(RIA Novosti – Moscow, December 4, 2013) A member of the public council at the Russian Interior Ministry, former Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin, has announced that according to his data, the number of recorded crimes committed in Russia is understated at least by a factor of four. He told this journalist after the first meeting of the new composition of the public council at the Russian Interior Ministry.

“Speaking of the reform, it is quite comprehensive, this means real and substantial increase of the effectiveness of work, starting, for example, with the recording of crimes and attention to citizens. According to our estimates, the number of recorded crimes has been understated by a factor of four, compared with similar standards in Western countries,” he said. This is how he commented on the initiative by the Committee of Civil Initiatives on the proposed reform of the Interior Ministry.

“In order to bring about change, one needs systemic work and general oversight. We should speak about more sustained, more thought-through, careful, stage-by-stage reform but in any case this is about the scale of changes that we need to describe as a reform,” Kudrin said.

He added that one should not carry out another global reform of the Interior Ministry but it is necessary to build up step-by-step institutions for control over corruption. “We are simply going through, possibly, an age of growing up because we did not have market economy like this. Our institutions of oversight have not been established as yet, not enough time has passed. Now, step-by-step, it is necessary to build up such institutions to control corruption,” he added.

He noted that experts do not have a common view on how to fight corruption in the country.

“We always argue over how to fight corruption and we see things differently. Correct setup and systemic control, the system of work of organizations and monitoring of staff create less corruption. If one left everything as it is now, we will definitely not win against corruption. Corruption will be generated all the time and we will be always lagging several steps behind,” Kudrin noted.

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