Penza, 27 September 2012. PenzaNews. Lack of political will is one of the main reasons for the insufficient struggle against bribery in the country. This was declared by the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of Russia on security and anti-corruption, a member of the Communist Party, Viktor Cherkesov during a meeting with journalists at the press center of news agency PenzaNews on Thursday, September 27.

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“The recent slogan against corruption in our country is “bees against honey.” To truly fight corruption we need to truly follow the law in force. What we see today is mostly an imitation of fighting. Heads of various departments request for one more legal “club.” But one thing is moaning about the insurmountable wall, and another thing is actually doing something. We already have all we need to fight corruption in our country — that is the legislation and quite strong law enforcement system, even with all the flaws. But to deal with all this, we need to demonstrate political will,” Viktor Cherkesov said.

“There must be appropriate requirements for those who work in this direction. It's time to tell why the population often hears the word “kickbacks” on the budget projects that cost billions of rubles. This does not go further then publications and debates on the Internet. We have got the results of corruption fight, but not enough publicity,” added the member of the State Duma.

Viktor Cherkesov also said that, according to the General Prosecution, the average bribe in Russia is now about 300 thousand rubles.

“Every year we bring about eight thousand criminal cases on corruption to the court. The most part are bribing cases in the amount of not more than a thousand rubles. Try to find at least a hundred cases in our court practice featuring a bribe of 300 thousand rubles. I think you won’t. Again, the country has the resources to fight corruption, and they are sufficient, all we need is to boost the process up. So far we work in vain,” he said.