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Politics : Clinton -- doomed & wagging, Japan collapses, Y2K bug, etc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Denice who wrote (161)	9/8/1998 9:14:00 AM
From: SOROS	Respond to of 1151

USA Today - 09/08/98 The Associated Press MOSCOW - Thousands of Russian companies - accounting for about 40% of the country's gross national product - are controlled by criminal groups, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service said Friday. Vladimir Putin also told the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, that the security service is investigating about 2,500 officials suspected of corruption. Some of the businesses tainted by criminality are shell companies, while others are viable and well-run firms. The most common forms of corruption include bribe-taking, smuggling money and resources out of the country, and outright embezzlement. Former soldiers are particularly vulnerable to being drawn into criminal activities, Putin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Although Russian governments have frequently announced anti-corruption campaigns over the years, they have been unable to stem the tide of crime in the economy. Russia's Interior Ministry acknowledged Friday that strengthened ties between criminals and authorities helped drive up Russia's overall crime rate by 4% in the first half of 1998 from the same period last year, the Interfax news agency reported. Corruption has even contributed to the country's economic crisis, Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin said. ''Criminal actions led to the crisis of non-payments in the coal industry,'' Interfax quoted him as saying. ''The same applies to the fuel and energy complex.'' Crime and corruption is often cited by foreign investors as one reason they are reluctant to invest in Russia.