© Sputnik. Alexei Druzhinin
"Squandering, improper use of state funds, as well as outright corruption and theft will not go unnoticed," Putin said at a conference of the All-Russia People's Front civil society group. "Concerning certain individuals... conclusions have already been made."
Putin said that civil society control was the force that made recently adopted legal norms concerning state purchases work in practice.
In early 2014, the Russian government announced its plans to tighten controls on state purchases, including a bill placing price and quality restrictions on procurement plans, but later pushed the regulation back until July. The initiative is expected to prevent government bodies from buying goods and services at inflated prices, which has been a major source of corruption.
Russia's Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said previously the damages from corruption in 2013 amounted to more than 13 billion rubles ($360.5 million). More than 28,000 anti-corruption cases were launched last year, compared with 18,000 cases in the previous year.
Comment: Corruption was rampant in Russia in the '90s. As an inheritor of the existing system, Putin naturally gets the blame from armchair analysts and critics with an axe to grind (and a CIA-sponsored line to follow). What they don't tell you is that Putin has been doing a lot to actually fight the very corruption for which he is blamed. None of these people actually take the time to put themselves in his position. How do you deal with an inherently corrupt system? Simply fire everyone and start fresh (this is the short-sighted plan of the morons in Kiev, with their "lustration" bill)? Or use the existing structures, exploit their positive and practical aspects, and refine them by instituting new measures and practices to effect a better system?