Russia's Battle with Crime, Corruption and Terrorism


Book Description

This book examines Russia's attempts to tackle the challenges of the new and increasing security threats of rising crime, corruption and terrorism that it has experienced since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. It demonstrates the close links between the rising drug trade, border problems, migration issues, organised crime, corruption and terrorism. Uncovering information not seen before by Western audiences, this book: shows how Russia's porous borders have facilitated the operation of transnational crime groups explores the specific features that make particular regions such as Siberia important for the drug trade and other forms of smuggling, analysing the character of the different criminal groups and networks, and investigating the informal links and collusion between these organizations and police officials considers the operation of corrupt practices in the military sector, one of the most closed parts of the economy analyzes the ways in which Russia is fighting crime, corruption and terrorism, and the implications for civil liberties argues that the extensive flows of illegal immigrants into Russia are creating ever more fertile grounds for corruption, crime and terrorism, while the immigrants themselves are often the victims of this crime.







Counterterrorism in Areas of Political Unrest


Book Description

​​Political transitions often create new law enforcement challenges. This Brief provides an examination of such special law enforcement challenges in the Northern Caucasas, both due to the unique structure of the crime groups that are active in the region, and to the unique social and political environment in which they operate. In 2002, Russian President Vladamir Putin declared the end of the war in Chechnya. In 2006, he announced the insurgency was defeated. Yet today, Russia maintains a significant Internal Police presence in the Northern Caucasus to contain approximately 700 insurgents at a cost estimated to be more than the equivalent of $1 billion per year. Russian law enforcement, armed forces, and their local proxies are fighting irregular forces that operate in a manner akin to organized crime groups or terrorist cells. These groups have formed flexible networks which can sustain heavy losses, including the “decapitation” of their leaders, only to reconstitute themselves ready to fight another day. Beginning with a historical overview of the police and military structures in the region, this Brief provides a case study into the origins, structures, and unique strategies for counter-terrorism policing in these complex conditions. It also provides recommendations for the future, and a framework for understanding similar cases of terrorist operations in areas of political unrest, an increasing global threat.​




Blowing Up Russia


Book Description

Litvinenko, a Lieutenant Colonel and 20 yr. veteran of the Soviet Military and Intelligence services, created an international scandal at his Moscow press conference that publicity criticized the leaders of the KGB-FSB for numerous illegal orders he'd received. He was imprisonment on false charges, and eventually escaped to Britain where he received asylum. Litvinenko witnessed such outrages as Govt. campaigns to: - Dirty the reputations of Russia's leading businessmen. - Cover-up the corruption in the Govt. Agencies of coercion. - Provoke the Chechen wars to divert Russia away from the path of democracy--back to dictatorship, militarism, nationalism & chauvensim.- An outrageous Expose of Russia's secret bombing of its own cities in order to blame Chechens. - This story has been featured and confirmed in The N.Y. Times & The Wall Street Journal. - Russia's massive corruption will continue to make front page news, ensuring this book's the relevance.




Russian Organized Corruption Networks and their International Trajectories


Book Description

Countries undergoing major social and legal transitions typically experience a light, but relatively insignificant, increase in crime. However, in the past decade, many transitional countries in Eastern Europe, and Russia in particular, have experienced a surge in criminal activities that came about through the collaboration of diverse players—such as criminals, state officials, businesspersons, and law enforcement—into organized networks aimed to obtain financial and economic gains.




The Vory


Book Description

The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western readers can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment. The vory--as the Russian mafia is also known--was born early in the twentieth century, largely in the Gulags and criminal camps, where they developed their unique culture. Identified by their signature tattoos, members abided by the thieves' code, a strict system that forbade all paid employment and cooperation with law enforcement and the state. Based on two decades of on-the-ground research, Galeotti's captivating study details the vory's journey to power from their early days to their adaptation to modern-day Russia's free-wheeling oligarchy and global opportunities beyond.




War with Russia?


