Photo Credit: http://www.39gazet.ru

1. United Russia member Irina Yarovaya is seeking higher prison terms for corrupt officials as part of the recent anti-corruption drive aimed to cool public anger and curb the widespread practice of divvying up the state’s coffers by greedy public servants, says Vedomosti.

Officials might be facing a sentence up to 15 years, not 10 as it is now, in jail if Yarovaya’s new bill is passed by the national parliament.

According to the MP, the draft law would allow for a return of some of the embezzled funds into the budget.

2. The government is planning to tighten control over lotteries by banning all private prize drawings starting from 2014 due to the shady character of their operations.

According to sources cited by Vedomosti daily, the budget gets 1 billion roubles a year in taxes, which is 10 times fewer than it should have received, given the size of the industry.

The bill has been drafted on the initiative of deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov and will be submitted to the State Duma next week.

3. MPs and the government have launched a legislative attack on violators of intellectual property rights.

One bill has already been submitted to the State Duma by a trio of MPs, another one is still being drawn up by the Culture Ministry.

The aim of both is to block illegal content on the Internet.