MOSCOW, December 19 (RAPSI) – President Vladimir Putin said during his annual Q&A session with the press on Thursday that anti-corruption measures levied against officials will become stricter .

The President added that a set of measures aimed at curbing corruption were already in place, like a ban on foreign assets for officials and mandatory declarations of income.

On December 4, Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said that over 1,600 Russian lawmakers and heads of local government bodies have been indicted for corruption over the past two years, adding that corruption related offenses had caused the state about nine billion rubles' worth of damages during this period.

Russia is perceived to be the most corrupt of the world’s leading economies in surveys conducted by anti-graft organization Transparency International, on a par with Pakistan, Gambia and Mali.

Despite a recent high profile anti-corruption drive, even government officials admit that billions of dollars are paid in bribes in Russia every year and that graft remains endemic.