Askjournal.ru, the first anti-corruption website in Russia based on the web 2.0 philosophy, officially launched on December 9th, 2008.

Askjournal.ru was created by the joint team of the Center Transparency International – Russia and the Youth Human Rights Movement, but all internet users can become its content creators.

Content of the Anti-corruption Online Office covers 12 fields which are considered to be among most corrupt in Russia, e.g. army, police, healthcare, education and registration bodies.

Anti-corruption Online Office joins growing international family of public anti-corruption helpdesks and legal clinics such as TI’s ALACs. Since offline helpdesks appeared to be less efficient in Russia, we decided to go online.

All visitors can find information useful for them when interacting with governmental and municipal officials, including:
• Step-by-step Instructions how to approach state and municipal bodies;
• Descriptions of legal procedures;
• Claim and complaint forms and templates;
• Legislation regulating state and municipal bodies’ activities;
• Contact info of state and municipal bodies, such as addresses, opening hours etc.

In future we plan to have a segment of legal advice for foreigners visiting, living or working in Russia. Part of it will be translated into English.
14 to 28 million people in Russia are active Internet users (and these numbers are speedily growing!). We do believe that access to information combined with a social NGO network and latest technologies is one of the most powerful anti-corruption tools. And we are to use the chance.