NCJ Number
194823
Journal
The British Journal of Criminology Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2002 Pages: 21-39
Date Published
2002
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Relying on the results of a research project commissioned by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, this study reconstructed the development of the illegal drug market in post-Soviet Russia.
Abstract
In 1999 the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (MPI) was entrusted with a research project by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention to reconstruct the evolution of illegal drug use and trade in post-Soviet Russia. During the course of the project, beginning in October 1999, information was collected from a plurality of primary and secondary sources in nine different cities and regions of the Russian Federation. A total of 90 indepth interviews with key observers (law enforcement officials, drug-treatment providers, members of relevant nongovernmental agencies, and journalists) were conducted in different parts of the Russian Federation; and 30 indepth interviews were conducted with drug users in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In addition, the MPI research team analyzed 50 criminal cases, as well as all relevant statistics, the Russian and international secondary literature, and topical articles published in the Russian press. In reconstructing the development of the illegal drug market in Russia, this study focused on the demand, the quantitative and geographical expansion of the market and the diversification of the supply, and the organization of drug exchanges in Russian cities. Drug production and wholesale trafficking were also analyzed. A separate section of this report focuses on traffickers and dealers. The study concluded that the consumption of and trafficking in illegal drugs in Russia was not distinctive, since virtually all developed and developing countries of the world manifest this; however, Russia's anomaly lies in the inextricable intertwinement of the legal and illegal sections of the economy. The illegal drug trade still represents a relatively small part of the booming Russian illegal and semi-legal economy and is far from being the primary source of revenue for Russian organized crime. Although drug trafficking has great potential for growth, the largest fortunes in Russia are still being made in the extensive "gray area," where distinctions between the legal and illegal economy are blurred. 56 references