Russian Organized Crime and Local Government
During the chaotic years following the fall of the Soviet Union, organized crime expanded rapidly as the country transitioned to a market economy. In many cases, criminal organizations stepped into the power vacuum, providing "services" such as protection and dispute resolution that were previously provided by the state. In some cases, these groups formed symbiotic relationships with new business interests and regional governments, providing them with protection and "law enforcement" services in return for a share of the profits or political favors.
While the Russian government has taken steps to combat organized crime, these groups have proven resilient and have sometimes used their wealth and power to infiltrate regional and local governments. This can involve everything from simple bribery of officials to more complex schemes like running their own candidates for office. Once they have a foothold in government, these organizations can use their power to protect their interests, impede investigations, or otherwise influence policy. The situation can vary significantly from one oblast to another, with some regions seeing more infiltration than others. Furthermore, over time, Russian authorities have been making efforts to suppress the activities of organized crime and their influence over regional governments.
Symbiosis is the interaction and coexistence of different biological species. If in this definition “biological” is replaced by “social”, then it becomes clear that the symbiosis that will be discussed is the interaction and coexistence of different social types: elected authorities and organized crime, parasitizing on the emerging organism of Russian civil society. The basis of their interaction and coexistence is corrupt relationships, and the goal is the longest possible and comfortable functioning in the optimal mode for them. The criminalization of representative, executive and local government bodies by merging with organized crime continues. During the entire post-Soviet period, organized crime has been striving to legalize, move into the sphere of legal economic activity. To do this, it takes active measures to remove legislative barriers, as well as to create the most favored nation regime for stable profits and super profits from its illegal activities.
The expansion of the shadow sector of the economy, the growth of the capital of criminal structures inevitably exacerbates the need for political protection of their specific economic interests, pushing their owners to struggle for power, which serves for them not only as a “roof” for illegal manipulations, but also allows them to influence the adoption of managerial decisions that are beneficial criminal community. In the legislative bodies of the Oblasdts [regional constituent entities of the Russian Federation] competent apparatchiks work for legally illiterate deputies in the interests of those who pay them.
Corruption of representative and executive bodies of state power and local self-government bodies is laid down already at the stage of elections. Mafia structures do not skimp on the financial support of "independent" (until recently) and "party" nominees. It is often practiced here to replenish election funds through figureheads - “donors”, allegedly voluntary transfer of money from the accounts of controlled and “protected” commercial firms, and other forms of establishing the financial dependence of candidates on organized crime.
Criminal structures track such facts, including through corrupt employees of the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, collect dirt on businessmen in order to blackmail them, incline them to closer cooperation, including laundering "dirty" money received from the "gray , penumbral" economy, as well as from the trade in drugs, contraband and counterfeit goods, pornography, etc.
It is well known that organized crime is impossible without corruption in government. Therr is an indivisible merged conglomerate of thieves in law, oligarchs, representatives of authorities and law enforcement agencies. That is, officials are a "roof" for criminal communities. And those feel themselves unpunished, having influential patrons in the regional and federal power structures. Despite the motley composition of the participants in criminal formations and the heterogeneous sphere of their criminal interests, all of them, in their content, have common features characteristic of organized crime, such as stability, cohesion, hierarchical structure, corruption component, making super profits. Along with traditional ordinary crimes, members of organized crime groups actively invaded the economic, financial and credit sphere - they exerted force, up to the murders of directors of large industrial and commercial enterprises. This is an economic racket, and a raider takeover, and fraudulent crimes. They didn't have to personally become the authorities, they bought the representatives of the authorities.
The head of the regional executive power has the right to initiate legislation, approve and reject adopted laws, agree on candidates for the heads of law enforcement agencies (Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB, FCS, Federal Tax Service, Federal Drug Control Service, prosecutors, judicial authorities). He can influence the formation, distribution and spending of the regional budget, not to mention the appointment of those people who supported his candidacy to a number of profitable, "bread" positions.
The President of the republic that is part of the Russian Federation, the head of its government, the governor, the head of the regional administration, and the authorities of the Autonomous Okrug have almost unlimited power on their territory (the powers of the President of the country are significantly limited here, although they tend to expand), so they can easily create in their “patrimony” for shadow capital and organized crime not only the most favored nation regime, but also a reliable "roof" from "attacks" by the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Drug Control Service, the Federal Tax Service, the prosecutor's office, to influence the judicial decisions taken against their functionaries and structures in the direction of their mitigation.
In the executive branch, the emergence of corrupt ties with representatives of shadow capital and organized crime was clearly inevitable. It is almost impossible not to acquire them in four (five) years of managing a region or a large city, especially during times of change, which for Russia was the final decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century.
The electoral legislation does not contain provisions that create a reliable barrier to the penetration of criminal elements into power structures, despite the fact that in recent years the aspirations of criminal elements to power have acquired the character of a stable trend. Organized crime's attempts to infiltrate power structures are most widespread in elections to local authorities. Along with supporting some candidates for elected positions, organized crime groups are already nominating candidates directly from their ranks. At the same time, their interest in acquiring positions in both executive and legislative authorities is quite obvious.
In recent years, not a single election campaign for the legislative bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation has been carried out without the participation of candidates from among representatives of organized crime. Criminal structures are making serious efforts to promote their people to the deputy corps of various levels.
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