On Friday 4th November Dmitry Medvedev introduced a package of bills intended to struggle with corruption: the basic one titled “On Opposing The Corruption”, some amendments to the Act On Government of Russia, and 25 amendments to federal laws. According to the well-informed MP Mikhail Grishankov, the parliament will approve of the suggested Acts in three readings at once, and they will become effective since January 2009.   

The explanatory note names the reasons for the innovations quite frankly: “Many counter-corruption measures, intended by different regulations, were not realized, while the executed measures did not provide for the desired effect”. The president considers “excessive administration by the state” and the socio-cultural factors to be the initial cause for corruptive practices. 

The measures proposed by the head of state and by headed by him Council on Opposing the Corruption, might be divided into declarative ones, those requiring concretization in legislation, and norms of direct action. The first group is the major one. There is no disagreeing with those measures. However, unfortunately, there are no mechanisms of realization, without which they will just be up in the air.    

For example, in the bill “On Opposing The Corruption” listed are main directions of activities by the state bodies for raising the effectiveness of struggle with corruption. Among other things mentioned is cooperation by the state bodies with public and parliamentary commissions for struggle with corruption, strengthening the public control over activities by the state agencies, introduction of counter-corruption standards, securing the access by the citizens and media to information about activities of the state bodies, and even “getting more independence by the media sources”. Then mentioned is independent court, securing the transparency, fair competition and objectivity when carrying out biddings and tenders related to the state contracts and orders; reduction of the state apparatus and state regulating. On the whole, marked were 22 lines of struggling with corruption.  

Most of those intentions, however, are in contradiction with reality. The problem is that it’s the same people to talk about public and parliamentary control, transparency of procedures and access to information, and it was exactly those people who have reduced the controlling powers by the parliament, who persecuted the public organizations and have used the court for squaring their own accounts; and those people have terminated the Act on Access to Information.    

In this context, the norms of direct action present in the bills look quite ambiguous. It’s been for the first time that the concept of “family member of a governmental or municipal worker” has been offered. That’s about a spouse, also under aged children (why only them?). From now on, the members of the government, heads of the federal agencies, members of the Federation Council and the State Duma, Central Elective Commissions and lower-ranking elective commissions, provincial and local deputies, auditors of the Chamber of Accounts and employees of the Central Bank, also judges of all the courts will have to declare their incomes and property, including bank deposits and securities, every year no later than 30 April. They will also have to declare the property by their spouses and under aged children.    

Those data will be checked by the prosecutor’s office, FSB and MVD (with the use of operative-investigative methods). In case of discrepancy of the reports the officials will be held responsible: the Criminal Code will be added with an Article providing for confiscation of the property obtained by corruption-related actions. Confiscated will also be the property in abroad, as it is planned to establish according cooperation with oversea law enforcement agencies. The issue of presents has been regulated too: now an official cannot accept a gift valued more than 5,000 rubles. Besides, two years after retiring from the governmental service an official is banned to be accepted to work in a company with which one had been relating while working at a state agency; that cannot be done without permission by a special panel.      

Besides the liability by physical persons the bills introduce the liability by juridical persons (warning and big fines). The question of making a super-body for struggle with corruption is left for the President’s consideration. As for the organ coordinating the counter-corruption activity by all the law enforcement agencies, that will be the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is an obvious “apparatus” success by Yuri Chaika, the current head of this institution. 

Thus, after the New Year’s holidays millions of the public servants – from ministers to deputies and police officers and bailiffs – will become subject to bans and checks. Along with that, the controlling role by the parliament, opposition and political parties is only a declaration without concrete powers and mechanisms. At the same time, enlarged powers of law enforcers are a reality of the next months. It’s difficult to say whether this can help struggling with corruption, but sure thing to happen is intimidation of officials, where suspicion will fall on each third. One may forecast the escalation of struggling between clans under the slogan of counter-corruption struggle, also sure thing to happen is further sliding by the state apparatus from serving to the society to serving to those on whom it would depend now even more their life and freedom.