Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday all attempts by Russian officials to hamper businesses for personal profit should be met with crushing response.

Medvedev has repeatedly urged law enforcement authorities to abandon the practice of numerous checks and inspections of companies, especially small and medium business, widely seen as an instrument to extort money from entrepreneurs or remove competitors from the market unfairly.

"It is inadmissible when businesses are being virtually deprived of oxygen by those seeking personal profit. Prosecutors should meet such cases with an immediate and crushing response," the Russian president said.

Medvedev, who portrays himself as a young and technologically savvy leader, is seeking to improve the economic environment in the country and create incentives for domestic businesses to switch to a knowledge-based and innovative economy.

Earlier this week it was reported that he proposed a package of amendments to Russia's criminal and criminal procedure codes with the goal of making punishment for economic crimes more humane.

He proposed more lenient punishment for money laundering, a vaguely formulated article in the country's criminal code that has allowed law-enforcers to arbitrarily interpret offenses committed by businessmen. In line with the proposal, imprisonment for money laundering will be reduced from the current 5-15 years to 3-10 years.

Russian law-enforcers have widely used the practice of arbitrary arrests of businessmen on the charges of pseudo-entrepreneurship, while also applying the article on money-laundering to increase the prison term.

MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti)