Despite the authorities’ wide anti-corruption measures, the cost of a bribe in Russia has risen this year to 293,000 rubles ($10,000).
The figures released by the Interior Ministry are even worse than they might first appear, as they represent a near seven-fold increase over the last year.
The ministry says three-quarters of bribes are tied to major crimes, including fraud, illegal business operations and money laundering.
The department also revealed that the average size of bribes given in connection with economic crimes is almost 10 times higher, having reached some 2.8 million rubles.
The health and education sectors were singled out as the most corrupt. Doctors, teachers and policemen were the three top bribe-generating professions in 2010, according to the Moscow Court. The most popular motives for bribery were covering up crimes, providing medical paperwork and inflating school grades.
Even the 100-fold hiked fines for bribery did not hamper the bribes’ growth. Medvedev’s corruption bill, adopted months ago, introduced provisions that increased fines for crimes related to bribery to 100 times the sum of the bribe, but not more than 500 million rubles.
Last year, the average bribe was 30,500 rubles (about $1,000).