Putin withdraws Russia from the Convention on Criminal Liability for Corruption. The legalization of criminal racketeering and theft in the occupied territories of Ukraine is only part of the changes in the law that make Russia resemble a mafia state.
Shortly before the end of 2022, Vladimir Putin signed several amendments to the legislation on financial statements and the fight against corruption. On January 9, he sent to the Duma – the lower house of the Russian parliament – a bill denouncing the Convention on Criminal Liability for Bribery and Extortion. There is reason to believe that Putin submitted this new legal regulation to justify his decisions and to try to avoid “unfair” criticism. Russia signed the convention in 1999 and ratified it seven years later. Putin called for the annulment of this treaty act. Russia also terminated its membership in the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), the anti-corruption body of the Council of Europe. The Kremlin claims that its continued presence in GRECO makes no sense since Russia is no longer a member state of the Council of Europe following its military attack on Ukraine.
The Russian Federation has recently relaxed the rules controlling the illegal income of civil servants and uniformed officers. The cancellation of the responsibility of officials to fully disclose their assets during the war is an example of the relaxation of the directive. Putin’s new legislative decree exempted the Russian military and administrators operating in the occupied territories of Ukraine from the obligation to submit income statements. It is worth noting that Russian documents still refer to the war as a “special military operation. Indeed. The latest mandate proposal is the recognition and acceptance by the Russian state of corruption and illegal income, including theft of Ukrainian property and ordinary theft.
Robbery in the light of the law
In terms of corruption and its perception, in 2021 Transparency International ranked Russia 136th out of 180 countries. No European country was ranked lower. The rating for 2022 is not yet ready. The war waged by Russia has affected the already poor integrity of state institutions and transparency in business.
The authorities have launched a campaign of breaking the law and legalizing corruption and robbery to encourage participation in the war. Russia’s withdrawal from international institutions is a strategic move. These organizations monitored corruption processes and tried to influence lawmaking methods. For a long time, the Kremlin hid all the financial and income data of the administration from the public. The Russian authorities considered criticism of corruption and the disclosure of the huge assets of top officials, including details of the pattern of transferring billions of dollars abroad, as attacks on the state.
Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and international investigative journalism groups reported on criminal deals. The Kremlin called it an element of the Western disinformation war. Even a kind of diversion. The war made Putin drop the facade. The Kremlin administration began to treat information about illicitly accumulated wealth as a state secret. And it gave the green light to military personnel and officials to continue plundering the occupied Ukrainian territories.
Images of Russian soldiers carrying away TV sets and washing machines stolen from Ukrainian homes were shocking even in the early days of the war. In Russia, such spoils of war are considered an ordinary military privilege. The officers and staff of the units organized transports of looted goods. But these were petty thieves.
As usual, people with connections to the ruling authorities got the biggest share of the war booty. The Russians looted several million tons (probably more than 6 million) of wheat in Ukraine. The stolen and exported grain amounted to one billion dollars. The companies associated with Tkachov cashed in and profited from this illegal business. The company “Agrocomplex”, owned by Alexander Tkachov, became a real estate tycoon, owning 160,000 hectares of Ukrainian land. The tycoon was governor of the Krasnodar region and organized the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi for Putin. He was also minister of agriculture and the most powerful oligarch in southern Russia.
Another person close to Putin who deserves special attention and has earned substantial income is Yevgeny Prigozhin. His mercenary companies, popularly known as “Wagnerians,” are already a sizable private army. The Kremlin has given him much leeway in recruiting mercenaries from prisons. Convicts, as a reward for their participation in the war, are free and have unsupervised opportunities to commit criminal acts.
“Do not drink too much, do not take drugs, do not rape women,” said Prigozhin during a meeting with recruited in prison mercenaries during a visit to the front.
Prigozhin’s motives equal the fate of death for his subordinates. The White House pointed out that easily accomplished robberies also drove Prigozhin’s obsession with Bakhmut, the Donbas city that is the most frequently attacked place on the front by the Russians. One of the officials, a source quoted by Reuters, stated that a close associate of Vladimir Putin, the founder of the Wagner Group, is eager to take control of the gypsum mines near the city.
The fact that the Russian media writes well about this army of criminals and quotes the macabre ‘advice’ of its owner says a lot about where Russia is heading. These jailbirds are dying on the front lines because of the ‘business’ intentions and political agenda of their employer.
Stolen Avatar
In January, Putin signed strange-sounding amendments to the Law on Drugs and Psychoactive Substances. This amendment allowed the military participating in combat to collect, transport, and use psychoactive drugs, which are banned in Russia and carry severe penalties for possession. Criminalization within the army itself is already systematic and legally sanctioned.
The official explanation is that this is to make these drugs easily accessible to the military. However, the presidential decree gives the army a loophole to abuse psychoactive substances for various purposes. Amphetamines are commonly used to reduce fatigue. Military personnel have administered a range of drugs to conduct interrogations and make money from drug trafficking. This is a daily reality of war. The war has allowed Putin to gradually dismantle the various moral and legal safeguards that are the foundation of modern civilization. He has completely lost his moral backbone. The authorities also allowed piracy and copyright violations as part of the fight against sanctions.
Most cinemas in Russia have already started to show the world blockbuster Avatar 2. If you want to see the 3D version of the movie, you have to go to Krasnoyarsk. Somehow, only this local cinema has received a 3D copy. The film is being shown illegally in Russia.
Disney, the film’s distributor, did not agree to screen the film in Russia under the sanctions. And yet the state media assures that Russian cinemas, especially in small towns and provinces, play good copies. The pirated ones. The authorities privilege such activities. All over the world, the government prosecutes such business habits as a crime of theft. Russia has a double standard.
The same applies to software for companies and institutions. There is an ongoing discussion about legalizing pirated copies of computer programs. Officials turn a blind eye to the illegal software trade, which is the “so-called” – import exemption. It means a significant liberalization of the rules for imports from abroad. The market needs to replenish the supply of sanctioned products that are in high demand in Russia. The availability of these goods is low because the manufacturers have decided to stop their distribution.
Recently, the import of Jagermeister herbal liqueur and Jameson Irish whiskey has been guaranteed. The list of exclusions is very long. There are alcohol and luxury brands, car parts, medicines, computer programs and film studios. In practice, this means legalization of items smuggled through third countries and consent to piracy.
Some Russian companies took the state’s removal of legal barriers seriously. The “Kristall” distillery from Kaluga began to produce a liqueur deceptively similar to Jagermeister under the names Alter Heiler and Konig Heiler. The German liqueur company is not giving up and is threatening to sue the Russians in an international court for counterfeiting the alcoholic beverage.
The legal road will undoubtedly be long, and it remains to be seen whether it will be successful. The country Putin rules has made a 180-degree turn from the nationally acceptable legal and moral norm. It’s as if Russia kicked over the table and decided it no longer wanted to play by the rules everyone else respected. Can shady deals, corruption, and theft ever be sanctioned by the Kremlin establishment? I do not think so. A mafia bubble! Putin lives in a world that is completely divorced from reality.
Michał Kacewicz/belsat.eu
The opinions and thoughts expressed in this text are solely those of the author.
The opinions and thoughts expressed in the text reflect only the author's views.
