Re Russia,
This Associated Press report focuses on a worrisome and little noticed series of murders of high ranking Russian defense officials presumably by the Russian Mafia. Why would the Russian Mafia have an interest in air defense? I think the answer is obvious.
Good beginning for a cheap spy novel.
russiajournal.ru
>>>High-profile murders highlight criminalization of arms industry
June 09, 2003 Posted: 20:47 Moscow time (16:47 GMT)
MOSCOW - The murder of a Kremlin-appointed defense industry executive, followed on the same day by the killing of a top official in an affiliated weapons builder, has turned the spotlight on the battle for profits from Russia's multibillion-dollar arms export contracts being waged by the government and the mob.
"This is the most shocking crime of the year," the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets said Monday of the murder of Igor Klimov, the chief of the Almaz-Antei air defense consortium. Before his appointment, Klimov, 41, served as an aide to Viktor Ivanov, a powerful deputy chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin.
Klimov was killed by an unidentified gunman near his apartment in Moscow on Friday. Later that day, Sergei Shchitko, commercial director of the RATEP company, which is part of Klimov's group, was also killed in an apparent contract hit. Police said that the two crimes could be linked, but would not comment on the investigation.
The double murder in Almaz-Antei, which incorporates 46 Russian companies involved in the production of air-defense missiles, including the most powerful S-300s, comes amid a long struggle for control over the group, which has earned up to US$2.5 billion over recent years, according to media estimates.
Although nominally state-owned, many Russian weapons manufacturers have effectively become private ventures run by their managers - some of whom have developed contacts with the underworld - defense analysts and Russian media say.
The Novaya Gazeta newspaper said Monday that many weapons plants developed criminal ties in a struggle for survival after the 1991 Soviet collapse, when once-generous government orders came to a near halt.
"The military industrial complex has been plunged into a deep shadow because of its catastrophic condition," it said.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst, said arms industry executives had long been skimming illegal profits from the trade, which in turn attracted major organized crime groups.
"The weapons industries have become increasingly criminalized," Felgenhauer said. "Enormous illegal revenues have attracted the mob."
Last year, Russia exported $4.8 billion worth of weapons, ranking second in the weapons trade behind the United States.
Felgenhauer said lax controls over the industry have allowed some weapons plants to illegally pocket billions of dollars by selling weapons that were presented as newly built to foreign buyers, but, in fact, were taken from Soviet-era arsenals. False intermediaries have also been used to earn illegal cash, he said.
"Despite being the nominal owner, the state has never seen this money," Felgenhauer said in a telephone interview.
Putin has sought to tighten control over the defense industry by ordering the creation of large government holdings such as Almaz-Antei, under close supervision of his administration. But the reform has proceeded with difficulty amid heated battles involving officials and company management.
Klimov, an outsider in the business, was brought in by the Kremlin in February as part of the effort to enforce tighter state control and increase revenues. He initiated criminal probes against managers of several companies included in the consortium, including RATEP.
"He broke many corruption schemes and pushed hundreds of people away from their feeding trough - bankers, ministers, bandits," Moskovsky Komsomolets said.
The Associated Press
High-profile murders highlight |
