Kept learned that companies have become less likely to report their employees to the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Companies in Russia have become more likely to investigate violations of employees on their own and less likely to transfer the materials of inspections to the police, follows from the results of the survey Kept
Russian companies have become twice less likely to transfer materials of internal investigations on violations of their employees to law enforcement agencies: in 2026, 31% of the surveyed organizations do so, while in 2023 they were 69%, follows from a survey by the audit and consulting company Kept, Vedomosti reports.
Kept surveys representatives of Russian non-financial companies about their compliance every two to three years. In 2026, 47 companies from Russia took part in the survey (30 organizations from Russia and Belarus in 2023), with about a third of them being subsidiaries of international holdings. Compliance specialists, lawyers, internal audit, security and financial services were asked to answer 50 questions.
According to a representative of Kept, the decline in the share of companies that transfer the cases of their employees to the police is due to labor costs and an unguaranteed positive result. The authors of the study believe that the new indicators reflect that employers are willing to escalate only serious or high-profile incidents, especially when signs of criminal offense.
In 86% of cases, respondents preferred disciplinary punishment for the offending employee, which indicates a stable practice of applying personnel and corporate sanctions, the authors of the study explained. At the same time, the share of financial sanctions as an addition to disciplinary measures decreased: 48% of respondents chose non-payment or reduction of bonuses (50% in 2023), and recovery of damages – 31% (54% in 2023).
In addition, the share of companies that decide to part with employees by agreement of the parties decreased: 64 against 70% three years ago. Only 5% of respondents reported that they did not take any measures against the offending staff. In addition, the role of the security service (SB) in conducting internal investigations has decreased – they have become more often transferred to compliance units (65%).
According to Yulia Paushkina, partner of KIAP Law Firm, the drop in the share of appeals to the police may be due to the reluctance of employers to take out garbage from the house, since public proceedings attract the attention of the media, regulators and partners. Instead, many prefer a “quiet” settlement, said managing partner of the company “Amendment of business” Natalia Popravko.
Correction added that the transfer of materials to law enforcement is a long process and the result may not be obvious. After contacting the police, all the activities of the company can be subjected to criminal legal analysis, said Georgy Mzhavanadze, partner of the labor law practice “Melling, Voitishkin and Partners”
At the same time, the head of projects of the commercial group of the law firm Vegas Lex Artem Gasparyan expressed the opinion that the reason may also be the growth of maturity of compliance procedures. According to him, developed systems of investigation allow to resolve the issue of responsibility within the organization, because of which decisions on the transfer of materials can be made more selectively.
The amendment noted that dismissal by agreement of the parties is considered a “soft” way out of the situation and is often perceived as a way to disperse without conflict, and companies have increasingly chosen a formal disciplinary decision instead of an internal agreement. If a violation is proven, it is in the company’s interest to record it officially to give a signal to other employees.
Earlier, Kept recorded an increase in demand for consulting services to combat theft within companies. According to Igor Lebedev, partner and head of Kept’s forensic department, the share of “relevant messages coming to the compliance and corporate fraud hotline in companies” is constantly growing. In the study, the consulting company B1 explained that employees began to steal more often due to economic instability (86 percent of participants) and easier due to the complexity of logistics chains, which are no longer transparent (82 percent). At the same time, fraud began to hit the budget of companies harder.
