies are subjected to. The bill would further limit the number and total duration of planned state inspections of a company, as well as ban law enforcement agencies from carrying out tax inspections without a request from tax authorities and from confiscating documents without providing companies with stamped photocopies.

Judicial System

Individual Corruption

More and more people in Russia choose to go to courts in order to resolve disputes, and courts rule in opposition to the state to a larger extent than before. According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2009, the judiciary in Russia is prone to corrupt practices. The courts are reported to be more corrupt in the lower echelons of the judicial hierarchy, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010.

According to Freedom House 2009, Russia's reformed criminal procedure code has allowed jury trials in most of the country since 2003. While juries are more likely than judges to find defendants not guilty, these verdicts are frequently overturned by a higher court, which can send a case back for retrial as many times as necessary to achieve the desired outcome.

Business Corruption

The judicial system is still evolving in Russia. The judiciary is independent by law, but unbiased dispute resolution can still be hard to obtain for companies, especially in the regional and local courts where judges can be subject to political pressure. Judges will in some cases trade favourable court rulings for bribes. Small improvements in the level of corruption in the judiciary between the period from 2002-2007 have been reported. Hence, the average bribe to obtain justice in the court decreased from RUB 13,964 to RUB 9,570 in 2005.

According to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, in surveys, businesspeople regularly state that court cases against state agencies are more likely to be unfair than cases against rival companies.

To solve investment or trade disputes in Russia, foreign lawyers often refer foreign companies to international arbitration in Stockholm or to courts abroad. However, the problem is that the decisions taken abroad still have to be enforced in Russia. The bailiff system of enforcing court decisions is still not effective, and the bailiff ultimately reports to the Ministry of Justice and not the courts. Consequently, the courts can do little to ensure the actual enforcement of decisions. On some occasions the bailiffs opt not to enforce specific court decisions. Freedom House 2009 reports that only half of Russian court decisions are actually implemented, and creditors typically receive only 20% of what they are owed, according to the Court Bailiff Service.

Political Corruption

Political interference in the selection of judges for individual cases is reportedly the norm. In many instances, judges are pressured to decide in favour of state institutions, or feel associated with the state institution in question. This perception is supported by the findings of the former German justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger in Council of Europe Allegations of Politically-motivated Abuses of the Criminal Justice System in Council of Europe Member States 2009 report, in which she alleges widespread political abuse of the Russian courts. The report reveals that the practice of the so-called 'telephone justice' - an official calling and telling a judge how to rule - has evolved for the worse. Hence, according to Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Russian judges have become so worried about making a mistake that they call the officials themselves to ask for instructions. Furthermore, the report alleges that defence lawyers are often subjected to searches, seizures and 'other forms of pressure'. Nonetheless, at the same time, the report acknowledges some progress in the judicial system, such as salary raises for judges to reduce their susceptibility to corruption.

In the higher political levels, Russia has seen a number of cases of selective enforcement of law. The most prominent case is that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion. In the trial, formal court proceedings were violated in the interest of the government, thus revealing the executive influence over the legal system. Critics of the Kremlin argue that the trial was politically motivated, because Khodorkovsky posed a potential threat to President Putin. Khodorkovsky is now on trial on new embezzlement and money laundering charges and faces up to 22 more years in prison if convicted, as reported by ABC News. Another prominent case regards the 'Three Whales' furniture company, where a judge reported being pressured to convict the head of the furniture company. The judge lost her job following the subsequent unravelling of the scandal.

In 2008, prosecutors filed charges against 12,000 officials accused of corruption, and a senior prosecutor said government officials' income from corruption is equal to about one-third of Russia's national budget, according to The Washington Times. In February 2009, the deputy head of the Russian Supreme Court, Alexander Karpov, resigned after his son was arrested on bribery charges. In addition, a senior official from the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, Russia's financial watchdog, was arrested on bribery charges in 2008, while in February 2009 Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was accused of large-scale theft of state funds by a senior prosecutor.

The GRECO Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008 recommends that Russia strengthens the principle of judicial independence in practice, in particular, in relation to recruitment and promotion procedures and the exercise of judicial functions.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- Enforcing a commercial contract in Russia requires a company to go through 37 procedures, taking 281 days at a cost of 13.4% of the claim.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the independence of the judiciary from influences of members of government, citizens, or companies a score of 2.7 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'heavily influenced' and 7 'entirely independent').

- Business executives give the efficiency of the legal framework for private companies to settle disputes and to challenge the legality of government actions and/or regulations a score of 2.9 and 2.7 respectively on a 7-point scale (1 being 'extremely inefficient' and 7 'highly efficient').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 36% of households surveyed consider the judiciary to be 'extremely corrupt'.

- 13% of households who had contact with the judiciary in 2008 report to have paid a bribe.

- Citizens give the judiciary a score of 4.5 on a 5-point scale (1 'not at all corrupt' and 5 'extremely corrupt').

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009:
- Approximately 29% of companies surveyed believe that the court system is fair, impartial and uncorrupted.

EBRD & World Bank: Life in Transition Survey - Russia 2007:
- 5% of household respondents claim they 'always/usually' bribe the courts.

- 65% of household respondents state they 'distrust' the judiciary.

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005:
- 8% of companies surveyed stated that bribes are frequent in dealing with courts, up from 6% in 2002.

- Slightly more than 30% of the companies surveyed reported that the functioning of the judiciary poses a problem for conducting business.

- 35% of companies stated that they were confident that the legal system would uphold property and contract rights.

Police

Individual Corruption

The Russian police are perceived to be one of the most notoriously corrupt institutions in the country. This perception is supported by Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2009, according to which, the police is perceived to be among the most corrupt institutions in Russia. Demand for bribes is widespread among the traffic police and patrol officers, and drivers that have been pulled over are accustomed to tucking in money with their papers when they hand them to officers.

According to First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buskman, approximately 14% of corruption cases take place in the area of law enforcement. This is supported by the figures from the Supreme Court, according to which, 31% of the officials imprisoned on corruption charges in 2008 were from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as reported in a 2009 article by Russia Today. According to President Medvedev, corruption cases investigated in the time frame January-June 2009 involved over 700 law enforcement officers.

Business Corruption

The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 reveals that companies identify Russia to perform poorly in relation to the reliability of police services to protect them from crime. According to INDEM 2005, police officers are authorised to conduct check-ups on SMEs in Russia. According to a 2005 survey by CEFIR, 70% of SMEs had been harassed by several police inspections over the preceding six-month period. Arbitrary inspections by the police have also been criticised by President Medvedev, according to whom, arbitrary inspections by police officers as a way to extort bribes from small companies must halt, as reported by Reuters. Currently, police act as public health inspectors, building inspectors and tax police and can rightfully check almost anything. Businesspeople reportedly prefer to pay to get them away. Any police officer can stop a loaded truck and demand to see evidence that the goods are not stolen. If any documentation is missing, the officer has the right to seize the goods to check its content and origin. According to INDEM 2005, companies often choose to pay a bribe to avoid this harassment. Many companies report paying protection money to the police or to security companies as a necessary business expense.

Political Corruption

While law enforcement officials can be held accountable for their actions by law, the supervising bodies are in fact reluctant to press charges. When they do, it is mostly done for political reasons. Russia's interior minister announced in July 2009 that officials who appoint senior police officers will be held responsible for those appointments. However, according to INDEM's corruption analyst Georgi Satarov, this step is an 'internal bureaucratic control' and will have 'little significance', because it does not change the essence of Russia's law enforcement system, as reported in a 2009 article by Voice of America News.

