World Bank backs Russian legal reforms

The World Bank says it fully supports President Vladimir Putin's attempts to reform Russia's legal system.

The World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, who's in St Petersberg for an international conference on judicial reform, said that Russia had set a good record for the conference, which focusses on how corruption and legal inequalities contributed to worldwide poverty.

President Putin has pledged sweeping reform of Russia's judicial system which observers describe as corrupt and complex.

The system remains largely unchanged since the soviet era.