MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. It is essential to reduce the underground economy not only by clamping down on it, but by creating attractive conditions for legal business, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

According to President Putin, the data presented by business ombudsman Boris Titov on the share of the shadow economy, which accounts for 39% of Russia’s GDP is not surprising, as in a number of European countries, this figure reaches 40%. "This means that the situation is not unique for Russia, but still not good. We need to do better, to surpass them and get rid of those grey areas," he said.

The president added "it is necessary to not only crack down on it, but to create the needed conditions for them to work out in the open," which depends on the country’s government and regional authorities.

""We are trying to do it, for example, when solving the capital amnesty issues by creating an environment for people to bear no costs when making decisions to transfer their businesses and capitals to Russia, and there are more proposals in this area," Putin said, also referring to subsidies for self-employed entrepreneurs as another example.

"But obviously, it is necessary to extend this practice [of creating attractive conditions for business]," he stressed.