A teacher at the Interior Ministry Law Institute of Tyumen, Igor Groshev, was sacked and sued after he revealed pervasive bribery by cadets at the Institute in 2006. The court found Groshev guilty of damaging the 'professional reputation' of the school. Groshev is still appealing the court verdict in higher instances, but experts in Russia believe that he does not have much of a chance, according to a 2009 article by CBS News.

In November 2009, Major Alexei Dymovsky, a Russian police officer from Novorossiysk, released a series of videos accusing senior police officers of corruption and appealing to Prime Minister Putin to tackle corruption in the police force. As a result of this appeal, Major Dymovsky was sacked and later prosecuted for abuse of office, according to a December 2009 article by Reuters. Regional police conducted their own investigation after the videos were released, which they said did not back up Dymovsky's allegations.

In December 2009, President Medvedev removed the head of the tax-crimes unit in the Moscow police department, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Mikhalkin, alleged by the investment fund Hermitage Capital to be a key figure in criminal probes against the fund and to be implicated in a USD 230 million tax fraud, according to a 2009 article by The Wall Street Journal. The fund claims to have exposed a tax fraud which allegedly implicated the police, members of the judiciary, and tax officials. Consequently, the lawyer who investigated the tax fraud for Hermitage, Sergei Magnitsky, was detained on charges of tax evasion. Magnitsky died in pretrial detention in November 2009, and representatives of the Russian business and legal community as well as civil society actors have interpreted his arrest as a way to silence attempts to expose corruption in the country.

Triggered by these developments, and in an effort to tamp down corruption, in December 2009, President Medvedev signed a decree to streamline the law enforcement structure, in particular ordering a 20% staff cut before January 2012 and instituting the rotation of senior personnel at the Interior Ministry, according to a December 2009 article by RIA Novosti. These redundancies will be balanced with higher salaries for those police officers who will survive the reform, making them less susceptible to bribes.

Frequency

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the reliability of Russian police services to enforce law and order a score of 3.1 on a 7-point scale (1 'cannot be relied upon at all' and 7 'can always be relied upon').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 30% of households who had contact with the police in 2008 report to have paid a bribe.

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009:
- Over 38% of companies surveyed identify crime, theft and disorder as a major constraint on doing business in Russia.

EBRD & World Bank: Life in Transition Survey - Russia 2007:
- 18% of household respondents claim they 'always/usually' bribe the traffic police.

- 7% of household respondents say they 'always/usually' bribe the police in general.

- 33% of household respondents report to 'distrust' the police.

Licences, Infrastructure and Public Utilities

Business Corruption

The US Department of State 2008 reports that standards and procedures when dealing with licences and permits are frequently prolonged and opaque. The myriad of inspections, many of with are arbitrary, and red tape that companies are subjected to contributes to a high degree of corruption in the area of licensing and permits. The high perception of corruption has been supported in Medvedev's speech from March 2008, in which he cited the officials from the fire and sanitary services as prone to arbitrary inspections and extorting bribes from small companies, as reported by Reuters. For extensive information in this regard, see this profile's special page on obtaining business licences and permits in Russia.

Licensing procedures in Russia can be a very serious hurdle for foreign investors. The World Bank & IFC Doing Business 2010 cites licensing as the most burdensome business activity compared to other areas of doing business in Russia and to other countries. The licensing system has been reformed in recent years, and the outcome has made it easier, faster and cheaper for SMEs to register and complete the proper paperwork. Nevertheless, the World Bank & IFC Doing Business 2010 reports that obtaining the proper licences to open a warehouse in Russia takes a huge amount of time.

IKEA's founder Ingvar Kamprad went on Swedish radio in 2009 to complain that the company had been cheated out of USD millions by Russians overcharging for electricity, according to the New York Times. Kamprad links these problems to IKEA's decision not to pay bribes in Russia. Subsequently, in June 2009, IKEA announced that it was suspending further investment in Russia, apparently because of pervasive corruption and demands for bribes.

Political Corruption

At the political level, some sectors of the economy are considered strategically important. The OECD Investment Policy Reviews 2006 (in Russian) notes that it can be difficult to discern when a sector is actually strategically important or when the designation is used as a cover for protectionist policies. Sectors such as natural gas, electricity and transportation are protected from the competitive pressures of foreign bidders. Other sectors, such as banking, telecommunications and air transport, have opaque procedures and licensing systems that may entail restrictions on foreign investors. According to the OECD 2006, the regulatory and licensing authority, especially in the telecommunications sector, has considerable discretion in granting, modifying and cancelling licences. In addition, the banking, mining and telecommunications sectors also have lengthy licensing procedures.

In August 2009, the former head of Mandatory Health Insurance Fund Andrei Taranov was sentenced to seven years in prison and fines on corruption charges, as reported in a 2009 article by RIA Novosti. In an earlier high-profile corruption case, health officials, charged with receiving a total of USD 865,000 in bribes, received prison terms ranging to nine years. The court established that these officials released insurance funds to local authorities in exchange for 3-5% kickbacks. According to RIA Novosti, the scandal damaged the reputation of the former health minister Mikhail Zurabov, who was subsequently dismissed.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- The number of annual licensing procedures related to opening a warehouse is 54, while the average time spent dealing with licences is 704 days - both figures more than twice exceed the regional average.

- The associated cost of dealing with these licences is 2,140% of income per capita, which is several times the regional average.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give government administrative requirements (permits, regulations, reporting) in Russia a score of 2.4 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'extremely burdensome' and 7 'not burdensome at all').

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009:
- More than 22% of companies expect to give gifts to get an operating licence.

- 39% of companies expect to give gifts to get a construction permit.

- Over 21% of companies expect to give gifts to get an electrical connection.

- Over 13% of companies expect to give gifts to get a water connection.

- Almost 23.5% of companies identify business licensing and permits as a major constraint on doing business.

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 14% of households who had contact with registry and permit services in 2008 report to have paid a bribe.

- 19% of households who had contact with medical services in 2008 report to have paid a bribe.

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005:
- 28% of companies say that bribery is frequent in order to obtain business licences and permits compared to the CIS average of 19%.

- The percentage of companies saying that bribery is frequent in order to get connected to and maintain public utilities (electricity and telephone) was 8% in 2005, compared to the CIS average of 6%.

- 10% of companies stated that bribery was a frequent occurrence in dealing with occupational health and safety inspections.

- The average number of inspections by sanitation/epidemiology agencies during the last year was approximately 2, the average duration of each visit being about 2 hours.

Land Administration

Individual Corruption

INDEM 2005 reports that the readiness of citizens to bribe to obtain or legalise property fell from 75.6% to 41.9% in the period 2001 to 2005, but the average value of a bribe payment rose in the same period.

Business Corruption

Property rights are formally defined by Russian law, but according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, they are not consistently implemented or safeguarded against state intervention.

For SMEs, a 2007 report by CEFIR, a Russian economic policy think tank, states that the process of buying or leasing land can last from two to six months. Among procedures, obtaining land from the government is the least transparent one and most costly from the point of view of finance and the time. Although transparency in this area has improved, companies increasingly need to visit a growing number of agencies related to these procedures, resulting in a major cost in time spent. Leasing or buying land from the government can be especially difficult. Some local administrations will occasionally expect foreign companies to pay bribes or undertake social work in the region in return for registration, purchasing or leasing of land.

