Transnational Organized Crime in Russia
Brief Overview of Russia
Russia became an independent country after the split of Soviet Union in 1991, and it is one of the 15 independent states which were formed out of the Soviet Union split. The country is known for the large square meter area, making it the biggest country in the entire world, so big that it is twice as big as Canada, which is supposedly the second biggest country in the entire world, thus showing how big Russia is. The country is so big that it caters to areas of 11 different time zones, is home to the largest river called river Volga in entire Europe. Because of the large size, Russia also faces all different kinds of weather in different areas, so it can’t be generalized as primarily cold or hot.
The people of Russia are generally very different and diverse, so much so that about 100 different languages are spoken country-wide. Many of these are Russians themselves, but they are home to many different ethnicities like the Ukrainians, the Armenians, and the Tatars, etc., but such populations are limited to a couple thousand in the entire population. Some of the main groups in terms of language and ethnicity are as follows; firstly, the Indo-European group, which is a large chunk of the total population, then the Altaic group, which is mainly the Turkic speaking people, and the last bigger group is the Caucasian group. Thus it can be seen that the country comprises of many different languages and ethnicities.
Government Structure
When the country was a part of the Soviet Union, it consisted of a really strong sovereign socialist state. Later on, when Russia became an independent state, the government order changed to relatively legislative and parliamentary order. Since the country was a newly independent one, there was a struggle to define which part of the government got what kind of power and to what extent. However, soon after, in 1993, the parliament itself was dissolved as well, leading to a democratic system in the country. Through this system, the president was to be elected by voters, and even that was defined that a single president wouldn’t be allowed to come back for the third time in a row. The remaining power lies in the hands of the president, who then chooses the country’s prime minister. (“Russia – Government and society,” 2020)
What’s different in this democracy is that the president is also the acting Chief of the military, which means that he also has the power to control the military and even establish martial law if necessary. Thus overall, the president has the majority of the power to the extent that if his suggested constitutional changes aren’t considered and brought forward, he has the option of doing that by force. Where previously the presidential period was four years, it was later on increased to six years in the year 2008. The main federal assembly of the country can be divided into two primary parts; the upper deck, which was the federal council, and the lower deck, which was the states ‘duma’ and consisted of 450 members who were elected through proper elections.
Drug Trade
Drug Trafficking is a big part of Russian organized crimes, which is transnational. This is mainly because there is a high demand for illegal drugs in bigger and successful countries like the US, and that’s how smuggling the drugs into such countries became the illegal but profitable avenue that it did. Russia was one of the countries which wasn’t previously involved in the drug smuggling businesses, but when they saw the high demand and profit, they too joined partnerships with known countries like Mexico. The issue with the drug trade is that it doesn’t just lead to an increase in illegal drugs, but also leads to a high number of other crimes like robberies, murders, etc. since the intoxication level in the country also increases. So much, so that entire economies of countries with high organized crimes are running on the profits earned. (“Transnational Organized Crime: A Growing Threat to National and International Security,” 2020)
Cybercrime
The second primary issue or organized crime in Russia is the cybercrime and cybersecurity issue in the country. The various groups involved have greatly mastered the art of cyber fraud and scamming people through the internet in the country, on very high levels. The reason why cybercrime has been so high in the country is because of the lack of laws and action being taken against the people who do so, and since everyone kept getting away with it, the issue got even worse. The first thing to keep in mind is that the cybercrime groups were soon identified as part of much larger organized crime groups, which have global linkages and supply chains, giving them the expertise that they need. Secondly, the reason why they are successful is that they also know to quickly liquidate their profits and remove proof, so there isn’t a paper trail of the crime left by the time people realize what happened to them. (Kshetri, 2013)
Implications of the Crimes
Economically speaking, probably the biggest area of concern is that most of the profits which are earned, they go to the distribution channels, which means that the country which is the endpoint for the drugs are the ones which get most profits, not even the ones doing the supplying. Even though the drug cartels acting as the middlemen get their entire profit, the economy of the country of origin gets no share of that in the economy. Another high cost that the country has to entail is the medical one since so many people end up overdosing, the healthcare system is overburdened and more facilities used for drug users. (ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING, 2020)
