NO TIME TO UNDERSTAND THEM. Just whip them round and brand them.

Bribe-taking Russian officials could have their left hands branded under a proposed new blitz on corruption, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

Lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party want to see the letter K -- a symbol for a bribe-taker -- permanently etched on wrongdoers' skin.

Party deputies Sergei Ivanov and Igor Lebedev suggested the severe measure in a new law-and-order bill due to go before Russia's parliament, the State Duma.

By historical standards, the measure is not severe at all. Russia is the country that gave the world the knout, and internal exile beginning with a five year hike to the salt mines.

They say the markings would heap shame on corrupt officials and alert Russian employers so they could refuse them jobs.

Electronic mail precludes the provision of a favorable-sounding letter of reference on stationery watermarked with a broken-necked crane. On the other hand, the ethnography of Russian criminal tattoos is an area with a lot of research potential.