Political Corruption

According to CEFIR 2007, an increase in procedural transparency for both the purchasing and leasing of land has encouraged a significant decrease in the incidents of bribe pressure on the part of bureaucrats during these procedures.

Freedom House 2009 describes property rights in Russia as 'precarious'. According to the report, state takeovers of key industries, coupled with large tax liens on select companies, have reinforced perceptions that property rights are being eroded and that the rule of law is subordinated to political considerations.

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2009, the Moscow City district prosecutor, Vladimir Samoilov, as well as several other top prosecutors were found to have falsified cases against private companies and illegally confiscated their property; the value of the property was estimated to be as much as USD 22 million.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- It takes an average of 6 procedures and 43 days at a cost of 0.1% of the property value to register property and secure property rights.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the protection of property rights in Russia, including financial assets, a score of 3.1 on a 7-point scale (1 'very weak' and 7 'very strong').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 16% of the households surveyed reported to have paid a bribe to land services in 2008.

- 50% of households consider grand or political corruption in land matters to be a 'very serious problem'.

- 46% of respondents consider bribes to land authorities to obtain favourable decisions a 'very serious problem' in Russia.

CEFIR: Monitoring of the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development in Russia 2007:
- 80% of companies surveyed that bought the premises from the government spent an average of approximately 1.5 months on the procedure.

- The remaining 20% of companies surveyed spent around six months on the procedure.

Tax Administration

Individual Corruption

Allegedly, well over one third of all wage payments are made in cash to avoid paying taxes, and this even happens in state agencies. According to a CDI 2008 report on the Institute for Public Projects (INOP) and Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI) bribery price-list, getting tax arrears eliminated costs 30-50% of the sum of the arrears.

Business Corruption

Among companies surveyed in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, tax regulations are identified to be among the most problematic factors for doing business in Russia.

Taxation authorities are among those that most frequently inspect companies and many inspections are unplanned and unwarranted. According to Global Integrity 2008, the police also act as tax police and can act in accordance with the specific laws of the Ministry of the Interior that allow them to conduct full inspections under the pretence of investigative activities. Businesspeople reportedly pay bribes to get them away. Tax officials try to extort bribes from companies in return for a reduction of due taxes, or for a favourable report by the official. An example reported by INDEM & OPORA 2007 comes from Novorossiysk, where tax officials lost five consecutive lawsuits against a local businessman and only then left him alone. When officials are prosecuted for corruption, it is usually confined to low-ranking officials, while their superiors are not prosecuted. On a case basis, there are reports of big companies having to fight off claims of due payment made by the tax police for USD tens of millions.

At the Russian economic forum in 2009, aluminum major Alcoa's head Klaus Kleinfeld complained that the red tape was stifling business in Russia; Kleinfeld's company had namely to submit 47,000 pages of documents to regional tax inspectors, according to a June 2009 article by Reuters.

According to the OECD Investment Policy Reviews 2006 (in Russian), information on availability of tax exemptions can be difficult to obtain for companies. In addition, according to the US Department of State 2009, surveys have shown that many entrepreneurs complain about the complexity of the tax code and requirements of other regulatory and inspection bodies.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- Medium-sized companies must make 11 tax payments annually (several times less the regional average), taking 320 hours to complete at a total tax rate of more than 48% of profits.

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 6% of households who had contact with tax revenue services throughout 2008 report to have paid a bribe.

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009:
- Over 17.4% of the surveyed companies expect to give gifts in meetings with tax officials.

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005:
- 20% of companies state that bribery is frequent in their dealings with the tax authorities.

- On average, the companies in the survey reported being inspected 2 times per year by tax agencies, the average duration of each of these visits being a little more than 8 hours.

Customs Administration

Business Corruption

Several sources point to the fact that customs officers' wages do not match the temptation to demand bribes. Russian border officers are paid about USD 300 per month, and on a monthly basis deal with customs and export duties in the amount of USD 300 million. Global Integrity 2008 reports that corruption and unofficial payments in relation to customs are routine. According to a CDI 2008 report on the Institute for Public Projects (INOP) and Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI) bribery price-list, to get customs duties cut down costs 30-50% of the sum of the price at which they were evaluated. The head of the Russian Federal Customs Service has been negotiating wage hikes for customs officers with the government. In February 2006, the senior customs management, in a business plan to the government, suggested that USD 1.1 billion be earmarked to fight corruption in the customs service.

Following reports on corruption and illegal seizure of goods in the customs service in 2006, the Federal Customs Service approved an anti-corruption programme, including paying informants and putting surveillance on customs officers.

Russian and foreign exporting companies report that they regularly fail to obtain VAT refunds from their exported goods.

Political Corruption

The customs service generates approximately 40% of the federal budget revenue in Russia, and is therefore one of the most profitable government structures.

Customs services are provided by the Federal Customs Service of Russia. In 2006, following allegations of corruption, President Putin sacked a number of senior customs administration officials and transferred the service from the Ministry of Trade and Development to direct supervision under Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. This move was welcomed by business leaders in Russia, as the customs administration is notorious for inefficiency, bribery and abuse of power.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- A standard export shipment of goods requires 8 documents and 36 days at an average cost of USD 1,850 per container.

- A standard import shipment of goods requires 13 documents and 36 days at an average cost of USD 1,850 per container.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the efficiency of customs procedures (formalities regulating the entry and exit of merchandise) in Kyrgyzstan a score of 2.7 on a 7-point scale (1 'extremely inefficient' and 7 'extremely efficient').

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009:
- 19.3% of the trade companies surveyed identify Russian customs and trade regulations as a major constraint on doing business.

- Over 29% of companies surveyed expect to give gifts to get an import licence.

OECD: Investment Policy Reviews 2006 (in Russian):
- The clarity and transparency of the customs regulations and implementation represent a very serious problem for 30% of the companies queried.

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005:
- The percentage of companies stating that bribery is frequent in their dealings with customs/imports was 8% in 2005 compared to the CIS average of 12%.

- On average, the surveyed companies reported being inspected by customs agency 0.4 times a year, the duration of each of these visits being 0.2 hours - far below the CIS average.

Public Procurement and Contracting

Individual Corruption

Public procurement in Russia can be characterised as still open to manipulation, although regulation has been improved, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010.

Business Corruption

Public procurement regulations can be found at the official public procurement website. At the local level, depending on the region in question, tender notices can be publicly available or information can be totally lacking to everyone except for a few selected bidders.

According to the World Bank 2006, many companies consider information regarding rules and regulations on public tendering inadequate or have regularly witnessed non-transparent practices. Sometimes the state only shares information with selected bidders, spawning accusations of pre-selecting winners. In other instances, the terms and conditions for bidding are specified so that few companies can actually bid (single sourcing). Kickbacks are common, and there are reports of companies paying no less than a 16% kickback in order to obtain a government contract. In 2005, the United Nations procurement department exposed a Russian procurement agent who received more than USD 1 million in kickbacks from companies doing business with the United Nations, according to The Washington Post. Companies are recommended to use a specialised public procurement due diligence tool in order to mitigate the corruption risks associated with public procurement in Russia.

See more on public procurement under 'Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives' in the Initiatives section.

