FBIS4-68801
"jpusr055___94016"
FBIS Report: Central Eurasia
16 April 1994
RUSSIA
REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Khabarovsk Authorities Fight Organized Crime
Khabarovsk Authorities Fight Organized Crime
944F0677A Khabarovsk TIKHOOKEANSKAYA ZVEZDA in Russian 16
Apr 94 p 2
944F0677A
Khabarovsk TIKHOOKEANSKAYA ZVEZDA
Russian
CSO
[Interview with Yuriy Kolotvin, deputy chief of the Regional
Office for Organized Crime, by S. Baranov; place and date not
given: "Fifty Mafia Groups for the Kray. And a `Syndicate' To
Boot"]
[Text] Just a few years ago even the question of
whether there was organized crime here in the kray was being
discussed in the press by way of a debate. Today no one has any
doubt as to the presence of organized crime groups: They exist.
As does now also a force opposed to them--the Regional Office
for Organized Crime. Formed two years ago, this MVD subdivision
is showing itself to be increasingly decisive. The work on
countering the mafia crime formations in our kray is headed by
Yuriy Kolotvin, deputy chief of this office.
[Baranov] So what is organized crime in the kray today?
[Kolotvin] Insofar as the legislators have yet to give us
precise legal criteria of a definition of the "organized crime"
concept, we have had to formulate them ourselves. As distinct
from the customary criminal groupings, so to speak,
organized-crime communities have to have been in existence for
quite some time and to have quite a clear-cut structure of the
chain of command, intelligence, outlets to the organs of
administration and the law enforcement authorities, and legal or
semilegal forms of "laundering" money obtained illegally.
On the basis of these estimates, we count in the kray today
one criminal community--the "syndicate"--and 46 organized-crime
groups. Those formed on a national basis included. They include
three Azerbaijani, two Armenian, two Chechen, and two Korean
crime groups. But I have to specify immediately that both
quantitatively and qualitatively the composition of the groups
is changing constantly. Last year, for example, two Azerbaijani
groupings were locked in a mortal clash. Nine persons on both
sides died as a result. Some of the groups, having been brought
under our control, are disbanding themselves.
We "fish out" some, so to speak, in actual crimes and
institute criminal proceedings against them. Thus two crime
bosses and 35 leaders of various criminal groups were arraigned
last year on the basis of material of our officers. As a result
we were able to prevent the misappropriation of monetary
resources totaling R5.5 billion and the attempted sale of almost
10 kg of industrial silver, to detect and confiscate R2 million
worth of counterfeit R5,000 notes and $4,000 worth in $100
bills, and to confiscate from the criminals 51 firearms and 35
kg of narcotics.
[Baranov] But does not your subdivision duplicate the work
of
other militia services, criminal investigation, say?
[Kolotvin] I do not believe so. Although there are many
problems that we have to resolve together.
The point is that organized crime, availing itself of the
new
social opportunities, is rapidly invading all spheres of the
economic and social life of society and mastering increasingly
new types of crime, for which the Criminal Code has no name
even. Thus are "dead zones," at which the militia branch
services either cannot call in time or at which they cannot call
at all, are emerging. Our officers employ in their work both the
principle of the work of criminal investigation--from the crime
to the person--and the principle of work of the economic crime
subdivisions--from the person to the crime. It is the
combination of these two principles that is enabling us to [word
illegible] and, if not wipe out, then keep under control these
"dead zones."
This was the case with, for example, forged letters of
advice, owing to the use of which in the Far East region
approximately R3 billion were lost. As soon as we learned about
this, we made a careful study of the forms and paths of the
embezzlement of the money and performed a colossal amount of
work on detecting the enterprises that had been specially formed
to this end. Twenty-seven of them were discovered in Khabarovsk
alone, incidentally, and this made it possible not only to save
over R5 billion for the kray but also to erect quite dependable
barriers in the way of the transfer of monetary resources.
[Baranov] Does this mean that you are having today to deal
more with crimes in the economic sphere?
