MOSCOW, April 2 - RAPSI. Corruption remains the main obstacle to developing foreign investment in Russia, according to the 2013 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers released by the US Trade Representative Office on Monday.

"The Russian government has made improving Russia's investment climate a priority, but US and other foreign investors continue to cite corruption in commercial and bureaucratic transactions as a barrier to investment," the report reads. "Notwithstanding an Anti-Corruption Council created in the summer of 2008, various internationally-recognized measures of corruption suggest there has been little progress to date."

A Transparency International report ranks Russia 133rd in its 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index, on the same level as former Soviet republic, Kazakhstan, and one place ahead of Azerbaijan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria and Pakistan.

According to TI experts, the situation in Russia and Kazakhstan is similar to Iran, Honduras, Gayana and the Comoro Islands, while Ukraine and Syria "beat" Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in the ranking.