Political Corruption

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, many corruption crimes occur in the sphere of public procurement. For instance, no guidelines exist on how to determine prices on procured property. As a result, procurement officials tend to rely not on market prices but on the volume of budget financing, as reported in a December 2009 article by Moskovski Komsomolets.

See more on public procurement under 'Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives' in the Initiatives section.

Frequency

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the diversion of public funds to companies, individuals, or groups due to corruption a score of 2.7 on a 7-point scale (1 'very common' and 7 'never occurs').

- Business executives give the favouritism of government officials towards well-connected companies and individuals when deciding upon policies and contracts a score of 2.7 on a 7-point scale (1 'always show favouritism' and 7 'never show favouritism').

The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009:
- More than 46% of the companies surveyed expect to give gifts to secure a government contract.

- The average value of gift given to secure a government contract amounts to almost 4% of the contract value.

OECD: Investment Policy Reviews 2006 (in Russian):
- More than 40% of the companies interviewed considered information on rules and requirements for public tendering to be inadequate or untimely.

- This trend is even stronger in the regions, where 60% of companies see the rules and requirements for public tendering to be inadequate or out of date.

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005:
- 22% of the companies state that bribery is frequently needed in order to obtain government contracts compared to the CIS average of 14% in 2005.

Environment, Natural Resources and Extractive Industry

Business Corruption

According to companies, information on environmental protection requirements is difficult to obtain. Exploitation of natural resources such as oil and gas is controlled largely by the state and by a few large national companies. Particularly in oil and gas investments, Russian officials at both the federal and local levels frequently raise environmental concerns as considerations in the approval process for investments, as pointed out in the US Department of State 2009. According to the report, in some instances, it is difficult to say whether such concerns are genuine. Similarly, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, environmental concerns are only on the political agenda when they promise to deliver clear material short-term advantages and can be used to put pressure on unwanted investors.

According to Freedom House 2009, the government has forcibly changed the terms of Western oil and gas companies working in Russia.

According to the Prosecutor General Office, compliance with environmental legislation is problematic and illegal resource extraction activities continue.

Political Corruption

Russia is blessed with vast amounts of natural resources, notably oil and gas. The oil and gas sector accounts for more than 40% of its export revenues. In the energy sector, the link between state and private companies is strong, as the state has consolidated its ownership and control through its shareholding of extractive companies, such as Gazprom. Private shareholding (also foreign), however, has been allowed.

Amendments to the subsoil law were adopted in May and July 2008. These amendments specified that only legal entities, which are part of Russia, may use deposits of federal significance. In addition, users are further required to be majority-owned by the state and have at least five years experience in investigating the Russian shelf. Deposits of federal significance include oil and gas, and greenfield sites. According to Vinson & Elkins LLP, this new legislation may deter investment in the exploration of spheres which are considered as having federal significance.

Corruption in relation to natural resources exists also at a political level in Russia. For instance, according to Reuters, kickbacks paid to senior officials who hold sway over Russia's natural resources are common. The existence of a pervasive political corruption in relation to environment in Russia is also supported by Transparency International's Corruption & the Environment 2006 report. According to this report, in some governments, legislation and regulation exist to facilitate corruption rather than to protect the environment. The report presents Russia as an example of such a government; here the laws in place to protect endangered fish are used in practice by officials to profit from bribes.

Frequency

EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005:
- 12% of the companies surveyed stated that bribery was frequent in their dealings with environmental inspections in 2005.

- The companies reported being inspected an average of 0.55 times annually by environmental agencies with the visits averaging about one hour.

Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives

• Legislation: President Medvedev submitted a draft anti-corruption bill On Counteraction to Corruption to the State Duma in October 2008, as part of the National Anti-Corruption Plan (see below) and Russia's international obligations stemming from the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, to which Russia is a party. The anti-corruption package, the Anti-Corruption Legislation, was passed by the Duma in its third reading and adopted on 30 December 2008, coming into force on 10 January 2009 and consisting of three principle laws and numerous amendments. The new anti-corruption laws give, for the first time in Russia, a wide definition of corruption which criminalises corruption in the form of active and passive bribery, abuse of office, commercial bribery, trading in influence both in public and private sectors and corruption by agents. However, bribing a foreign official has yet to be criminalised. The anti-corruption package has widened the definition of commercial bribery in the Criminal Code to include non-commercial organisations in the scope of the law and has slightly raised the penalty for the infringement. The penalty is a fine of up to three times of the inducement, but no less than RUB 1 million, and the seizure of the transferred money, securities or other property. The new legislation requires state and municipal servants to declare their income and property and the property and income of their spouses and underage children, and obliges officials to report all actual, attempted and suspected corruption. In May 2009, President Medvedev signed five additional decrees expanding the number of officials who will have to declare their incomes and property and detailing the disclosure procedures, according to The Moscow Times. In addition to state officials, heads of notoriously non-transparent state corporations will be obliged to declare the incomes and property owned by them and their family members. Also, Russia's Interior Ministry has announced that, from January 2010 onwards, all law-enforcement officials will have to declare their incomes. This new initiative is part of the government's efforts to crack down on corruption in the law enforcement, where regular and traffic police are widely seen as corrupt. Nevertheless, despite these developments, President Medvedev has acknowledged that corrupt officials still use proxies to hide assets, or send their gains offshore. In addition, he has described the progress in fighting corruption so far as 'extremely modest' and emphasised that there is still no mechanism to check and verify the declarations that public officials make, as reported by The Washington Times. The legislation has also, for the first time, defined conflict of interest in connection to public officials and extended anti-corruption legislation to the military. Another aspect of the Anti-Corruption Legislation is a more simplified Criminal Code to make it easier to bring corrupt judges to account. Restrictions on gifts have also been incorporated into the legislation; accordingly, state officials may not accept presents worth more than RUB 3,000 and gifts of higher values become state property. For more information, access a Legal500 report on Russia's Anti-Corruption Legislation. For further information on Russian legislation generally, access Russian Law Online.

• Government Strategies: The appearance of concrete, detailed government anti-corruption strategies is a relatively recent development in Russia. Anti-corruption has featured prominently on President Medvedev's political platform and one of the first measures in this regard was the decree On Anti-Corruption Measures, which he signed on 19 May 2008. The decree ordered the formation of the Presidential Council for Combating Corruption (CCC) with the President at its head, and mandated the CCC to draft the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP). The NACP was adopted by President Medvedev on 31 July 2008 and contains four sections: 1) measures for legislative provisions to combat corruption and a number of new legislative concepts connected with bringing into line the current legislature with several international conventions; 2) measures to improve and streamline public administration in order to prevent and punish corruption and conflicts of interest, improve rules of government procurement, transfer a portion of the functions of federal government agencies to regions or to the private sector, and improve the monitoring procedure including via civil society mechanisms; 3) measures to improve the professional level of legal personnel and legal education and to actively use the media as well as civil society organisations in the fight against corruption; and 4) priority measures to implement the NACP by stimulating the activities of government bodies at both federal and local levels to develop measures in the fight against corruption. President Medvedev has also announced new anti-corruption regulations aimed at closing legal loopholes and preventing conflicts of interest that create new opportunities for corruption and forcing senior officials to annually declare their assets in accordance with new procedures for doing so. Critics also charge the NACP and the Anti-Corruption Legislation with being too simplistic and equating prevention with punishment. President Medvedev has himself said that legal measures late last year have achieved results that are only 'modest in the extreme' and that there is a need for further reform. However, the mention of the role of independent organisations and the media in corruption prevention is significant, as is Russia's cooperation with an independent international monitoring team of the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and approval of the inspection team's recommendations. According to the GRECO Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008, the Russian government still needs to establish a comprehensive national anti-corruption strategy, on the basis of the NACP, covering the federal, regional and local levels. The strategy should place a strong emphasis on corruption prevention and transparency of public administration and must give proper attention to civil society concerns, as recommended by GRECO.

