In line with a new anti-corruption bill, Russian state officials and members of parliament should declare the purchase of houses, company shares and cars, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.
The statement came during Medvedev’s meeting with the Kremlin anti-corruption council in his Gorki residence near Moscow.
Medvedev proposed a bill obliging state officials and members of parliament to declare their expenses along with revenues during his address to parliament in December last year. The legislation, part of Medvedev’s ambitious program designed to curb widespread corruption in the state administration, was introduced to the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, in January.
Officials and lawmakers will have to provide information about the purchase of real estate, cars and company assets “if the amount of money spent by an official or his family member in a single deal exceeds the total three-year official incomes of his family members,” Medvedev told the Kremlin council on Tuesday.
In line with the bill, officials who are unable to justify the difference between family revenues and expenses may be dismissed and the controversial property may be expropriated, he said. For those sanctions to be applied, however, law enforcers will first have to prove that the incomes in question were acquired illegally, he added.
Medvedev ordered to finalize the work on the new legislation by March 22 and publish it on the internet for public consideration.
