You are expanding NATO because 100,000 people were killed in Chechnya,
because we have an unpredictable leadership, because we have
corruption,
because there are enormous failures in economic reform. You should say
so openly.
I know that an enormous amount of time and money has been spent by the
[U.S.]
government, by the private sector, by foundations and universities in
promoting the
myth that Russia has achieved democracy. It would take great courage to
admit that
the taxpayers’ money was wasted. But it is always better to be honest.
—Grigory Yavlinsky,
economist and leader
of the liberal Yabloko party,
June 8, 1997,
as quoted in the New York Times Magazine
Background
On June 13, 1996 the U.S. tobacco firm Philip Morris
announced that it had evacuated two Moscow-based British staff after they
received threats from criminal figures. This is the first time that a Western
company has publicly acknowledged taking such a step in response to criminal
pressure.
The same day, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov told a
government meeting that more than 9,000 criminal gangs are now operating in
Russia, employing around 100,000 people. In 1996, 21,000 crimes were identified
as having an organized crime component. Particularly disturbing was the rise in
crime-related explosions, of which there were 886 in 1996, up from just 18 in
1994. Last year's blasts killed 141 people and wounded 553. Kulikov told
journalists that "On the broadest possible level, organized crime is
infiltrating different organs of state power and the forces of law and order,
including the police and the judicial system.''
The number of contract killings in Russia rose from about
120 in 1992 to 600 in 1996, of which only around 10 percent have been solved.
An estimated 46 percent of the victims were businessmen and 38 percent
criminals. The high proportion of successful attacks and the low proportion of
crimes that are solved testifies to the professionalism of the assassins. Many
of the "killers" are thought to be former soldiers and KGB
operatives. Unfortunately, the bodyguards are less efficient than the
assassins. There are almost no recorded cases of bodyguards successfully
fending off an attack, and in many cases bodyguards have died alongside the
target victims.
Itar-Tass Hoax
Considering the criminal background in Russia in 1996, the
following April 1st hoax was accepted by many as the real
announcement, with no second thought.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported
that a military factory had begun manufacturing diamond-encrusted grenades,
which it was selling to Russian gangsters who might be concerned that they
could not only live glamorously but also "die luxuriously as well."
The article noted, "The use of such a grenade will leave your one-time
rival in a sea of beautiful sparkling gems rather than in a pool of
blood."
You would be surprised, but the agency got numerous phone
calls from perspective customers, demanding the contact details of the
manufacturer, and offered substantial rewards for revealing such secret
information.
Sources and Additional
Information:
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