[Kolotvin] Such a tilt has, indeed, emerged, but this is
dictated more by the criminalization of our economy. The public
sector has one foot in the grave, virtually. It has come to be
replaced by a variety of limited-liability partnerships,
associations, individual-private enterprises, and joint
ventures, many of which are in practice merely a cover for
illegal activity and the laundering of criminal cash. Thus last
year the Komsomolsk-na-Amure branch of the Office for Organized
Crime uncovered the theft by a number of officials and the
commander of a military unit of military assets, provisions, and
explosives worth a total of over R18 million. It has now already
been established that everything that was misappropriated was
sold via commercial structures controlled by the "syndicate." At
a warehouse of the Tatyana individual-private enterprise our
officers confiscated more than 200 kg of TNT demolition blocks,
approximately 100 detonators, and 70 meters of safety fuse. A
group of embezzlers at the shipbuilding yard was discovered
there, in Komsomolsk, also. In exchange for consumer merchandise
it has given Japan ultra-pure copper intended for military
production. And these transactions were effected via the Yeva
commercial enterprise. We were able to prevent the removal of
the last consignment of copper (six tonnes). In a word, certain
commercial structures require today the constant and unremitting
attention of the militia authorities, ours included. But the
economy far from exhausts the spheres of our attention, of
course.
[Baranov] To what else do you pay attention?
[Kolotvin] Take racketeering. Given the imperfect state of
Russian criminal legislation, extortion has become the favorite
form of shaking loose money for our organized-crime groups. It
is more profitable for organized crime than the traditional
business--prostitution, gambling, narcotics.
Strapping young men approach a businessman and offer him
so-called "protection." And although, as a rule, there are
neither direct threats nor other physical pressure--only hints
at possible dangers--such offers are accepted practically
without a hitch. And this type of "activity" brings in enormous
profits, effortlessly, what is more. Were the payers to see,
willy-nilly, what tears are shed by their "protectors" whom we
have taken into custody, they would not be giving up their money
so easily. But fear in the face of the extortioners is so great
that the victims of regular racketeering prefer to conceal
themselves, are driving their problems inward, and are,
ultimately, drawing even bigger trouble onto themselves.
Quite recently we were involved in a case of a businessman
who had been "held" for almost a week and who, possibly, had
been subjected to physical pressure in the gym of the Rossich
Club, which had hitherto been classed with us as being in far
from criminal ranks. It was demanded of the businessman that he
return R24 million which he allegedly owed. Closer
familiarization with the records of the Rossich Club,
incidentally, affords reason to believe that its members have
not eschewed concealed forms of racketeering either. Why, in
fact, have numerous commercial firms suddenly become enamored
with sport, that cultivated by Rossich, what is more, and begun
to transfer millions in assets to the club's account?
Generally, fear, far-fetched, for the most part, is enabling
a variety of no-good people to prosper. Although whoever has,
for all that, ventured to turn to us has not yet once regretted
it.
[Baranov] It is hard to believe. After all, organized crime
is, you will agree, far from innocuous....
[Kolotvin] This is true. But there is real danger and there
is a mythical danger spurred more by the representatives of the
criminal communities themselves, who make money out of general
fear. But it is a very great distance from threats to their
actual realization. We know this better than anyone. Especially
since we are today capable of providing perfectly dependable
protection for people who have turned to us for help. And there
have been no malfunctions as yet. It is not fortuitous that the
"syndicate" and organizations under its control are now trying
to resort more to psychological methods, via the news media
included. Many citizens of Khabarovsk most likely witnessed what
strong words against the militia on the TVA [expansion
unidentified] screen were uttered by Sergeyev, chairman of the
Yedinstvo public organization, when we made public facts about
the past of the leaders of this organization.
It never occurred to any of our officers or officers of the
Internal Affairs Administration, incidentally, to appear on TVA
and if only somehow to restrict the flow of Yedinstvo's
protests. We believed and continue to believe that this is
exclusively the business of the staff of the television station.
That at least three members of Yedinstvo are at the present time
under arrest for perfectly specific crimes is another matter.
And they were arrested before Yedinstvo's television attack,
what is more.
