MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. As many as 25% of people taking part in a poll conducted by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said that they had to consent to commonplace bribery situations, Alexander Rusetsky, the Head of the Department for Monitoring of the Implementation of Anti-Corruption Legislation at the Prosecutor General’s Office, said in an interview with TASS.
"Last year, ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day, marked on December 9, a poll was launched on the website of the Prosecutor General’s Office. In December 2016 and January 2017, internet users had an opportunity to participate in a survey on condition of anonymity," Rusetsky said. "As many as 25% of those surveyed said that based on occurrences they had to give bribes to officials. However, 60% claimed that they had never given bribes to officials. At the same time, 15% refused to answer this question," he added.
Most participants in the poll were people aged 30-50, who hold a university degree, or who have a specialized secondary education. In addition, they were mostly office workers with average incomes, who have families and live in urban areas. As many as 64% of them were men and 36% were women.
That said 94% of the poll’s participants said they had a negative attitude towards corruption. They noted that health care, education, utilities services, government and municipal services, as well as the law enforcement and judicial systems were the fields most prone to corruption.
Half of those surveyed encountered extortion from officials (38%) or mediators (12%). As many as 30% said they never had to deal with extortion. According to the survey’s results, Russian citizens often have to face difficulties such as "red tape, bureaucrats’ refusal to understand their issues, official incompetence, long application waits, a plethora of agencies they have to appeal to, and a lack of information on how to exercise their rights."