From Russia With Love..

Russia Considers Branding Corrupt Officials

Updated: Wednesday, 22 Sep 2010, 2:43 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 22 Sep 2010, 2:43 PM EDT

NewsCore - Lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party want to see the letter K -- a symbol for a bribe-taker -- permanently etched on wrongdoers' skin.

Party deputies Sergei Ivanov and Igor Lebedev suggested the severe measure in a new law-and-order bill due to go before Russia's parliament, the State Duma.

They say the markings would heap shame on corrupt officials and alert Russian employers so they could refuse them jobs.

"The authors of the bill believe that branding bribe-takers with indestructible marks in a visible place to show that they have committed a crime will enable employers to refuse them employment," the centrist party, which holds 40 of 450 seats in the Duma, said in a statement.

After coming to office in 2008, President Dmitry Medvedev declared corruption the number one threat to Russian society and introduced a raft of laws to combat the menace.

However, neither the government nor the Supreme Court are likely to support the branding initiative, the state-owned news agency said.

Germany-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, lists Russia as one of the most corrupt nations in the world.