One way or another, we understand full well that we are
constantly in the sights of criminal structures and that any
misstep of ours, any mistake--and our officers are human, for
all that--could immediately be presented in a distorted form. So
we try to make as few mistakes as possible.
[Baranov] Since we are talking about employees of your
office, what are things like for them today?
[Kolotvin] Thanks to the assistance of the kray Internal
Affairs Administration, our outfit has been noticeably
reinforced. We now have subdivisions in Sovetskaya Gavan and
Vanino, in Amursk and Nikolayevsk. Special rapid-deployment
subdivisions are being formed in Khabarovsk and in Komsomolsk.
Our office has, in accordance with a decision of the
administration of the kray, been allocated premises. And
although they do not entirely resolve the problem of
accommodating our officers, they are, for all that, better than
nothing. We will hope that the social problems of the personnel
of the Office for Organized Crime will be resolved.
Social problems, on which unfortunately we can exert no in
any way appreciable influence, disturb us no less than our own,
for that matter. The problem of the youth, primarily.
We are noting with alarm organized crime's vigorous
penetration of the youth milieu. Having a criminal record and
wearing the badges of affiliation to the criminal world are
today considered among certain young people the height of valor,
virtually. Last year the Komsomolsk "syndicate" even attempted
to demonstrate its youth strength, organizing a protest action
in connection with the militia's arrest of crime boss Turbin.
Only thanks to the decisive and prompt measures of the
leadership of the Komsomolsk Internal Affairs Administration was
this action thwarted. But who could vouch under the conditions
of the present social instability, inflation, and rising
unemployment for the criminal world not tomorrow parading not
hundreds but thousands of its new recruits?
Another serious problem is corruption. It is increasingly
encompassing the authorities, the business leadership, and the
militia and other law enforcement authorities. Senior officials
and the criminal communities are coalescing in the soil of
corruption. And although we already have considerable material
on a number of officials, on account of the absence of
legislation on corruption, we can use only that which comes
under articles of the current Criminal Code.
This year, for example, we have succeeded in instituting two
such sets of criminal proceedings: on the criminal collaboration
of the chief accountant of the Pishchevik works under
construction in Komsomolsk and the director of the Tsentr
limited-liability partnership from Amursk. Abusing their
positions, this pair embezzled R20 million intended for the
construction of the Pishchevik. Criminal proceedings are being
instituted against the director of the Ladoga small-scale
enterprise for forgery, via which R5 million were
misappropriated. Other material, alas, is as yet lying unused
and is waiting for its time to come....
And one further cause of our distress--the conditions of the
storage of weapons. Even in the military units the theft of
weapons has become almost a commonplace phenomenon. The theft of
122 Makarov pistols and Nagant revolvers from the warehouse of
the Higher Militia School was uncovered last year. And eight
assault rifles have "disappeared" this year from the weapons
depot of a military unit. And our officers recently detained a
group of inhabitants of Nakhodka, who had brought into
Khabarovsk two pistols, one Nagant revolver, two grenades, and
three firing mechanisms for explosives. The origins of all these
"goods" are currently being looked into, but we can from our own
experience already surmise that there have once again been
sloppy work, heedlessness, and a lack of control somewhere.
[Baranov] What are the current concerns of the regional
office for organized crime?
[Kolotvin] Waiting for new homes, if we are speaking about
internal matters. As far as work is concerned, there is, as
always, a multitude of them. A group of the Nikolayevsk Bulk
Plant, which this year alone has contrived to misappropriate 700
tonnes of diesel fuel, is being investigated in
Nikolayevsk-na-Amure. A group of persons who stole R25 million
worth of liquor from a storehouse of the Intertorg
individual-private enterprise is being investigated. We have
considerable work to do with the Rossich Athletic Club. The
leader of the Nikolayevsk "syndicate" is being arraigned on
suspicion of homicide, and cases concerning the misappropriation
of material assets totaling R80 million are being investigated.
Sufficient?
[Baranov] Do you have sufficient forces for it all?
[Kolotvin] We should have. Were we to meet with more
understanding and assistance on the part of the municipal and
rayon authorities and inhabitants of the kray, we could be more
vigorous in curbing the onslaught of crime....