Over 100 Corrupt Officials Called To Criminal Account In Russia This Year

Criminal proceedings have been launched against over 100 officials in Russia this year on corruption charges, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) director Nikolai Patrushev said at a meeting with chief editors of Russia's major media outlets Tuesday. According to him, a lot of officials working at federal executive bodies and Russian Federation constituent members' administrations are getting in the focus of security agencies' attention. Patrushev said the majority of corruption cases deal with illegal combination of offices in authoritative bodies with offices in commercial companies, assistance in privitization of state property to the detriment of economic interests of the state, as well as realization of criminal structures' interests and office abuse. As an example, he cited the exposure of the criminal activity Russian State Statistics Committee high-ranking officials were engaged in. The damage caused by them totaled a few hundred thousand USD, according to Patrushev. Criminal proceedings launched by the Prosecutor General's Office resulted in Moscow City Court convicting to long imprisonment terms former State Statistics Committee chairman Yurkov, his deputy Dalin and Main Interregional Information Processing and Distribution Center (SIC) director Saakyan, and others. The analysis of crimes connected with corruption, Patrushev stressed, allowed to work out specific proposals on how to "contain" such precedents. The proposals have been included into a target federal program aiming to step up the combat against crime in 2001-2003.