WE SHALL GO AFTER THE NEXT BIGGEST GANG…

Over the last few years, many big Russian towns — like St Petersburg, Yekatirenburg or Vladivostok — have been referred to as ganglands, Mob territory, crimes fiefs. Kazan was one of the very first cities to earn these labels early on in the recent history of Russian capitalism. This interview, granted to «Ogoniok» by general Asgat Safarov, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Tatarstan, deals with how the spreading of crime is being fought

Аsgat SAFAROV:

WE SHALL GO AFTER THE NEXT BIGGEST GANG...

«Crime will persist as long as the society has not dealt with its reasons. But we certainly have to contain its spreading. Not long ago no one, not even the criminals themselves thought this was achievable. The very first members of OCG's we brought to trial, till the very end, thought they would get away with it. It was only when they heard their sentences read that the reality of their fate dawned on them: facing 25 years in prison is more than just an unpleasant surprise. Other members of OCG's, those who were still free, got the message, especially after they realized that nothing was happening by accident.»

— General, even though Kazan is not anymore considered as the hotbed of violent crime in the country — which it arguably was for the best part of the past decade — there is still little glory in being known nationwide because of the notorious Kazan Gangs, isn't it?

— Indeed. It hurts even more since this bad reputation was not fully deserved, far from it. This «sickness» was widespread and spared nobody, but unlike others we were bold enough to openly admit that we had it. In 1993, we asked the President and the State Council to pass a law on organized crime. As soon as they did it, we finally got the real means which we had lacked prior to that to take on the organized crime groups — or OCG's — that had already been around for a while. Under this new law, we could at last give the gangs a real tough time.

We could detain anyone suspected of belonging to an OCG for up to 30 days. This practice, by the way, was carefully monitored and, for a while, introduced on a national scale. Now, as soon as all branches of law enforcement — district attorneys, federal security officers and police — started to apply the new law and showed that they meant business, more than a few gangs leaders simply could not stand the heat and had to flee. Most of them went to Moscow and to some other provinces in central Russia.

So we did score quite a few points against organized crime, but by that time the stigma had already stuck. Mostly, I repeat, because unlike so many others we were not in denial and admitted openly that we did have this problem with crime. After all, in the early 1990s, we were the ones who brought to trial the case against 28 members of the biggest OCG of that time — the Tiap Liap Gang. Convicted of armed robbery, two men got death penalty, many others were sentenced to 15 years in jail, the maximum under the law. And because of that, Kazan got this bad image. True enough, we did have some pretty nasty gangs who killed, bombed and kidnapped at will. Eventually, they also got their eyes on the local economy, and the risk of them taking control of our biggest businesses became very real.

Until the year 2000, we were not efficient enough against OCGs. We were never pro-active and only managed to cut off their tails, not their heads. We weren't very good at solving gangland killings: at best, we managed to send to jail the killer himself and his accomplices, we would maybe round up a couple of gang members, but that was it, we never got to their bosses. We did not have any coherent system of counteraction, and that explained many of our shortcomings.

— You obviously lacked any serious experience.

— We did. We were also under pressure from the authorities, especially after article 210 dealing with OCG's was added to the Penal Code; they wanted to see results up front. But one has to understand that OCG's have quite sophisticated structures, that we need time to properly size them up and take appropriate action. Moreover, while armed robbery is a capital crime, under the present Penal Code organized crime is only a serious offence. Yet efforts that we need to deploy to deal with these crimes are considerably bigger.

— Isn't it a lost cause, this battle of yours against OCG's? You take out one, but there is always another, only too eager to fill the void.

— This is certainly a possibility. Like right now, while we are cracking down on a well-established OCG, and the businesses it controlled are therefore left without «protection», we know that some gangs of younger criminals are vying with each other to grab them.

The young ones, by the way, are much less professional — in the things criminal I mean, not general education — than those of the early days. Not that I want to praise these bastards, but thieves, and burglars, and pickpockets used to be real pros, their skills passed on from generation to generation. The only easy crime is a violent one, like mugging or armed robbery. The rest requires a lot of training. But today, nobody bothers to learn; all they care about is to find a weapon and to go for a quick hit. So a mugging becomes easily an armed robbery. And then, there remains only one short step to murder. You just hit a bit too hard, and there you are.

Until recently, only the worst sort of young delinquents, the street-smart scum were careless enough to commit these crimes. Today, there are plenty of students too, including from the prestigious universities of Kazan. This month, a case goes to court against members of an OCG, and their leader, accused of several armed assaults and murders, is a student of law at the university!

