Vladimir Putin, who is currently attending an all-Russia coordinating session of law enforcement agency chiefs to discuss measures to counter corruption and crime, said: "Despite law enforcement agencies' current potential, the criminal situation in Russia remains difficult. The share of grave and especially grave crimes continues to grow."
The number of registered crimes since the beginning of this year is 12.3% more than in the same period of 2005, he said
Of these crimes, "Only half are solved. This continues to negatively impact the public situation, and holds back business activity in the country."
The president urged law enforcement agencies to put a greater focus on investigating serious crimes, while speeding up the investigation of less complicated crimes.
Some 600 bribery and embezzlement cases have been opened since July, when the president, who has set the fight against corruption as a national priority, ordered the new prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, to draw up an anti-corruption strategy. Putin had dismissed Chaika's predecessor for a lax approach to corrupt officials.
The president also proposed adopting a law to control the property and profits of law enforcement officers: "It is time to adopt legislation on requirements and prohibitions for representatives of law enforcement bodies and the judicial system, which have been tested in Russia and abroad."
The president highlighted money laundering, which he said seriously undermines the economy.
"The fight against economic crime remains a top priority today," he said, adding that money laundering schemes were becoming increasingly convoluted, damaging the trust of Russian and foreign investors, and that corruption and rampant bureaucracy are the main problems holding back Russia's economic growth.
He also said shadow business were a potential source of financing for terrorist and extremist groups, and a breeding ground for corruption.
The president said many of these problems are connected with the low quality of preliminary investigations and of state prosecution.
Last week, seven top officials from a Russian government health insurance fund were arrested on charges of bribe-taking, in what is seen as the latest move in the president's offensive against corruption in public administration.
Russia ranked 121 in a new Corruption Perception Index report published by Transparency International last week, which placed it above Azerbaijan but below such ex-Soviet republics as Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.
Russia's Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said the number of corruption cases in the country has risen to 35,000 in the past five years. "Bribery and bribe-taking alone have increased 40%," he said.
