Moscow, 25 September: Revenues of corrupt officials today, according to expert estimations, exceed a third of the national budget of the Russian Federation, adviser to the interior minister Anatoliy Kulikov, PhD in economics, has said. He was speaking at a seminar "Organized crime in Russia and the country's economy".

"The Indem Foundation estimates the amount of money which businessmen spend on bribing officials at 33.5bn dollars and grassroots corruption, at 3bn dollars," Kulikov said, citing Indem findings.

"One would like to believe that the stepping up in the fight against corruption, which can be seen today, is not a publicity stunt but a trend. In 757 (almost a quarter) of all criminal cases opened in 2008 on charges of corruption, the defendants have a special legal status. These are investigators, prosecutors, lawyers, judges, deputies of municipal and regional legislatures," Kulikov said.

In his opinion, among the most dangerous and widespread economic crimes are crimes in the credit and financial sphere. Huge amounts of money received illegally are laundered through banks and other credit organizations. Possibilities for embezzling budget funds also open through them with the use of various machinations.

Kulikov quoted the 2007 statistics: units of the department for fighting economic crime have uncovered 74,000 crimes in the credit and finance sphere. Damage caused to the government and business owners exceeded R31bn [1.24bn dollars]. "Some 150 organizations and individuals suspected of illegal activities in the sphere of banking services have been put on the police checklist . Over 22.5 fictitious firms, which were involved in schemes of transferring money abroad and money laundering or were used in tax evasion schemes, have been identified," Kulikov said.

The seminar "Organized crime in Russia and the country's economy" is being held by the State Duma Security Committee and the national anti-crime and anti-terrorism fund.