Russian Regional Report (Vol. 9, No. 1, 3 February 2004) A bi-weekly publication jointly produced by the Center for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (http://www.isn.ethz.ch) and the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at American University, Washington, DC (http://www.American.edu/traccc) TABLE OF CONTENTS TraCCC Yaroslavl Conference Crime Groups Increasing Ties to Authorities Gubernatorial Elections Sakhalin Elects New Governor Center-Periphery Relations Tyumen Oblast, Okrugs Resume Conflict Electoral Violations Khabarovsk Court Jails Election Worker Procurator Files Criminal Cases in Kalmykiya Elections Advertisements Russia: All 89 Regions Trade and Investment Guide Dynamics of Russian Politics: Putin's Reform of Federal-Regional Relations ***RRR on-line (with archives) - http://www.isn.ethz.ch/researchpub/publihouse/rrr/ TRACCC YAROSLAVL CONFERENCE CRIME GROUPS INCREASING TIES TO AUTHORITIES. Crime groups are increasingly working with public officials in Russia at the regional, and local levels, making it difficult for those seeking to enact and enforce laws combating organized crime, according to many of the criminologists who participated in a conference addressing organized crime hosted by Yaroslavl State University and sponsored by TraCCC, with support from the US Department of Justice on 20-21 January. The current laws on organized crime are largely a result of Russia's inability to deal with this problem, according to Natalia Lopashenko, head of the TraCCC program in Saratov. Almost the only area of agreement among the scholars, law enforcement agents, and judges was that the level of organized crime is rising. Figures from the Interior Ministry suggest that the number of economic crimes, in particular, is shooting upward. Since Russia's legislation does not offer specific ways to deal with organized crime, regional and local officials often have to figure out their own approach. In many cases, such officials find it more effective in terms of maintaining stability to work cooperatively with organized crime leaders to handle local situations rather than simply trying to arrest them. It is difficult to enforce the laws against organized crime because prosecutors must show concretely who did what and define the consequences of these actions. Such tasks are extremely complicated when criminals have high-level protection from state officials. Vladimir Yakushin, rector of the Volga University in Tolyatti, advocated making it easier to prosecute crime groups and their leaders under Russian law. In particular, he suggested holding the head of a crime group responsible for all the actions of the group. His views were not widely supported, however, because it would relax the law's current focus on concrete crimes in favor of addressing the "bigger picture." Part of the problem is that the law has a very difficult time defining what exactly a crime group is. Existing legislation is poorly worded and in places even contradictory. Practitioners employ various terms such as "group," "society," and "band" to define organized crime, but it is not always clear how to distinguish among these terms. Among the factors that can be employed are intent to commit a crime, number of members, presence of weapons, prior agreements, structure, long-term and stable ties, and ability to communicate and coordinate effectively. But there is no consensus. Critics like Lopashenko questioned the Russian Supreme Court's decision to require that organized crime groups be defined as "stable," noting that such a requirement did not always make sense. She advocated preparing a special law on organized crime, but others, such as Yaroslavl University's Lev Kruglikov pointed out that Yeltsin's early 1990s decree on organized crime had produced no concrete results. Kruglikov claimed that new legislation would not likely be more effective and suggested working within the framework of existing law. Moreover, the adoption of separate legislation on organized crime would only increase the possibility for inconsistencies with the Criminal Code. A related question to defining crime groups is determining who is a member of such groups and what level of legal responsibility they bear for crimes the group commits but in which they were not direct participants. It may be necessary to define different levels of membership and, accordingly, different levels of responsibility. For example, if a crime groups commits a murder, are all members guilty of this murder? Additionally, if group members meet with public officials to coordinate actions, should those public officials also be held criminally responsible for the group's actions? The crime groups have concrete goals of gaining wealth and political power. If governors, for example, faced clear sanctions against working directly with criminals, they would be more careful in their relations, some argued. Applying legal definitions to real world cases is never easy. Yurii Zuev, a judge in the Yaroslavl Oblast court, recalled one of Yaroslavl's most famous crime cases from several years ago involving a gang that killed about two dozen taxi drivers in a crime spree. Since the crimes took place over the course of four days, the court determined that the perpetrators represented an "organized" group. In another case, however, an investigator tried to show that a group was organized because one of its members used a pager. The court did not accept this as evidence of "organization." Oblast judges try to follow the general course as they perceive it as being defined in Moscow. However, since there are many different opinions at the federal level, oblast judges often find their decisions overturned. Amendments adopted to the Criminal Code in December 2003 have proven to be controversial. Among other things, these amendments removed the state's capacity to confiscate property from convicts and replaced this penalty with fines up to one million rubles, even if the profit from the crime was much higher. Speakers such as Maksim Feoktistov, deputy dean of the Kuban State University Law Department, thought such a change would allow criminals to get away with their gains. On the other hand, Lopashenko backed these changes, pointing out that judges rarely confiscated property in the past, or were unable to enforce property confiscation sanctions if adopted, even though the crime rate was rapidly growing. She argued that the change merely brought the law into line with de facto practices. Yaroslavl has ten functioning organized crime groups, according to deputy head of the department for combating organized crime in the oblast Vladimir Glazkov. There has not been a major crime case in the region for about three years, though in 2002 there were about 70 crimes of an organized character registered. Most of the crimes are connected to the energy sector or the production of illegal alcohol. Glazkov pointed out that the battle against crime requires strong political will. He noted that earlier there had been a lot of pressure to remove the region's thieves-in-law (vory v zakone), Russia's recognized crime leaders, but that now that pressure did not exist. Currently there is one vor v zakone in the region, but the authorities do not move against him because they believe that he does a good job keeping the situation under control and maintains a form of order. Removing him would be risky because it might lead to the rise of a more energetic or cruel crime boss. Generally, the organized crime groups gained most of their initial capital in the privatization and economic chaos of the early 1990s. Now these people own their own businesses, such as casinos, or buy stock in local enterprises, where they work as directors. In effect, many of them have legalized their capital and now function in the regular economy, for example joining the boards of legitimate businesses. These practices raise new questions, such as whether the organized crime backgrounds of such investors influence their activities as businessmen and in what ways. Preliminary research suggests that in some cases such ties will influence business activities, but more work needs to be done. The authorities keep tabs on such business activities and particularly investigate bankruptcy battles, to see how such techniques are being employed to gain new assets. Many of Yaroslavl's crime bosses live in Moscow and only visit Yaroslavl occasionally. Essentially, they try to live as publicity-shy aristocrats and seek to avoid conflict with one another. Organized crime groups are increasingly gaining the ability to take over cities and even regions. Tolyatti, the home to Russia's largest and notoriously corrupt automobile manufacturer, is one visible example. But others exist, for example, in small Siberian towns, where thieves in law are often in control. Such criminal-politicians are often popular because they ensure the provision of basic social services, such as the payment of pensions. Removing them can lead to new turf battles and shooting wars. Therefore policies aimed at dealing with organized crime groups must be more sophisticated than simply arresting crime leaders. Removing such figures is not always effective because usually another will appear to fill the vacuum. A more comprehensive solution is needed. - Robert Orttung in Yaroslavl GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS SAKHALIN ELECTS NEW GOVERNOR. Sakhalin Oblast, the resource rich island region on Russia's east coast, lost long-serving Governor Igor Farkhutdinov and much of its political