Posted on 07/01/2015 4:26:25 AM PDT by elhombrelibre
(Reuters) Vladimir Putin with Jose Maria Aznar, then Spain's prime minister, at Moncloa Palace on June 13, 2000.
One of Russia's largest organized-crime syndicates allegedly operated out of Spain for more than a decade with the help of close allies of President Vladimir Putin, then the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Bloomberg reports.
Prosecutors in Madrid have filed a 488-page petition to charge 27 people with money laundering and fraud in connection to the St. Petersburg-based Tambov crime syndicate's setting up shop in Spain in 1996.
Vladislav Reznik, now the deputy head of the finance committee in Russia's lower house of parliament and a member of the Putin-aligned United Russia Party, faces charges accusing him of giving allies of the criminal organization's alleged leader, Gennady Petrov, positions in the Russian government in exchange for a share of the organization's assets.
"The criminal organization headed by Petrov managed to achieve a clear penetration of the state structures in [Russia], not only with the lawmaker Reznik but with several ministers," the Spanish prosecutors said
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I read one story that even a lot of small businessmen go to jail there.
“Russia has more than 110,000 people serving time for what the state calls “economic crimes,” out of a population of about three million self-employed people and owners of small and medium-size businesses.”
http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1026388.shtml
If this is so, obviously, I wouldn’t want to be there despite the bluster we hear.
“MOSCOW: A business owner in Russia has a better chance of ending up in the penal colony system once known as the gulag than a common burglar does.
More than 110,000 people are serving time for what Russia calls “economic crimes,” out of a population of about 3 million self-employed people and owners of small and medium-size businesses. An additional 2500 are in jails awaiting trial for this class of crimes that includes fraud but that can also include embezzlement, counterfeiting and tax evasion.”
Maybe they released them. Odd story.
Putin doesn’t love his country, and evidently, neither do you.
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