FBI agents were in Moscow last week asking for their colleagues’ help in hunting a Russian man they suspect is the leader of Russian crime syndicates in the US, as well as three other suspected criminals, reported the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta last week.
The FBI believes that Konstantin Ginzburg, 37, heads an American consortium of criminal gangs from the former Soviet Union. According to the paper, the FBI was trying to find out more about Ginzburg and the possible threat he poses to the US.
Another target, an Interior Ministry source told the paper, is Yevgeny Dvoskin, who managed to be arrested 15 times in the 11 years he lived in the US. He was deported to Russia in 2001 and is apparently now being investigated for what the Interior Ministry source called “shady banking business.” Dvoskin, a Ukrainian, was arrested last year in Monaco. The paper reported that he is a witness in a large money-laundering case.
The other men are Viktor Vulf, who media reports say is wanted for real estate fraud in Florida, and Alexander Gribov, who was linked to a fake mail-order pharmacy that claimed insurance payments in two US states for treatments that never took place.
Russia: Corrpution Check Ordered
In other Russia news last week, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the prosecutor general’s office to check for corruption among all supervisory agencies, particularly in procedures for issuing permits. Unfortunately, a new poll suggests that Russians are fatalistic at best about the pervasiveness of corruption in the country: 58 percent of Russians recently polled by a public research firm said it was impossible to fight corruption.
Bulgaria: Galev Bros Plan Run for Parliament
Two Bulgarian men that the press refer to as “notorious businessmen” plan to run for parliament as independent candidates in Bulgaria’s general elections this summer, reports the Sofia News Agency. While ordinarily such news would just be another dispatch from the criminal-political nexus, in this case, the two men have been in jail for the past five months on charges of establishing and leading an organized crime group, as well as racketeering.
The names of Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov, colloquially known as the Galev Brothers, first came to prominence last year, when it was leaked to the press that then-interior minister Rumen Petkov had met with them while they were being investigated for organized crime. The scandal that ensued prompted Petkov to resign.
Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor slammed the parliamentary bids, saying the men were just looking to evade justice, as Bulgarian members of parliament are immune from prosecutions.
Bulgaria: More EU Concerns
In Brussels, members of the European Parliament said last week that they want new reports on how Bulgaria and its neighbor Romania are managing EU funds, and they want them by July 15.
Expressing "serious concern" over the financial interests of EU taxpayers, the parliament requested "zero tolerance" in cases of misuse of EU money, fraud and corruption.
The commission last year avoided publicly linking a decision to freeze €500 million of EU money for Bulgaria and €142 million for Romania with justice reforms, even though the moves came amid fears of feeding organised crime and corruption.
But in a document sent by the EU executive to parliament on 8 April, the commission stated that "releasing funds is of course dependent on the evolution of the legislative and judiciary environment and on the progress on the specific action plans."
Commission spokesman Mark Gray on Thursday declined to say if the executive will take up parliament's request for special reports.
Azerbaijan Official: Separatists Give Haven to OC
Azerbaijan’s “uncontrolled territories” are alarming hubs for organized crime, the country’s deputy prime minister told the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the Azeri capital Baku last week.
Abid Sharifov told the group that separatists in Azerbaijan were fomenting organized crime in the regions they control. Sharifov was undoubtedly referring to the central region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan hasn’t controlled since a war more than 20 years ago. Here’s some background from the Guardian:
After a bitter war during the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenian forces occupied the mountainous region within Azerbaijan with the intention of protecting ethnic Armenians in the area. The simmering stalemate pits Armenian Christians against Azerbaijani Muslims, with several lives lost on either side every year. But why should an obscure ethno-religious conflict concern us, and why is today's meeting more significant than the numerous failed negotiation attempts of the past 20 years?
Nagorno-Karabakh is a so-called "frozen conflict", meaning that large-scale fighting has not occurred for years, but no progress has been made towards any resolution of the always tense and often violent situation. Armenian forces and their local militia allies control seven "buffer" territories around the disputed region. Karabakh itself claims to be an independent state, but could never survive without Armenian protection and economic aid. All eight areas are internationally recognised parts of Azerbaijan.
Frozen-conflict areas have traditionally been bonanzas for organized crime – with weak government and lax border controls, the smuggling of arms, drugs and people can continue apace. Though the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan this week announced they would hold new talks on Nogorno-Karabakh, it’s unclear how the new talks could upset a status quo that’s been around since 1994.
Serbia: Dacic Says No One’s Above the Law; Two Bodies Found
No one who’s suspected of organized crime or corruption in Serbia will be able to use his or her position or privileges to shake charges or investigations, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told the press last week. This is nothing new – Dacic has been talking like this for months – but what was new was Dacic’s recent denunciation of Serbia’s new laws that regulate political party financing as “demagoguery.”
"Many are afraid of becoming legal donors or sponsors to some parties in Serbia, although it is normal and customary elsewhere in the world, because they fear political retaliation from other parties should the one they support fail to win," explained Dačić.
For this reason, there is "this black market", continued the minister, and mentioned another phenomenon: some businessmen are helping all parties, "in order to secure their position in advance".
So cry a river of tears for the Serbian businessmen who have to donate to several parties rather than just one. But laugh at the Serbian political leaders who are trying to wiggle their parties out of having to make donors’ names public: President Boris Tadic’s party has published its list of sponsors on its website, but some are concerned that the list is incomplete because it contains only unknown names and small provincial companies. A small opposition party refuses to publish its list on its website, citing security concerns. And the nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) says there’s no need to publish its list, because anyone who wants to look at it can file a freedom-of-information request with the government. (Particularly amusing in a government that’s as transparent as a brick of concrete. Click here and then look at the graph that appears on the bottom of page 129 to get an idea.)
Meanwhile, two charred bodies were found in a burned-out jeep in a Belgrade suburb last week. Police sources told B92 that the two men were likely murdered before their bodies were burned, that the two had criminal records and that the fight for control over the drug market was the likely motive for their murders.