OCCRP Weekly News Roundup President Putin is Coming Back. Will He Bring Increased Graft With Him? In an announcement that seemed to surprise no one, Putin announced on Saturday his intention to be United Russia’s candidate for president in the March 2012 general elections.  Medvedev, who was famously described by US diplomats in leaked cables as the Robin to Putin’s Batman, will become Prime Minister. Following his election in May 2008, Medvedev said one of his biggest priorities was clamping down on corruption.  In his inauguration speech, he made rule of law a priority. “I believe my most important aims will be to protect civil and economic freedoms....We must fight for a true respect of the law.”  In July of the same year, Medvedev announced a presidential anti-corruption council and approved a plan to create state-level anti-corruption bodies. But according to international watchdogs, corruption at all levels of government has continued unabated. According to Transparency International, bribery costs Russia $300 billion annually, almost 18 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.  The corruption watchdog rated the country 154 out of 180 countries in its 2010 index, tying it with Yemen, Congo-Brazzaville, and Guinea. In US State Department cables leaked last year, US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle wrote that the Moscow “government operates more as a kleptocracy than a government” and that “everything depends on the Kremlin ... [former Moscow mayor Yuri] Luzhkov, as well as many mayors and governors, pay off key insiders in the Kremlin.”