We even use a name other than OCG — we call them CGY's, or «criminal groups of youngers». Normally, they are the ones who take over from the «adult» gangs. To prevent them from doing it, is one of our big priorities. To achieve this, criminal police works hand in hand with many other departments of law enforcement and social care.

— But why would young and well-educated people take all these risks?

— They want too much, too soon. They see plenty of what money can buy, in the movies and around them. But they hate to wait, they want their bit of the dolce vita now. They crave a nice drive, their own apartment and summer cottage, a vacation on Canary Islands, and nights at plush clubs. They want to show they've made it, and crime seems to be an easy way to get there. They do it once, and then they get deeper and deeper into it. That's the price we pay for our reforms and our new life.

This is also the source of a widespread corruption. Legal ways of making good money are few, a young man who starts from scratch cannot hope to save enough to buy an apartment any time soon. But people are not willing to wait for ten years, as they did before. So there is more than enough ground for criminal temptation.

In this respect, we are no exception. Even though we manage to pay from our budget for apartments for our officers, at least in Kazan and in some other big towns. This, by the way, is why many people want to join the force. But still, sometimes, our men have to deal with cases worth billions, and they receive offers of pay-offs that are bigger than what a whole squad would receive in wages over a year. All they have to do is to «miss» some leads. The sad fact is that some cannot resist the temptation.

This, though, happens much less with older officers, those who still have the old education and integrity.

— Can one assume, then, that thanks to your vigilance, the big industrial companies of Tatarstan can feel totally secure?

— I think they can. On top of everything else, we now have a special economic task force to provide security for the biggest contributors to the republican and federal budgets: Tatneft, Tatenergo, KamAZ, Tatspirtprom, Nijnekamskneftehim, Tires Factory, Orgsyntez and Tattransgaz. Recently, our biggest brewery, Krasni Vostok, has also been added to this list. Various security measures and procedures are implemented at these companies by joint teams of officers from the Police, the District Attorney's office, the Tax Police and the Federal Security Service. Coordination is done at the highest level: by the Minister of Finance and myself. Our next step now is to gradually extend the same coverage to medium and small businesses.

— Is the protection you offer strong enough? Are you aware of any failures?

— Look at it this way. In 1999, we worked hard with KamAZ, the manufacturer of big trucks. Our President, at the time, was seriously concerned by what was going on there. So we went all the way. We had to cut off from the producer all those small brokers who were simply fronting for the bad guys and bleeding the company. We also had to put an end, in as much as possible, to the widespread production of low quality fake spares which were sold under the trademark of KamAZ, thus hurting the company's reputation.

We thought we got rid of all opposition, but we were wrong. It wasn't that simple. We can't keep a permanent presence there; we simply don't have enough men for that, and so many other things to do. After we left, a few months later, other OCG's showed up probing for opportunities. So eventually we had to go back and start all over again. But this time it was not as bad as before: the OCG's were not as arrogant nor their presence all pervasive, and there was not as much pressure from them on the managers.

When we deal with OCG's our main problem is leaks. To minimize this risk, we now establish four separate task forces against each new OCG. One such unit investigates specific offences and murders and tracks down killers and those who pay them. But it does not have access to files dealing with analytical and business aspects. Another unit will handle exclusively matters concerning that OCG's business related activities. The remaining two units deal with other criminal offences and gather intelligence. The core unit is the analytical group headed by an officer from the district attorneys office, who will eventually support the accusation in court.

— Does this integrated approach pay off? Or is the Mob unbeatable?

— Sad as it is, don't expect this problem to go away completely, not in a year, not in a dozen years. The time for all-forgiveness has not yet come. Crime will persist as long as society has not dealt with its reasons. But we certainly have to contain its spreading. Not long ago no one, not even criminals themselves thought this was achievable. The very first members of OCGs we brought to trial, till the very end, thought they would get away with it. It was only when they heard their sentences read that the reality of their fate dawned on them: facing 25 years in prison is more than just an unpleasant surprise. Other members of OCG's, those who were still free, got the message, especially after they realized that nothing was happening by accident. The media also played their part, providing a lot of coverage and confirming that the clock was on.

Today, we say openly that now we shall go after the next biggest gang. We shall target and crack down on the leading group. I trust this will make them think twice before contesting for leadership.

We do not yet have the potential to eradicate this evil completely. But if government and society join and support us, this will become feasible.

Dmitry AKSENOV