The figures are out on the volume of bribery in Russia and they are staggering. Experts estimate that bribery accounts for 20% to 30% of Russia's GDP. To prove the experts right, a police detective demanded a multimillion-dollar bribe and got arrested in Moscow.

Over the weekend, Basmanny court in Moscow (incidentally, the same exact court which tried Mikhail Khodorkovsky five years ago) issued an arrest warrant for Andrei Grivtsov, a police detective, who demanded a $500 million bribe from a businessman for dropping the unlawful hostile takeover case against him. It is not clear what company exactly the unnamed businessman attempted to take over, but just from looking at the zeros in the amount of the alleged bribe, we assume that it was something valuable.

If convicted, Grivstov would face five years in prison and a $30.000 fine. In an effort to put a cap on bribery, Russian lawmakers proposed to increase prison sentences in 2010. So far, their efforts to limit corruption in the country were unsuccessful. They should consider hiring Rudi Giuliani after he is done with Brazil. After all, Russia will be hosting the next Olympics after Rio.

Send email to Tatyana Foley, the author of this post, at tfoley@readrussia.com.

Source: http://lenta.ru/news/2010/01/16/sledovatel/ (Lenta.ru)