Medvedev expects corruption to stop being factor of Russian image in few years
MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev welcomes the public discourse over corruption scandals of the Defense Ministry's type.
"I think it is useful that corruption cases caught the eye of television cameras and are being actively debated by civil society," he said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung. The newspaper asked how the former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's situation should be regarded.
"We can see that our people are really concerned and the corruption problem is really important to citizens of our country," Medvedev said.
He said, however, that the problem was not crucial.
He admitted that corruption cases were not limited to the Defense Ministry.
"In fact, there are many more corruption scandals. It is just that in Russia, the same as in any other country, corruption scandals involving the high places provoke the keenest interest," the prime minister said.
Some 50,000 corruption cases are being investigated, he said.
He also expressed the opinion that Russia was capable of defeating corruption.