Corruption in Russian business worsens: survey

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Corruption in Russian business has worsened over the last two years and is draining millions of dollars from the economy, according to a survey.

"Although corruption and bribery continues to be perceived as the most prevalent type of fraud, the most common type of fraud was asset misappropriation," accountancy group PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote in its global biennial report.

President Vladimir Putin and new Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov have made fighting corruption a priority in the run-up to a parliamentary election in December and a presidential election in March.

PWC surveyed 125 of Russia's biggest companies and reported 59 percent had suffered at least one economic crime in the last year, up from 49 percent in their 2005 survey.

The survey also found the average cost of the economic crimes for Russian business had quadrupled to $12.8 million since 2005.

"Frauds committed by senior and middle management cause the greatest financial damage to businesses," PWC wrote.

The report said that almost half of the companies felt they had been placed in a position where they had to pay a bribe in the last two years, and just over half felt they had lost out to a competitor because they had not paid a bribe.

Around 50 percent of companies surveyed in central and eastern Europe reported economic fraud.

Putin acknowledged the problem in his annual televised question and answer phone-in with the public on Thursday.

"We need to improve the legislative framework, we must work with society to reduce tolerance of corruption, from small bribes on the road to big commercial corruption," he said.