Foreign officials could be held liable for corruption in Russia
Foreign officials could in the future be brought to account for corruption-related crimes they commit in Russia, the chairman of the anticorruption commission of Russia`s lower house of parliament told RIA Novosti in an interview Thursday.
If the commission`s proposals are adopted, it could mean that foreign officials involved in corruption scandals in Russia would, unlike past practice, be held legally responsible for their transgressions.
"An interdepartmental working group to counter corruption, established in February by presidential decree, is developing a number of proposals to fight corruption, and as a first order of business is a proposal to change Russian legislation in that regard," Mikhail Grishankov, who is also the first deputy chairman of the Duma security commission, said.
Grishankov said the working group, which answers to presidential aide Viktor Ivanov, includes both houses of parliament, judicial officials and Public Chamber representatives, as well as lawyers.
"In line with the working group`s recommendations, those held accountable for corruption-related crimes must include foreign officials, in particular, parliamentary deputies and members of international organizations - provisions currently lacking in Russian legislation," he said.
Grishankov also said that Russian legislation should be changed in keeping with Russia`s ratification of the UN Convention against Corruption and the Council of Europe`s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. Russia ratified both conventions last year.
Controls over Russian state officials could also be made stricter, and their families might have to declare their property and revenues, he said.
Grishankov said that Russia`s Criminal Procedural Code could be amended to "simplify the procedure for returning assets taken abroad after corruption-related crimes."
As of March 2007, an anti-corruption drive in Russia resulted in the instigation of about 600 bribery and embezzlement cases dating back to last July, when President Vladimir Putin set the fight against corruption as a national priority and ordered the new prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, to draw up an anti-corruption strategy.
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