Kremlin presents Medvedev with plan to fight graft

By Aydar Buribaev

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kremlin officials on Wednesday presented Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with a draft strategy for tackling corruption, an issue he says will be a cornerstone of his time in office.

Medvedev says graft is hindering economic growth and undermining the state, but opposition politicians say he is unlikely to be able to root out a problem that is deeply entrenched in Russian society.

The plan presented by Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin included a new anti-corruption law to be submitted to parliament by October 1 and steps to clean up the justice system.

"I will study the plan you have submitted very attentively," Medvedev, sworn in as president last month, told Naryshkin in remarks broadcast on Russian state television.

THREAT TO SECURITY

A 2007 index of global corruption prepared by Transparency International, a Berlin-based non-governmental organization, ranked Russia on the same level as Togo, Angola and Indonesia.

A senior Russian prosecutor estimated earlier this month that corrupt officials were pocketing $120 billion a year, a sum equivalent to one third of Russia's budget.

In an interview with Reuters this week, Medvedev said corruption was one of the biggest internal threats to Russian security.