MOSCOW. Jan 12 (Interfax) - Two-thirds of Russians (69%) polled by the Public Opinion research fund said they had not encountered corruption among state officials in the past couple of years. However, despite their personal experiences, the overwhelming majority of respondents are convinced that corruption is fairly widespread in Russia.

Asked what categories of state officials are most corrupt, 17% of respondents said "all", while 47% said "most". Eighteen percent think that corruption affects nearly half of state bureaucrats.

The police, customs service and law enforcement agencies rank among the most corrupt state bodies (57%). The State Road Traffic Safety Inspection comes second, with 45%, followed by courts and prosecutor's offices (32%) and medical institutions (24%).

Sixty percent fear Russia has slid deeper into the abyss of corruption over the past couple of years, 23% think that nothing has changed and just 4% believe that things have improved.

Asked whether corruption can be eradicated, one-third of respondents (33%) said "yes", while half of them (50%) said "no".

The poll was conducted in 100 cities, towns and villages in 44 Russian regions. 1,500 people were surveyed.