Stop bribing courts, Medvedev tells oligarchs

By Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev told Russia's richest businessmen on Wednesday to stop paying bribes after the tycoons complained to him about corruption and poor legislation.

At a meeting in the Kremlin with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, commonly known as the "oligarchs' lobby," Medvedev responded to the tycoons' complaints by criticising them for bribery.

"I suspect these are often the businessmen who are paying (bribes) to them (the courts). It is the obligation of every businessman to report (corruption) to law enforcement agencies," a visibly irritated Medvedev said during the part of the discussion broadcast on television.

The comment came in response to remarks by indebted tycoon Oleg Deripaska, once Russia's richest man, who complained about Russia's notoriously corrupt court system.

Medvedev has made the fight against corruption a priority but so far has had few concrete results.

Apart from the comment on bribes, Medvedev's second ever meeting with the oligarchs' lobby was a relatively calm one, contrasting with when Vladimir Putin was president and would ask tough questions and move stock prices with his harsh remarks.

Medvedev called on the tycoons to give ideas for "exit strategies," what Russia should do as it starts emerging from an economic slump.

Gross domestic product fell by almost 10 percent in the first half of 2009, in sharp contrast with a decade of growth fuelled by high commodities prices.