Cases opened against officials for accepting or soliciting bribes have risen five-fold in the last two years, but the majority concern bribes of less than RUB10,000 ($157).
The number of defendents facing corruption allegations in court increased from 934 to 5,119 between 2012 and 2014, a 5.5-fold increase, a study by the European University in St Petersburg found.
Currently more than 4,000 officials are involved in disciplinary proceedings and another 272 have been sacked, the head of the Russian presidential administration Sergei Ivanov said at a session of the UN Convention against Corruption in St Petersburg on November 2.
The total amount in the cases was RUB1.5mn, but Ivanov admitted this is a "drop in the ocean". Some 80% of the bribes in the cases were less than RUB10,000, while huge bribes paid by the elite for business and profits are routinely ignored.
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