MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday came up with a novel -- and old -- solution to corrupt officials, news agencies reported: chop off their hands.
"It would be good to cut off the hand, as they used to in the Middle Ages," Putin was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS and other national news agencies during a meeting with parliamentary leaders.
The radical idea followed a complaint at the meeting by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov that "just to build 100 apartments you have to run around for 24 hours looking for permits and greasing hands."
Putin, who says corruption is Russia's most serious problem, answered, "all you'd have to do is start and that hand would immediately stop reaching for bribes."
According to the Russian prosecutor's office, bribes amount to 240 billion dollars (156 billion euros) a year in Russia.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