• Anti-Corruption Agencies: No specific anti-corruption agency with competences to investigate and prosecute corruption has been established in Russia. The Federal Security Service (FSB, in Russian) and the Prosecutor General's Office are the two bodies responsible for fighting corruption, but almost all law enforcement agencies have set up their own internal departments to deal with corruption within their own ranks. The FSB and the Prosecutor General's Office have both previously been associated with corruption scandals, which have led some observers to conclude that the organisations are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. The Prosecutor General set up a specific anti-corruption department in August 2007 to focus on enforcing anti-corruption legislation, to investigate suspicions of corruption and to press charges against offenders. The Prosecutor General's Office is also in charge of supervising the activities of an interdepartmental anti-corruption working group. Both the FSB and the Prosecutor General are under heavy political pressure, as the heads of these institutions are de facto appointed by the President and can be dismissed accordingly. A general critique raised by observers is that many anti-corruption institutions exist, but that there is still little coordination of their efforts. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that in 2008 the violations of anti-corruption laws doubled in comparison with 2007. According to their data, 62 members of the parliament, 3 judges, 8 prosecutors and 66 investigators were convicted on corruption charges in 2008, as reported in a 2009 article by Russia Today. According to the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, the number of arbitrary inspections of small businesses has decreased in 2009; the Office prevented about 4,200 unscheduled checks of small and medium-size businesses from May to July 2009. Chaika's claim has been criticised by the INDEM foundation's corruption analyst Georgi Satarov, according to whom, it is impossible to verify this claim and, in any case, the figure is allegedly 'very small' for a country of Russia's size.

• Other Executive and Legislative Bodies: President Medvedev decreed the creation of the Presidential Council for Combating Corruption (CCC) in May 2008, appointing himself as its head. The CCC was mandated to draft the National Anti-Corruption Plan and is intended to provide a forum for the development of measures, coordination of executive agencies and control over policy implementation that fall under the CCC's authority. An Anti-Corruption Parliamentary Commission (in Russian) has also been set up, which analyses laws and draft bills to detect flaws that could make them vulnerable to corruption. The Ministry of the Interior is setting up a register of all public officials who have ever been indicted for abuse of office and fraud. The ministry furthermore collects information on the amount of corruption crimes in Russia.

• Accounts Chamber: The Accounts Chamber is the supreme audit institution in Russia. The primary function of the Accounts Chamber is to oversee the handling of federal assets. The Accounts Chamber has 12 auditors that investigate financial mismanagement and submit their reports to the State Duma, law enforcement and regulatory bodies, such as the Prosecutor General's Office. However, according to Global Integrity 2008, the Accounts Chamber's findings have no legal force and serve mainly as recommendations. Reports are published on the Accounts Chamber's website and have revealed the existence of widespread financial violations, amounting to hundreds of billions of RUB each year, in federally and regionally funded government projects. The Account Chamber has a professional, full-time staff, although high-ranking auditors have often been linked to corruption scandals, including the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber, Sergey V. Stepashin. An internal audit body was established at the Accounts Chamber established an internal audit body in 2007 to tackle corruption within its own ranks. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, there is no effective audit in Russia and reports by the Chamber have on most occasions been ignored. In addition, in relation to anti-corruption efforts, state auditors allegedly lack enforcement powers.

• Financial Monitoring: The Federal Finance Monitoring Service (FFMS, Rosfinmonitoring) monitors financial transactions in Russia. The service was reorganised in March 2004 and monitors all property contracts and transactions exceeding RUB 3 million. Organisations are obliged to inform the FFMS when carrying out such transactions.

• Human Rights Commissioner (in Russian): The Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) is selected by the President and appointed by the State Duma. Although the institutional setup has led critics to question the Human Rights Commission's independence, current Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin reportedly has the reputation of being free from government interference. The Human Rights Commission can and does initiate investigations, but it has no authority to impose penalties on offenders. Rather, the Human Rights Commission can publicise the results of an investigation and submit them to the Duma for review. The Human Rights Commission produces reports annually, which are publicised via the media and the Internet (access the Human Rights Commission Annual Report 2007). However, according to Global Integrity 2008, these reports are rarely of much consequence, as the work of the Human Rights Commission is often treated with indifference by other government bodies. It is further reported that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary are often reluctant and sometimes unwilling to cooperate with the Human Rights Commission in its work to uphold human rights and combat corruption. Half of the complaints reaching the Human Rights Commission in 2007 concerned violations of the rights of citizens by officials working in the militia, prosecutors' offices, courts or penal system, of which many were connected with the failure to enforce judicial decisions. The number of cases filed in the European Court of Human Rights against Russia each year has climbed sharply, from 8% of all cases in 2000 to nearly 30% in 2008, as reported by The Washington Post.

• E-Governance: The Russian government launched a USD multi-billion 8-year e-governance project, e-Russia, beginning in 2002. As a consequence of the project, a government portal (in Russian) has been created linking federal government ministries and agencies and services, including customs, taxation and procurement. Several regions have participated in pilot e-governance initiatives to offer services and information to citizens and companies. The project is in its third phase and has been scheduled to end in 2010. The project envisions the implementation of e-governance across all public sector agencies to increase government efficiency and information transparency, and to reduce administrative barriers for citizens and companies interacting with the government. Vice Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin reported in August 2009 that the Russian government will approve a schedule of providing 60 public services in electronic form, according to a 2009 article by Alinga Consulting Group. Earlier in 2009, Medvedev expressed frustration at a lack of progress in the implementation of the e-governance programme in Russia. As a consequence, a new committee to address this problem was set up - the Presidential Council for the Development of the Information Society. As the first top priority, the government will create an information centre to insure interdepartmental information exchange and access to the data of government information systems. The system will provide a wide range of government services in electronic form and create a single information system for all agencies and ministries. By 2010, all federal and regional government agencies will have to set up their own call centres and websites, meeting single standards, as reported by Alinga Consulting Group.

• Public Procurement: Rules and regulations for public procurement in Russia are regarded by many companies as defective due to unclear tender criteria. A Law on Concessions was adopted by the Duma in July 2005. The objective of the law is to reduce the role of government as a direct investor in infrastructure activities that the government does not intend to privatise. This is particularly the case for highways, pipelines, power plants and grids, and airports and railways. The prospects of this new law and its absence of formal discrimination between foreign and domestic investors were reportedly welcomed by foreign investors. By law, major procurements require competitive bidding. Notices of Federal Public Procurements can be found on the official Russian Federation Procurement website (Russian only). However, in practice, the provision to ensure competitive bidding is not enforced satisfactorily at the local level. Depending on the circumstances, tenders can be awarded after full-scale open and competitive bidding or after an entirely closed process, where the full tender material is available only to selected bidders. By law, unsuccessful bidders can ask for an official review of the bidding process and challenge the concrete procurement decision in the court. In practice, companies guilty of major violations of procurement regulations are for most part prohibited from participating in future procurement bids, and declining a bid from a blacklisted company has become a common practice, as reported by Global Integrity 2008. To enhance transparency, two organisations, the Electric Goods Traders Association and an interregional NGO, have started a monitoring programme focusing on state procurement. According to Global Integrity 2008, the situation with enforcement of conflict-of-interest regulations for public procurement officials is slowly improving due to increasing Anti-Monopoly Service control. Besides, tender decisions are appealed by bidders much more often at court of arbitration.