When it comes to cybercrime, there are also major losses to the people in terms of security and terms of their finances. The first issue is privacy and how many people lose access to private information, which may then be used for any illicit activity by the cybercrime units. People thus also start distrusting online websites, even if they were subject to the breach. And companies and webpages have to invest a lot of money in cyber ware and security programs to avoid the breach in the future and to ensure their customers that the safety of the private information will not be taken lightly. (Finckenauer & Voronin, 2020)
Impact on the government
Probably the biggest issue that the Russian government has had to face because of the high rise of organized crime is the high rise in corruption as well. A very common practice in the government has been the bribery concept, which is also very widespread and considered a part of the culture. Bribery is such a common practice that out of all the people who are charged for the crime, 42% are government officers, and 25% are law enforcement officers. (Levin & Satarov, 2013). This issue also helped the organized crime get as big as it is, by bribing the government officials to surpass a shipment or to take frequent bribes and let it happen without saying anything. Because of the high level of corruption, the government cannot even properly contain the issue in the country, because even the ones trying to get rid of organized crime, don’t know who is involved, who is taking crimes. Thus the power of the government is greatly challenged and questioned at times like these, that whether they even have the resources and guts to stand up against such big businesses and organized crime units. However, this drug and crime issue that has spread to the United States as well has allowed the two countries to work towards achieving some sort of control on the crimes. After the cold war and the split of Soviet Union, this is the first time that the world has seen the US and Russia join hands to handle something, and be on similar ends of the issue. Thus it can be said that the Russian government has resources and control being offered by the United States government as well, who are less likely to fall for corruption schemes and accept bribes. (Collins, 2011)
Legal Dealing
Different organizations in the country are looking for dealing with issues regarding organized crime, like the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for the organized crime unit in general and overlooks the cases. And the other one is the Federal Security Service, which is responsible for the police-related activity and acts as the FBI in the US. The laws which are developed in the organized crime unit, go as far back as the 90’s when the issue first became prominent to the country. A very specific law called the ‘On Fighting Organized Crime’ was passed, which consisted of 60 different articles as to what the organized crime is and defining the dos and don’ts in terms of legalities. The articles also specified the type of convictions and the jail time the convicts would get, and all the crimes which are punishable under organized crime, and their details.
There were some primary advancements made by President Lebed, who decided that the security council of the country could question any highly ranked and powerful officer if they were under suspicion for any illegal activity. He also put in a lot of financial resources in strengthening the security system by providing more security men to the police. Some measures, like removing people who are accused of organized crime from their official posts, and also putting witnesses of legal cases regarding the crime, in protection, was also made a requirement. When people saw the steps being taken to eradicate the organized crime issue, many started coming forward with more and more information. (Moran et al., 2011)
References
Collins, R. (2011). Patrimonial Alliances and Failures of State Penetration. The ANNALS Of The American Academy Of Political And Social Science, 636(1), 16-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716211398201
Finckenauer, J., & Voronin, Y. (2020). The Threat of Russian Organized Crime. Issues in International Crime.
Kshetri, N. (2013). Cybercrime and Cybersecurity in the Former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. Cybercrime And Cybersecurity In The Global South, 51-76. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137021946_3
Levin, M., & Satarov, G. (2013). Russian Corruption. Oxford Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759927.013.0020
Moran, D., Pallot, J., & Piacentini, L. (2011). The Geography of Crime and Punishment in the Russian Federation. Eurasian Geography And Economics, 52(1), 79-104. https://doi.org/10.2747/1539-7216.52.1.79
Russia – Government and society. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2020). Retrieved 28 June 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/Government-and-society.
Transnational Organized Crime: A Growing Threat to National and International Security. The White House. (2020). Retrieved 28 June 2020, from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/nsc/transnational-crime/threat.
UNODC.org. (2020). ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING [Ebook] (6th ed., pp. 1-64). Retrieved 28 June 2020, from https://www.unodc.org/pdf/technical_series_1998-01-01_1.pdf.