KAZAN, February 13 - RAPSI. The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, plans to discuss whether to ratify the European Civil Law Convention on Corruption this year, head of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said at the national conference on corruption in Kazan, Tatarstan. The convention was originally adopted in 1999.

"The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) has been set up at the initiative of the UN, and Russia will certainly participate in this project," Matviyenko said.

The IACA was established in March 2011 at the initiative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Austria, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and other stakeholders.

Matviyenko said that in 2012 over 50,000 corruption-related crimes were uncovered in Russia and around 7,000 people who were involved in them were sentenced.

These figures are evidence that corruption remains a huge problem in the country, despite all the measures taken to combat it.

Matviyenko said that the upper house's committees analyze laws for corruption loopholes together with independent experts, members of the public, business people and researchers.

In March 2012, the Federation Council established a commission to check the income and property declarations submitted by its members. Information about its operation is posted on the council's website.