Looking to get a bribe from a foreign company? Ask companies from Russia and China.  A new study shows that companies from these two growing economies are the most likely to pay bribes in foreign countries, according to a survey by Transparency International (TI).  Mexico, currently bogged down in drug cartel violence, came was third from the bottom.

The anti-corruption NGO asked 3,016 business executives about the perceptions of bribes being paid by companies in 28 countries, including all the G20 countries.  In the resulting 2011 Bribe Payers Index, Russia and China fell at the bottom of the list, while Switzerland and the Netherlands scored best.

“It is of particular concern that China and Russia are at the bottom of the index,” the report authors noted, saying that their rising role in global markets, especially with Russian investments in oil and gas industries and Chinese investments in mining and infrastructure in Africa.

However, TI is quick to point out that none of the countries are “wholly clean of bribery.”   Moreover, other than India, there were few improvements since the last survey was taken in 2008, despite growing anti-bribery legislation globally.

Prosecutors gave their final closing remarks and  the case against Viktor Bout, charged with arms smuggling, went to the jury for deliberation on Tuesday.  Bout earned the nickname “Lord of War” for his suspected role in trafficking arms to rogue countries all over the world.

Bout has pleaded not guilty to an array of charges, including United Nations sanctions busting, conspiracy to kill Americans, attempting to sell arms to terrorists, and wire fraud.

His defense presented closing arguments Monday, in which his attorney Albert Dayan reiterated his claim that Bout was a broke businessman interested only in selling two cargo planes.

Assistant US Attorney Anjan Sahni disagrees.  “The defendant repeatedly said he was ready, willing and able to carry out this massive weapons deal,” Sahni told the court on Monday.

Corruption by governments and large multinational companies threatens to destabilize the climate and will have negative repercussions for the environment if troubling trends are not addressed, according to a report released Monday by Transparency International in Nairobi, Kenya.

The report, the first of its kind, assesses the role corruption has in worsening climate change and negatively impacting economic development globally.

The 400-page document contains analysis from 50 climate change and corruption experts from 20 countries.  It highlights hypocritical and unjust practices of major companies, describes the potential for corruption in carbon credit markets, and criticizes the practices many in the energy sector use to meet their short term goals, expanding the definition of corruption to include practices like unfair lobbying and data manipulation.

The report says that there are not enough oversight mechanisms to monitor the unprecedented scale of growth in international development and calls on governments to cooperate more and enforce existing laws.

Prosecutors have taken one more step toward holding someone accountable for the 2006 murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

On Friday they confirmed an indictment against former police officer Sergey Khadzhikurbanov for participating in the plot to kill the journalist, an outspoken critic of then-president Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party.

Khadzhikurbanov, who served as a policeman in Moscow’s Central Department for Combating Organized Crime, denies involvement and refuses to testify in court.

“Khadzhikurbanov has been charged due to the fact that, having been released from prison on Sept. 22, 2006, he went on to lead an organized criminal group in both the preparation and the actual commission of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya,” Vladimir Markin, a spokesperson for the committee investigating the journalist’s death, told Russian ITAR-TASS news agency.

One of Bulgaria’s most famous athletes was arrested Friday in a Brazil airport with nine kilograms of cocaine.

Weightlifter Galabin Boevski confessed Thursday and said he would comply fully with the authorities investigating him, according to the Bulgarian new agency BGNES.

Boevski was detained at Sao Paolo airport while attempting to board a plane to Spain en route to Bulgaria with his daughter Sara, who had competed in an international tennis tournament.  She was eventually allowed to return home.

The 36-year-old was named Bulgaria's athlete of the year in 1999, 2000 and 2001.  He won a gold medal for weightlifting in the 69 kilogram class at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Boevski also took home gold medals at world weightlifting championships in 1999 and 2001, in addition to the European championships in 1999, 2002 and 2003.

A plot to murder one of the region’s most notorious drug dealers, Naser Kelmendi, was discussed last week before the Court of BiH during the trial of suspected narco trafficker Zijad Turković and 13 other suspected members of his organized crime group.

The testimony provided by Isljam Kalender, a Bosnian citizen who is serving time for drug smuggling, detailed a plan to kill Kelmendi with a 14 kilogram bomb.  Turković has admitted to the plot.

Prosecutores allege that Turković is the leader of an organized crime ring that was involved in drug and weapons trafficking, robbery, extortion, money laundering, and murder.

Kalender, once a close associate of Turković who served as the best man at his wedding, claimed that Turković was planning to kill his rival drug boss Naser Kelmendi, the Albanian-born leader of what law enforcement have dubbed a “Balkan criminal empire.”

The trial of the former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, scheduled to begin today, was adjourned until the following Thursday. Sanader arrived late for the start of his trial at the Zagreb County Court this morning, wearing casual garb and supporting himself with a crutch.

The former prime minister apologized for his attire, saying that he was told he was going to a hospital rather than the courtroom.

"I am sorry I came here dressed like this, I was told I was going to the hospital," he told the court upon entry.

58-year old Sanader explained that he has long suffered from heart and blood pressure problems.

Croatia’s ruling political party, HDZ, today confirmed that it is under investigation for corruption by the state office for fighting organized crime, known as USKOK. This is the first time in Croatia that an entire political party has been investigated.

Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosorsaid the investigation represents a political attempt to “demolish the HDZ.”

While noting that this is an extremely difficult moment for HDZ, Kosor told the public at at a press conference Thursday morning that the party will not stop its own efforts in the fight against corruption.

Yuri Luzhkov, who ruled Moscow for 18 years, said Thursday he would sue one of the Russian government’s key officials over his statements that Luzhkov presided over an era of “rampant corruption” is Russia’s capital city.

The announcement comes days after Russian investigators summoned the former mayor to court for questioning as part of a corruption inquiry into a $413 million loan from Russia’s fifth largest bank.  Investigators allege that the official used the bank to fund property development projects, including those being run by his wife Yelena Baturina.

Luzhkov told Russian newspaper Izvestia that he intends to sue the Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin over statements he made Wednesday that Luzhkov and his aides fostered an “appalling level” of bribery and corruption.

Data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that up to $1.6 trillion may have been laundered in 2009, which is almost 3 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, or GDP, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations.

Of this total, the proceeds of transnational organized crimes including trafficking in humans and drugs, counterfeiting, and arms smuggling would total 1.5 percent of global GDP, Of that, 70 percent had gone through the global financial system.

Moreover, the report finds that less than one percent (approximately 0.2 percent) of the money earned illicitly through drug trafficking and other transnational organized crime is actually seized and frozen annually.

“Tracking the flows of illicit funds generated by drug trafficking and organized crime and analyzing how they are laundered through the world’s financial systems remain daunting tasks,” said Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC at the launch of the report at the a weeklong anti-corruption conference in Marrakech, Morocco.

Fedotov said that laundered money enables bribery, corruption, and sometimes even terrorism, and as such has the power to destabilize countries and foster violence.