Russia 101027 Basic Political Developments

Baturina’s Lawsuits Rejected

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/baturinas-lawsuits-rejected/421194.html
27 October 2010

Moscow’s Presnensky District Court on Tuesday refused to consider two defamation lawsuits filed by billionaire Yelena Baturina’s Inteko company against NTV television for September reports that linked her and her husband, former Mayor Yury Luzhkov, to corruption, Interfax reported.

The lawsuits should be filed with an arbitration court instead, a court spokesman said. Inteko said it may appeal.

Meanwhile, self-exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky said Tuesday that he was ready to provide financial support to Baturina and Luzhkov should they seek asylum in Britain, where he lives, Interfax said. 

(MT)

Russian mafia boss killed in Sochi

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/russian-mafia-boss-killed-in-sochi-20101027-172lh.html
October 27, 2010 - 3:29AM

AFP

A Russian mafia boss was shot dead on Tuesday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Real estate owner Eduard "Karas" Kakosyan, 31, was gunned down near a gas station in the centre of town a month after another mafia chief and friend was shot and wounded, Interfax reported.

Authorities are searching for two men in connection with the shooting, a police spokesman told AFP.

"The young men left the scene of the crime on a motorcycle," the spokesman said.

According to Russian media, Kakosyan's death appears to be the latest in a series of shootings targeting mafia bosses jostling for a share of the Olympic construction windfall.

Kakosyan was close to one of Russia's top mafia bosses, Aslan Ussoyan, who was shot and wounded in central Moscow in September, Interfax reported.

Ussoyan had clashed with other mafia groups over the division of a commercial empire linked to the construction of buildings for the 2014 games, the Kommersant daily reported.

That empire was allegedly controlled by Zakhar Kalashov, considered the "godfather" of the Russian-Georgian mafia. Kalashov was arrested in Spain and sentenced in June to seven and a half years in prison for money laundering.

Score settling in the grab for Olympic investments also accounted for the murder of yet another Sochi organised crime boss, Alik Sochinsky, who was killed last year in Moscow, according to Russian media.

The future Olympic town has been transformed into a vast construction site, as workers begin erecting more than 100 structures, including a main stadium and an ice-skating ring.

Choc shock as cops raid Moscow factory

http://themoscownews.com/local/20101027/188157784.html?referfrommn
by Andy Potts at 27/10/2010 10:46

Conditions in an illegal chocolate factory give a whole new meaning to the expression “sickly-sweet”.

Police raided the underground confectionary manufacturer in Solnechnogorsk, just outside Moscow, after a tip-off about illegal immigrants working their without proper papers.

But on inspecting the plant they discovered that bogus bureaucracy was the least of the problems as chocolate was prepared in unhygienic conditions using unsafe ingredients, Vesti-Moskva reported.

 

Counterfeit cakes

Some of the raw materials were as much as three years past their recommended use-by dates, according to officials.

And, once the chocolate had been produced it was sold on to bakers for use in cakes, cookies and icing – finding its way into Moscow’s shops.

A criminal case has been opened and the factory bosses could face a 300,000 rouble fine or up to two years in jail.

 

Fake foods

Almost half of the food sold in Moscow is counterfeit or countraband, according to 2008 figures from federal health and safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor.

The most common fakes are vegetable oil and butter, condensed milk, tea, coffee, water, canned meat, honey and confectionary.

A recent raid on The Yakhroma bakery found staff were fiddling the production dates to give their loaves a longer shelf life, Newsmsk reported.

Lost generation: Russia tops youth crime table

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-10-27/russia-youth-crime-rate.html/print

27 October, 2010, 09:56

Ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest rate of youth crime in Europe, Russia is faced with the tough task of rehabilitating its young people and improving the statistics.

“Please show us on this doll where exactly you stabbed him with the knife," a police officer asks a teenager in a crime reconstruction video.

The boy points to the head of the dummy and says he stabbed the victim “roughly seven or ten times." Along with his gang, he carried out a brutal murder, and is now heading to one of Russia’s 62 young offenders’ institutions.

Already being held in one such institution is Oleg Rozanov. He has so far served more than half of his sentence for committing a racial murder. He was a 15-year-old skinhead when he and his friends attacked a foreign looking youth.

"I saw the guy's knife lying next to him,” Oleg recalls. “I suddenly thought: ‘he must have been using this knife to kill Russians.’ I stabbed him twice and then passed it to my three friends who each knifed him."

Stabbings account for almost half of the homicides carried out by youngsters in the European and Central Asian region, according to the report by the World Health Organization. It is the first comprehensive study published in Europe on the subject. It puts Russia top of the table, with the highest rate of violence among the surveyed age group of 10 to 29-year-olds.

Those who deal with young offenders in Russia, say they are not surprised by the country’s ranking.

"A change in psychology, morale and moral values – all this contributes to an extremely high crime rate whipped up by the activities of religious sects,” says Mikhail Vinogradov, head of the Center for Legal and Psychological Assistance in Emergency Situations.

He adds that media and “its stories full of blood” are also to blame for the violence.

Young people become both the victims and perpetrators of the violence, often caused by reasons rooted in childhood.

Sergey Popkov, head of a juvenile correctional facility in Mozhaisk, says a lack of parental love and attention eventually lead to the problem.

"We, grown-ups, parents, are often too busy earning our living. Maybe we should simply love our children,” Mr. Popkov suggests. “The main reason behind those crimes is the absence of parental love. We remember our kids when they are already behind bars, and that is the last place they should be."

Approximately 5,700 minors are currently serving prison terms in Russia. The majority of them come from a one-parent family or children’s homes.

Police say about 80 per cent of serious juvenile crimes take place in the evening or at night when children are supposed to be looked after by their parents. However, in reality many often end up on the streets searching for their own entertainment, which often includes drinking alcohol – a factor that has been fueling youth crime in Russia.

Russian authorities, however, claim the situation among minors is now slowly improving.

"We should be careful when talking of youth crimes,” said Colonel Elena Novolitseva, from the Public Safety Department. “There are minors or those who have not reached the age of 18, and youths, who are up to 30 years old. [The latter] entails a whole different spectrum of crimes. I am dealing with the underage crowd. And in the past five years I have seen a considerable drop in the crime rate."

Meanwhile, as many young people who are serving sentences hope to be able to remain crime-free in the future, it may be down to those on the other side of the barbed wire to ensure they do not become another lost generation.