• Whistle-Blowing: According to Global Integrity 2008, whistle-blowing measures in Russia are 'very weak'. No law exists in Russia on the protection of whistleblowers. It was reported in 2006 that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg had received 28,000 complaints from Russia, most of them concerning corruption in the police and in the judicial system. This indicates that most people are not confident that Russian courts can deal with the problem. In 2005, Russia earmarked USD 38 million for a witness protection programme. However, the programme as it runs now does not incorporate protection measures for whistleblowers reporting on corruption, but rather focuses on organised crime. The set of anti-corruption legislation passed in December 2008 requires public officials to report corruption, but a norm for whistle-blowing in relation to corruption was removed from the laws' text during the legislative process. However, in order to fully comply with its commitments to international anti-corruption conventions, Russia will have to develop legislation in this regard in the future.

• General Comments on the Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives: According to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, there is nearly a complete lack of functioning integrity mechanisms in Russia. Moreover, rules to hold politicians or bureaucrats accountable are underdeveloped and not enforced in practice. Nonetheless, the vast amount of public councils, committees and advisory bodies, and legislation that deal with corruption indicate that corruption is considered by Russian leadership to be a significant problem. Russia's UNCAC ratification and GRECO membership provide some hope for furthering the development a comprehensive Russian anti-corruption framework. Critics from Transparency International Russia have expressed doubt concerning whether President Medvedev's anti-corruption legislation will prove more successful than those of his predecessors, and the President has himself been critical of the results so far. However, the apparent increase in openness to independent domestic and international monitoring and prevention recommendations marks a positive shift in the Russian government's approach to tackling corruption.

Private Anti-Corruption Initiatives

• Media: In his annual report in February 2006, the Ombudsman emphasised that the main mass media in Russia are under a very strict control of state organs, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010. National and some regional television stations have been taken over by Kremlin-friendly organisations. This control is used to marginalise political opponents and to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda. This development has sparked demonstrations calling for increased press freedom. Newspapers are seen as a secondary target, but the pro-Putin Gazprom-Media acquisition of the renowned national daily Izvestia shows that the administration is also attempting to take control of the printed media. The Internet offers the best entrance to alternative viewpoints. Sixteen journalists have been killed in Russia since 2000, some of these possibly as a result of their investigation of corruption issues. Only one of these cases has been resolved, according to Freedom House 2009. In June 2009, the editor of the Rostov-na-Donu Corruption and Crime newspaper Vyacheslav Yaroshenko died of a severe head injury, as reported by Guardian. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an investigation, suggesting that Yaroshenko was targeted because he had written about corruption in the local law enforcement agencies, government office and the prosecutor's office. Other, less violent measures are used to silence journalists as well. Journalists can be taken to court for insulting public officials or jailed for up to 3 years for 'extremist activities'. Such activities could include 'public slander towards figures fulfilling the state duties of the Russian Federation', or 'interfering with the legal duties of the organs of state authorities'. On these grounds, basically every journalist can be labelled an 'extremist' and could be prosecuted for their investigations. In addition, as reported by the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, critical journalists and media outlets are often the subject of administrative harassment by the state, in the form of extensive fines for libel or intensive investigations by state organs, such as the tax administration. Discussion on the internet is free, but government devotes extensive resources to manipulating the information and analysis available there, according to Freedom House 2009. Reporters Without Borders 2010 ranks Russia 153rd out of 175 countries, while Freedom House 2009 ranks Russia 174th out of 195 countries and describes the country's media environment as 'not free'.

• Civil Society: According to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, the civil society in Russia encounters strong barriers, including harassment by the state executive. Accordingly, NGOs are unevenly distributed across the country, flourishing mainly in the mega-cities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, and are often spontaneously organised and temporary. Moreover, many Russian NGOs owe their existence only to the engagement of international organisations. Registration regulations for registering NGOs passed in 2006 have further hampered civil society's efforts to influence political life in Russia, especially those NGOs that have foreign funding. The 2006 law places extensive controls on the use of these foreign funds, and in July 2008, Putin lifted the tax-exempt status of most Western foundations and NGOs, subjecting them to a 24% tax beginning in 2009, as reported by the Freedom House 2009. While curtailing foreign funding, the state has been increasing its own distribution of funding to civil society organisations, including a limited number of groups that have been critical of government policies. As pointed out by the Bertelsmann Foundation 2010, civil society is too weak to have an impact on fighting corruption, and NGOs are systematically discouraged from engagement in corruption and public integrity issues. Nonetheless, several regional anti-corruption NGOs exist, among these the Samara Oblast Partnership Against Corruption, the Tomsk Oblast Anticorruption Coalition, the Irkutsk Oblast Partnership Against Corruption and the Primorye Anticorruption Coalition.

• Transparency International Russia (in Russian): Transparency International Russia addresses corruption issues and carries out programmes to counter corruption. The latest programme concerns political corruption and consists of monitoring the use of public resources in electoral campaigns in several Russian regions. Transparency International Russia launched an Internet portal to combat corruption in December 2008.

• International Business Leaders Forum Russia (IBLF Russia): IBLF Russia works to enable the responsible conduct of business with the aim of ensuring the stable and sustainable social and economic development of Russia. IBLF Russia runs programmes and training for SME support and responsible business practices within the organisation and related anti-corruption, capacity building and planning, measurement and reporting systems. IBLF Russia also provides advice on corporate social strategy development and joint ventures.

• INDEM Foundation (INDEM): INDEM is an NGO doing valuable research on anti-corruption and governance reform in Russia. INDEM has carried out several analyses of the structure of corruption in Russia.

• Centre for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR): CEFIR is an independent economic policy think tank that has carried out analysis of barriers to business development in Russia. Its research is highly relevant for SMEs.

• Russian SME Resource Centre (RCSME, Pесурсный центр малого предпринимательства): RCSME is a non-profit business organisation focusing on research and dissemination of information for the benefit of small companies. It is a valuable source on legal as well as illegal administrative barriers to doing business in Russia.

• OPORA RUSSIA (in Russian, SUPPORT RUSSIA): OPORA RUSSIA is a Russian business organisation of SMEs that addresses problems of barriers to small companies doing business in Russia, and publishes reports on the topic to provide useful for information related to legal and illegal administrative barriers to doing business in Russia. OPORA RUSSIA, in cooperation with INDEM and others, has published very valuable guides for SMEs to avoid corruption in Russia.

• Public Anti-Corruption Committee (PACC, Общественный антикоррупционный комитет): The PACC is a civil society institute that aims at eradicating the causes of corruption and formation of anti-corruption public consciousness.

Resources

The websites listed below provide useful facts on Russia as well as contacts and tools for companies operating in Russia:

• International Finance Corporation: Global SME Toolkit
  Guide to sustainable business management practices for SMEs.
• Business Fighting Corruption
  An online resource centre for business on collective action to avoid corruption which contains a guide and resources for partnerships with companies and other stakeholders to fight against corruption.
• CIA World Factbook: Russia Profile
• The World Bank: Russia Data Profile

Sources for Further Reading:

• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Council of Europe Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO): Joint First and Second Evaluation Rounds: Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• CEFIR: Monitoring of the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development in Russia 2007.
• INDEM & OPORA: Business Without Corruption: An Action Guide 2007.

