MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Thursday that the Russian authorities sometimes cross the line in their anti-corruption efforts.
According to 2012 tax reports made public last week, Shuvalov is the richest among top-level Russian officials, with an annual income of almost 226.4 million rubles (almost $7.2 million), compared to 5.8 million rubles (about $183,000) earned by the president and the prime minister last year.
The first deputy prime minister said the problem of corruption was “overblown to a degree, when the rules of conduct that emerge are sometimes not entirely wise.” He cited a ban on owning foreign assets for high-ranking officials as an example.
"It’s impossible to constantly think that everyone around you is a fraudster, that all people who have money should not be allowed to solve problems. Who will solve them, then? We have inflated this problem so much that is poses a danger to ourselves,” Shuvalov said on Thursday on the sidelines of the Russia 2013 forum.
