Are U.S and Russia Really Cooperating Against Crime?

News Max ^ | June 20, 2002 | Col. Stanislav Lunev

[Ivan the Terrible]

Many American politicians are talking about new and "historical" post-Cold War changes in the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. For example, they praise Moscow for its cooperation and support for the war on international terrorism. It’s hard to find anything new in these remarks because since the demise of the Berlin Wall, hardly a year has passed without pronouncements being made about how the Cold War is finally over.

Last week in Moscow, Attorney General John Ashcroft thanked the Russians for their cooperation in the anti-terrorism campaign, saying Russia was a "very important law enforcement partner in the world community." Ashcroft said it while discussing with Russian law enforcement officials ways to boost cooperation between their agencies to fight terrorism and transnational crime, including what they called the growing Afghan drug trade.

There is no doubt, that real (not symbolic as it is now) cooperation from Moscow will play very significant role in the war on terror, but until now Russia’s special services have been providing U.S. law enforcement agencies with very limited intelligence information which simply cannot be useful operationally.

Also it’s very difficult to expect real cooperation with Russian law enforcement agencies in fighting transnational crime because these agencies cannot fulfil their primary mission – to destroy Russia’s organized criminal activity. However, the crime situation in Russia is so dangerous that Kremlin leaders do not have any other choice but to recognize it officially.

Even President Putin, who won election two years ago vowing a "dictatorship of the law," roasted his country’s top cops for failing to stem soaring crime and said corrupt police officers must be chased out of the force. On May 31, Putin told a special Kremlin meeting of law enforcement chiefs that criminals were harassing ordinary Russians in their homes despite the protection of steel doors and iron bars.

According to Putin, "the crime situation is extremely serious. Despite the efforts of the authorities, there has been no tangible movement or visible change." A record 90 percent rise in crime had been recorded since the start of the year in Moscow, in the Pskov region and in other Russian areas.

Putin said he was concerned that organized crime groups were responsible for most serious crime, and revealed that there had also been an increase in muggings. The Russian President also underscored an increase of corruption between law enforcement officials said that unscrupulous officers who "have turned their job into a form of business" should be "rooted out."

Putin’s remarks follow his previous statements about fighting criminal activity in Russia but the situation is getting worse, not better. Moreover, the influence of the Russian Mafia is growing internationally and Western law enforcement agencies are already having serious difficulties in coping with the problem.

As Italian police officials said last week, some 50 people across Europe were arrested and 150 were under investigation as part of a crackdown on international money laundering and the Russian Mafia. Italian authorities coordinated the crackdown, code-name Operation Spiderweb, with French, Swiss and German investigators as well as the FBI. They suspect the criminal groups was trafficking in arms, drugs and people.

"We got our hands on an international organization with a Russian base which has links to European organized crime and in order to reinvest its money used a complex money-laundering web," an Italian police official said. He also revealed that the money originated in Russia and was laundered in the U.S. before being returned to Europe.

In this connection it’s very difficult to propose any kind of effective cooperation between the U.S. and Russian law enforcement agencies in the present or even in the near future. Any cooperation practical and beneficial to both sides can come only after Russian law enforcement agencies improve the crime problem in their country, which doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon.