Corruption Cannot Be Defeated Quickly But Effort Is Not Wasted - Medvedev
Interfax - 3.22.12 - JRL 2012-55

MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) - It is impossible to solve the corruption problem with laws only, President Dmitry Medvedev told members of the working group for the Open Government formation on Thursday.

file photo He noted that both bribe givers and bribe takers were criminals.

"Obviously, this problem cannot be resolved exclusively with laws by certain deadlines," he said.

The president said when he raised the corruption question "at the highest level" and a decision to draft a set of bills was made, "no one, including me, the public and our citizens, had an illusion of the possibility to drastically minimize the problem within several years. Yet I think we did not waste time."

Russia has a certain legal framework for combating corruption, Medvedev said. "It is not ideal because a legal framework cannot be ideal - it needs to adjust to current public relations, customs, public institutes and developing economy," the president said.

Besides, "human mentality is very slow to transform," he said.

Keywords: Russia, Corruption - Russian News - Russia

MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) - It is impossible to solve the corruption problem with laws only, President Dmitry Medvedev told members of the working group for the Open Government formation on Thursday.

file photoHe noted that both bribe givers and bribe takers were criminals.

"Obviously, this problem cannot be resolved exclusively with laws by certain deadlines," he said.

The president said when he raised the corruption question "at the highest level" and a decision to draft a set of bills was made, "no one, including me, the public and our citizens, had an illusion of the possibility to drastically minimize the problem within several years. Yet I think we did not waste time."

Russia has a certain legal framework for combating corruption, Medvedev said. "It is not ideal because a legal framework cannot be ideal - it needs to adjust to current public relations, customs, public institutes and developing economy," the president said.

Besides, "human mentality is very slow to transform," he said.