President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed a...

According to Vedomosti, Medvedev has proposed more lenient punishment for money laundering, a vaguely formulated article in the country"s criminal code that has allowed law-enforcers to arbitrarily interpret offences committed by businessmen.

In line with the proposal, imprisonment for money laundering will be reduced from the current 5-15 years to 3-10 years.

Russian law-enforcers have widely used the practice of arbitrary arrests of businessmen on the charges of pseudo-entrepreneurship, also applying the article on money-laundering to increase the prison term.

The amendments also propose increasing six-fold, to 1.5 million rubles ($50,000) and 6 million rubles ($200,000), the amount of damage inflicted by serious and very serious economic crimes to cut the number of arrests on petty charges and streamline the process.

Medvedev, who portrays himself as a young and technologically savvy leader, is seeking to improve the economic environment in the country

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