The Russian subsidiary of IBM has been accused of conspiring to defraud more than €32 million from the Russian state in collaboration with two other IT firms.

In a high-profile raid, armed police secured the perimeter of the Moscow offices of the multinational this week, as the federal investigators entered the building.

Afterwards, the Russian interior ministry claimed that IBM and the other companies had been guaranteed in advance they would win certain state contracts to supply equipment to administer pension funds, with the profits then split with some state employees.

Last night, IBM Russia's spokesman declined to elaborate on the incident.

"IBM Russia is co-operating with the government authorities in their investigations. Our business operations continue uninterrupted," said spokesman Jonathan Batty.

IBM has a large presence in Russia, with a wide range of management consulting, hardware and software services for both multinational and Russian clients.

In the past few months, the Kremlin has pledged to crack down on corruption, and a number of similar raids involving the public sector have taken place recently.

The offices of the State pension fund were also raided in connection with this investigation, while officials at the health insurance fund were last month arrested for suspected bribery. It is been estimated that about a quarter of the Russian economy has been squandered through corruption, with the topic now set to become one of the main issues in next year's Duma elections.