Free Republic

Corrupt Russian officials are creaming off about $120bn (£61bn) a year - the equivalent of a third of the national budget, a senior prosecutor has said. The country's new President, Dmitry Medvedev, has pledged to tackle the problem - although correspondents say few expect things will change quickly. Russia's investigations committee has opened more than 1,000 corruption cases involving officials in 10 months. The committee's chairman said the extent of corruption was much wider. Alexander Bastrykin said the results of the investigations "do not yet equal the scope of bribery and corruption in bureaucracy", state news agency Itar-Tass reports. "Practice...