Medvedev Pledges Fight Against Graft in Business

Russia’s new president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, who has staked his tenure on curbing what he acknowledges is the country’s rampant corruption, declared Thursday that the authorities should “stop causing nightmares” for business.

Mr. Medvedev made his remarks as he announced that he was pressing ahead with a national plan to combat corruption that would include increased enforcement and more disclosure of officials’ personal finances. He said business had become infuriated by bureaucrats’ constant attempts to solicit bribes while conducting inspections and similar duties.

“Our colleagues, who are in charge of proper law enforcement systems, are here,” he said during a meeting with business owners in a town 100 miles from Moscow. “In our country, signals have great significance. So see this as a signal that is being given.”

Mr. Medvedev has sought to raise his profile as a corruption fighter even as he has been eclipsed in recent days by his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who stunned the Russian business world last week when he publicly upbraided a leading coal and steel company as a lawbreaker and tax evader.

Mr. Putin’s comments sent the stock of the company, Mechel, swooning and helped to depress the overall Russian stock market. Mr. Putin’s aides explained that he was intending to send a message to corrupt conglomerates, but investors reacted by expressing concern about the Kremlin’s extensive influence over industry. 

The stock market has also focused on the conflict over TNK-BP, Russia’s third largest oil company, which has repeatedly come under pressure from the government. BP, a British multinational corporation, is engaged in a broad fight with its Russian partners over the company, with speculation rising that the Kremlin wants it essentially nationalized.

In recent days, Mr. Medvedev and his advisers have tried to give assurances that the economy has a vibrant future, and the stock market has stabilized.

Still, concerns about Russian government regulation were highlighted in a report issued on Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a multinational group that promotes democracy and free market economies.

The report said the biggest obstacle to improving the investment climate in Russia was “greater state interference in economic activities and the uncertainty resulting from the postponement of necessary administrative and regulatory reforms.”

In his comments on Thursday, Mr. Medvedev noted that business, too, held some responsibility for corruption, suggesting that people too often wanted to solve their problems by slipping money under the table.

“All these decrees and laws, about which I have just spoken, won’t be enough, they will simply produce a zero effect, if we don’t create a real favorable business climate in our country,” he said. “We need our country to have a normal investment climate. And this is a task for absolutely all present here — both for the representatives of the authorities as a whole, and for law enforcement bodies, and for business.”