Conventions and Indices

UNCAC Status: Signed 9 December 2003. Ratified 9 May 2006.

Status on UNCAC Implementation
This field describes the country's status on the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Please note any declarations and reservations made upon ratification. The list of signatories can be found on the UNODC website. Read more about the UNCAC.

Other Relevant Conventions or Treaties:

• Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. Signed 27 January 1999. Ratified 4 October 2006.
  Read Transparency International's summary and assessment of the convention.
• United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime: Signed 12 December 2000. Ratified 26 May 2004.
  Read Transparency International's summary and assessment of the convention.
• Member of the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) since 1 February 2007.
• Member of the OECD Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Transparency CPI: 2009: 146/180 (Score: 2.2)

Transparency CPI
This field consists of the score for the country in question on the Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International as well as its ranking.

World Bank CORR Index (-2.5 - +2.5): 2008: -0.98

World Bank Corruption Index
This field consists of the score for the country in question on the 'Control of Corruption' indicator in the World Bank Governance Research Indicator Country Snapshot (GRICS): 1996-2008.

OECD Country Risk Classification (0-7): 2010: 4

Country Risk Classification
The classification of countries by risk category has the aim of providing OECD countries with a basis for calculating the premium interest rate to be charged to cover the risk of non-repayment of export credits. Countries are placed in risk categories 0 - 7, with 0 being the lowest risk category and thus the least expensive. Conversely, premium group 7 is the highest risk category. Each classification is comprised of 2 components: 1) an assessment of the country's economic/financial situation, and 2) its overall political stability. Access the complete list of OECD Country Risk Classification figures.

Data Verification:

Latest update: January 2010

Data verified by: Global Advice Network

Information Network

Country Profile Sources

general Information Sources

• The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010.
• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Freedom in the World - Russia 2009.
• Gallup: Perceptions of Government Corruption High in Russia 2009.
• Legal500: Russia Adopts New Anti-Corruption Legislation 2009.
• Moskovski Komsomolets: 'Коррупцию в России узаконили', 17 December 2009.
• RIA Novosti: 'Russia pretends to fight corruption', 18 November 2009.
• Utro: 'Чиновникам осталось пять лет', 17 October 2009.
• RIA Novosti: 'СКП в етом году возбудил вдвое больше дел о коррупции, чем в прошлом', 16 October 2009.
• Visual RIA Novosti: 'Verdict on the corruption case in the Audit Chamber', 31 August 2009.
• Voice of America News: 'Analysts: Russia's Entrenched Corruption Defies Solutions', 6 August 2009.
• Reuters: 'CEOs use Obama visit to press Russia on rule of law', 3 July 2009.
• The Moscow Times: 'State Firm Heads Told To Declare Incomes', 19 May 2009.
• The Washington Times: 'Editorial: Rampant corruption in Russia', 26 March 2009.
• Reuters: 'Russia prosecutor accuses FinMin officials of theft', 12 February 2009.
• Council of Europe Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO): Joint First and Second Evaluation Rounds: Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2008.
• Transparency International: Bribe Payers Index 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• CDI Johnson's Russia List: Researchers Study the 'Nature and Structure' of Russian Corruption 2008.
• Lexadin: The World Law Guide - Legislation Russia 2008.
• Los Angeles Times: 'Russian leader signs law extending presidential terms', 31 December 2008.
• RIA Novosti: 'Russian Duma approves anti-corruption bill in third reading', 29 December 2008.
• Bloomberg: 'Oligarchs Seek $78 Billion as Credit Woes Help Putin', 22 December 2008.
• The Economist: 'Grease my palm: Bribery and corruption have become endemic', 27 November 2008.
• Firebird Management LLC: 'New reports underscore doubts about Medvedev's anti-corruption plan', 14 September 2008.
• Forbes: 'Russia's $120 Billion Elephant: Corruption', 6 June 2008.
• RIA Novosti: 'Medvedev to head Russian anti-corruption council', 19 May 2008.
• Reuters: 'Russia's Medvedev unveils anti-corruption steps', 27 March 2008.
• Insidertailing.com: 'Red tape and corruption hamper Russia's retail', 26 March 2008.
• Newsweek: 'Rite of Passage', 21 February 2008.
• Jamestown Foundation: 'Researchers study the 'Nature and Structure' of Russian Corruption', 11 February 2008.
• CEFIR: Monitoring of the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development in Russia 2007.
• INDEM & OPORA: Business Without Corruption: An Action Guide 2007.
• EBRD & World Bank: Life in Transition Survey - Russia 2007.
• Russian Business Monitor: Opinion Poll Results: 'Bribes Can Be the Best Way to Solve Problems', 12 October 2007.
• RFE & RL: 'Russia: Political Environment Dooms Bid to Fight Corruption', 21 September 2007.
• Moscow Times: 'State Aims to Rout Corrupt Officials', 5 March 2007.
• RussiaProfile.org: 'Anti-Corruption Drive Takes Off', 4 March 2007.
• INDEM Foundation: БИЗНЕС И КОРРУПЦИЯ: ПРОБЛЕМЫ ПРОТИВОДЕЙСТВИЯ 2006 (in Russian).
• The World Bank: Policy Note: Administrative and Regulatory Reform in Russia - Addressing Potential Sources of Corruption 2006.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.
• OPORA Russia: Innovative Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship: Challenges of Development 2005.
• EBRD & World Bank: Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) 2005.
• CEFIR: Entrepreneurship and Barriers to Entry 2005.
• INDEM Foundation: Business and Corruption: How To Combat Business Participation In Corruption 2004.
• Public Opinion Foundation.

Corruption Levels Sources

Judicial System

• The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010.
• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• Council of Europe: Allegations of Politically-motivated Abuses of the Criminal Justice System in Council of Europe Member States 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Freedom in the World - Russia 2009.
• The Washington Post: 'Corruption Taints Courts In Russia, Report Says', 24 June 2009.
• ABC News: 'Khodorkovsky: Court Reform Crucial for Russia', 15 June 2009.
• The Washington Times: 'Editorial: Rampant corruption in Russia', 26 March 2009.
• BBC News: 'Russia judge resigns over 'bribe'', 17 February 2009.
• Council of Europe Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO): Joint First and Second Evaluation Rounds: Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• Firebird Management LLC: 'New reports underscore doubts about Medvedev's anti-corruption plan', 14 September 2008.
• EBRD & World Bank: Life in Transition Survey - Russia 2007.
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.
• EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005.