Book Description

Is America in a new Cold War with Russia? How does a new Cold War affect the safety and security of the United States? Does Vladimir Putin really want to destabilize the West? What should Donald Trump and America’s allies do? America is in a new Cold War with Russia even more dangerous than the one the world barely survived in the twentieth century. The Soviet Union is gone, but the two nuclear superpowers are again locked in political and military confrontations, now from Ukraine to Syria. All of this is exacerbated by Washington’s war-like demonizing of the Kremlin leadership and by Russiagate’s unprecedented allegations. US mainstream media accounts are highly selective and seriously misleading. American “disinformation,” not only Russian, is a growing peril. In War With Russia?, Stephen F. Cohen—the widely acclaimed historian of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia—gives readers a very different, dissenting narrative of this more dangerous new Cold War from its origins in the 1990s, the actual role of Vladimir Putin, and the 2014 Ukrainian crisis to Donald Trump’s election and today’s unprecedented Russiagate allegations. Topics include: Distorting Russia US Follies and Media Malpractices 2016 The Obama Administration Escalates Military Confrontation With Russia Was Putin’s Syria Withdrawal Really A “Surprise”? Trump vs. Triumphalism Has Washington Gone Rogue? Blaming Brexit on Putin and Voters Washington Warmongers, Moscow Prepares Trump Could End the New Cold War The Real Enemies of US Security Kremlin-Baiting President Trump Neo-McCarthyism Is Now Politically Correct Terrorism and Russiagate Cold-War News Not “Fit to Print” Has NATO Expansion Made Anyone Safer? Why Russians Think America Is Attacking Them How Washington Provoked—and Perhaps Lost—a New Nuclear-Arms Race Russia Endorses Putin, The US and UK Condemn Him (Again) Russophobia Sanction Mania Cohen’s views have made him, it is said, “America’s most controversial Russia expert.” Some say this to denounce him, others to laud him as a bold, highly informed critic of US policies and the dangers they have helped to create. War With Russia? gives readers a chance to decide for themselves who is right: are we living, as Cohen argues, in a time of unprecedented perils at home and abroad?




Global Organized Crime


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive, multidimensional look into the major activities, groups, causes, and policing strategies related to global organized crime. Global Organized Crime: A Reference Handbook examines global organized crime dating back to its 17th-century roots. Unlike most works on the subject, which take a parochial approach by concentrating on individual countries or regions, this book uniquely details the impact of 21st-century globalization on such groups and their activities. Exploring the continuum of international organized crime and related developments from its early beginnings to the present era, the book also looks at the complicated issues that continue to influence its growth. It covers the impact of the end of the Cold War, immigration, the global drug trade, weapons sales, human smuggling and trafficking, the convergence of funding sources, and the effects of technology. What especially distinguishes this book is the connections it makes between organized crime activities and failed states, civil wars, political transitions, regional conflicts, and terrorist groups.




The Political Economy of Corporate Raiding in Russia


Book Description

Corporate raiding – the shocking phenomenon whereby criminals, business rivals and even state bureaucrats visit business headquarters and force owners or staff to transfer business assets, land or property – is an increasing problem in Russia. This book, based on extensive original research, provides a comprehensive overview of this activity. It describes the nature of corporate raiding, provides numerous case studies and discusses the role of the state and government officials. Overall the book argues that the prevailing climate of business and government in Russia leads to a situation where control is closely linked to corruption and coercion.




Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations


Book Description

Although much literature on human trafficking focuses on sex trafficking, a great deal of human trafficking results from migrant workers, compelled - by economic deprivation in their home countries - to seek better life opportunities abroad, especially in agriculture, construction and domestic work. Such labour migration is sometimes legal and well managed, but sometimes not so – with migrant workers frequently threatened or coerced into entering debt bondage arrangements and ending up working in forced labour situations producing goods for illicit markets. This book fills a substantial gap in the existing literature given that labour trafficking is a much more subtle form of exploitation than sex trafficking. It discusses how far large multinational corporations are involved, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation. They explore how far corporations are driven to seek cheap labour by the need to remain commercially competitive and examine how the problem often lies with corporations’ subcontractors, who are not as well controlled as they might be. The essays in the volume also outline and assess measures being taken by governments and international agencies to eradicate the problem.