Russia’s Prosecutor-General claims $1.6 billion damage from corruption, deputy involved in bribery

Damage from corruption-related crimes in Russia over the past two years has exceeded 100 billion roubles (close to $1.6 billion), Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov told state-owned agency TASS in a recent interview.

In early November, The Insider published an investigation showing that Krasnov's deputy Andrei Kikot took bribes from a real estate developer.

Krasnov did not mention Kikot’s exploits in his speech for International Anti-Corruption Day. But the Prosecutor General reported that for the first nine months of 2022 the damage from corruption exceeded 37 billion rubles:

“Only over nine months has the size of the established damage from corruption-related crimes come in at 37.6 billion roubles. However, property worth over 62.2 billion roubles was seized and damage worth 3.5 billion roubles was voluntarily repaid.”

In 2021, the damage from investigated corruption crimes amounted to 63.9 billion roubles ($1.02 billion), of which 15.6 billion roubles (approximately $249 million) was voluntarily repaid, while property valued at around 62.6 billion roubles (close to $1.001 billion) was seized and confiscated.

Krasnov added that an effective investigation of corruption offenses “can't be limited only to identifying the perpetrators” and it is necessary to take measures to compensate for the damage. He pointed out that one of the three components of Russia’s anti-corruption law (Federal Law No. 273 “On Fighting Corruption”) is the minimization and elimination of consequences of corruption offenses. How Krasnov will go about eliminating the consequences of Deputy Krasnov's offenses remains unclear.

The Insider regularly publishes investigations into corruption in Russia. In a recent piece, Sergey Ezhov revealed that Deputy Prosecutor General Andrei Kikot had ties to a major real estate developer. Thanks to his relationship with a high-ranking security official, Setl Group holding company head Maxim Shubarev protects his business and receives millions in contracts from the prosecutor's office, while Kikot leads a luxurious life and lives next door to Alina Kabaeva, Vladimir Putin’s long-rumored romantic partner.