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Eastern Europe
December 14, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Kyiv-based company Forbes and Manhattan Ukraine, headed by member of the advisory board of the Canadian bank Forbes & Manhattan Mykhailo Spektor, also announced its intention to participate in the tender.
In addition, Belarusian unitary enterprise Neftebi- tumen Plant, owned by one of the largest Bela- rusian oil traders Interservice; Tbilisi-headquar- tered Georgian International Energy Corporation; and, Kyiv-registered Balance Group (its ultimate
Russia’s crackdown on corruption gathers momentum (at the lower levels)
bne IntelliNews
Russia is waging a war against corruption – at the lower levels of government at least. Those at the top of the tree continue to enjoy state largess with impunity.
The Kremlin has launched a drive to overhaul the Russian economy and make it more efficient. It has identified corruption as a major hindrance
to Russia’s competitiveness and has begun the process of stamping out corruption in the rank and file – with mixed results.
The damage caused by corruption-related crimes has exceeded RUB123bn ($2bn) over the past seven years, chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said last week during a conference in the All-Russian State University of Justice.
The Investigative Committee answers only to President Vladimir Putin but has
beneficial owner is ex-people's deputy Dmytro Kriuchkov, detained in Germany in July and sus- pected of embezzling Zaporizhiaoblenergo funds), were expected to take part in the tender.
Centrenergo consists of three thermal power plants – Vuhlehirska, Zmiivska, and Trypilska. Their combined installed capacity is 7.665
GW, which is 14% of Ukraine's overall power generation capacity. Centrenergo supplies electricity to Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Donetsk regions.
Russia’s crackdown on corruption gathers momentum (at the lower levels)
been sidetracked by politically motivated investigations. The anti-corruption tsar and presidential Ombudsman for Business Boris Titov has also been given extensive powers to stop legal cases that he believes state officers have brought for the purposes of extracting
a bribe and also only answers to Putin. However, Titov admitted in an interview with bne IntelliNews that his office will be limited in what it can do to change the milieu of endemic corruption.
The crackdown on corruption in Russia has picked up steam, according to Bastrykin. Within the last seven years, over 71,000 corruption-related cases were forwarded to the courts for trial. The number of cases against corrupt organised groups and criminal communities, which were transferred to court, reached 453. Charges were brought against 78,000 people, who committed 166 corruption crimes in total, the Investigative Committee says.