Police

• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Freedom in the World - Russia 2009.
• Reuters: 'Russia to prosecute YouTube police whistleblower', 28 December 2009.
• The New York Times: 'Russia to Crack Down on Police Corruption', 25 December 2009.
• RIA Novosti: 'Medvedev moves to streamline Interior Ministry, fight corruption', 24 December 2009.
• The Wall Street Journal: 'Medvedev Removes a Top Police Official', 16 December 2009.
• Telegraph: 'Corruption probe that became fatal game of Russian roulette for Bill Browder', 30 November 2009.
• The New York Times: 'Russia Admits Lapses in Case of Sick Lawyer', 27 November 2009.
• The New York Times: 'Russia to Investigate Fund Lawyer’s Death', 25 November 2009.
• Telegraph: 'Russia refuses autopsy for anti-corruption lawyer', 19 November 2009.
• Prime-Tass: 'Russia's Medvedev reiterates call for rooting out corruption', 12 November 2009.
• CBS News: 'Whistleblower Tackles Russian Police Corruption', 10 November 2009.
• RIA Novosti: 'All Russian police to declare incomes from 2010', 25 September 2009.
• Voice of America News: 'Analysts: Russia's Entrenched Corruption Defies Solutions', 6 August 2009.
• CBS News: 'Fighting Corruption, Russian Style: CBS News Reports: Police Captain Gets Fired and Sued after Exposing Rampant Bribery by Cadets', 22 July 2009.
• Russia Today: 'Police tops Russia's corruption chart', 28 January 2009.
• Jurist: 'Russian corruption cases on the increase: Prosecutor', 12 January 2009.
• The Other Russia: 'Trying to Control Russia's Traffic Cops', 19 May 2008.
• Reuters: 'Russia's Medvedev unveils anti-corruption steps', 27 March 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• CEFIR: Monitoring of the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development in Russia 2007.
• EBRD & World Bank: Life in Transition Survey - Russia 2007.
• The World Bank: Policy Note: Administrative and Regulatory Reform in Russia - Addressing Potential Sources of Corruption 2006.
• CEFIR: Entrepreneurship and Barriers to Entry 2005.
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.
• EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005.
• INDEM Foundation: Business and Corruption: How To Combat Business Participation In Corruption 2004.

Licences, Infrastructure and Public Utilities

• The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010.
• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• RIA Novosti: 'Russian health insurance official gets 7 years for corruption', 12 August 2009.
• The New York Times: 'Ikea Plans to Halt Investment in Russia', 24 June 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2008.
• Reuters: 'Russia's Medvedev unveils anti-corruption steps', 27 March 2008.
• CEFIR: Monitoring of the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development in Russia 2007.
• The World Bank: Administrative and Regulatory Reform in Russia - Addressing Potential Sources of Corruption - 2006.
• Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE): Strengthening Local Democracy in Russia: The Case for Business Associations 2006.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).
• EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005.
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.
• CEFIR: Monitoring the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development 2005.

Land Administration

• The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010.
• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• CEFIR: Monitoring of the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development in Russia 2007.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.
• INDEM Foundation: Business and Corruption: How To Combat Business Participation In Corruption 2004.

Tax Administration

• The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Reuters: 'CEOs use Obama visit to press Russia on rule of law', 3 July 2009.
• Reuters: 'CEO presses Kremlin chief on red-tape nightmare', 6 June 2009.
• CDI Johnson's Russia List: Researchers Study the 'Nature and Structure' of Russian Corruption 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• Swedish Trade Council: Landrapporter - Ryssland 2008 (in Swedish).
• INDEM & OPORA: Business Without Corruption: An Action Guide 2007.
• The World Bank: Administrative and Regulatory Reform in Russia - Addressing Potential Sources of Corruption 2006.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).
• CEFIR: Monitoring the Administrative Barriers to Small Business Development 2005.
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.
• EBRD & World Bank: BEEPS Russia 2005.

Customs Administration

• The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010.
• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).
• INDEM Foundation: Diagnostics of Russian Corruption 2005.

Public Procurement and Contracting

• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
• The World Bank & IFC: Enterprise Surveys 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Moskovski Komsomolets: 'Коррупцию в России узаконили', 17 December 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• The Washington Post: 'U.N. Cites $20 Million in Fraud', 21 October 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• The World Bank: Policy Note: Administrative and Regulatory Reform in Russia - Addressing Potential Sources of Corruption 2006.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).

Environment, Natural Resources and Extractive Industry

• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• Freedom House: Freedom in the World - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Reuters: 'Russia's Medvedev sees no graft campaign success', 12 May 2009.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• Transparency International: Corruption & the Environment 2006.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).

Public Anti-Corruption Initiatives Sources

• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Freedom in the World - Russia 2009.
• Legal500: Russia Adopts New Anti-Corruption Legislation 2009.
• Russian Law Online: Encyclopedia of Russian Law 2009.
• US Department of State: Investment Climate Statement - Russia 2009.
• Moskovski Komsomolets: 'Коррупцию в России узаконили', 17 December 2009.
• Alinga Consulting Group: 'Russian Govt To Name 60 Public Services To Be Provided In Electronic Form', 26 August 2009.
• Voice of America News: 'Analysts: Russia's Entrenched Corruption Defies Solutions', 6 August 2009.
• The Washington Post: 'Corruption Taints Courts In Russia, Report Says', 24 June 2009.
• The Moscow Times: 'State Firm Heads Told To Declare Incomes', 19 May 2009.
• The Washington Times: 'Editorial: Rampant corruption in Russia', 26 March 2009.
• Reuters: 'Russian president targets graft with new rules', 10 March 2009.
• Public Anti-Corruption Committee: 'Закон «О противодействии коррупции» принят в Челябинской области', 3 February 2009.
• Russia Today: 'Police tops Russia's corruption chart', 28 January 2009.
• Council of Europe Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO): Joint First and Second Evaluation Rounds: Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation 2008.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• Swedish Trade Council: Landrapporter - Ryssland 2008 (in Swedish).
• Lexadin: The World Law Guide - Legislation Russia 2008.
• Russia Today: 'Corruption: time to take gloves off', 29 October 2008.
• Ministry of the Interior of Russian Federation: 'Rashid Nurgaliev: there shall be no untouchable corruption officials', 14 October 2008.
• Johnson's Russia List: 'Independent Analyst Sceptical about Medvedev's Anti-Corruption Plan', 30 September 2008.
• RIA News: 'Medvedev to head Russian anti-corruption council', 19 May 2008.
• Moscow Times: 'Prosecution Reform Clears First Hurdle', 26 March 2007.
• infoDev e-Government: The e-Government Policy, Law and Regulation Survey Project - Russia 2006.
• OECD: Investment Policy Reviews - Russian Federation - Enhancing Policy Transparency 2006 (in Russian).
• Institute of the Information Society: e-Russia and e-Moscow Programs 2005.

Private Anti-Corruption Initiatives Sources

• The Bertelsmann Foundation: Transformation Index - Russia 2010.
• Reporters Without Borders: Russia Country Report 2010.
• Freedom House: Freedom of the Press Index 2009.
• Freedom House: Nations in Transit - Russia 2009.
• Freedom House: Freedom in the World - Russia 2009.
• Transparency International: Global Corruption Report 2009.
• Reporters Without Borders: Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2009.
• RIA Novosti: 'Russia pretends to fight corruption', 18 November 2009.
• Voice of America News: 'Analysts: Russia's Entrenched Corruption Defies Solutions', 6 August 2009.
• Guardian: 'Russian Corruption Reporter Dies From Head Injury', 30 June 2009.
• The Daily Telegraph: 'Human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasiya Barburova shot dead in Moscow', 20 January 2009.
• Technaute: 'A site for the fight against corruption in Russia', 7 January 2009.
• Global Integrity: Russia Country Report 2008.
• INDEM & OPORA: Business Without Corruption: An Action Guide 2007.
• The Moscow Times: 'Russian Election Observers Sidelined', 29 November 2007.