While Russia’s Prosecutor’s Office and the FSB sit idly by, the Japanese are investigating Japanese fishing companies that paid bribes to our officials. "The investigation into four fishing firms that operated in Russia’s exclusive economic zone and paid 500 million yen in bribes to Russian officials is being resumed," Kyodo News reports, citing the minister. Kano did not disclose the specific details of the investigative steps, but it is assumed that the management of the four firms will be questioned again at the beginning of this year. Japanese authorities had already questioned company representatives on December 28. At the time, Kano said he intended to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident. Japanese authorities had earlier fined four Japanese fishing companies — Wakkanai Kaiyo, Kanai Gyogyo, Kaiyo Gyogyo, and Sato Gyogyo — for bribing Russian officials in order to exceed fish catch quotas in Russian waters. Inspectors found that vessels belonging to these companies entered Russia’s exclusive economic zone to catch zander (pike-perch). Tax officials also determined that the firms had been paying Russian officials off the books, outside legal accounting procedures. *The total amount of the bribes is estimated at about 500 million yen (US$6.04 million), paid over three years from 2007 to 2009. The bribes allowed the Japanese companies to catch more fish in waters within Russia’s exclusive economic zone than permitted under the bilateral agreement between Russia and Japan. *///////// The Japanese were paying bribes to our officials. Is that not a threat to the country’s security? Where is the FSB? Where is the SVR (Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service)? Where are those brave men singing “Where the Motherland Begins” (a famous Soviet patriotic song)? Where is the missile cruiser Varyag? Where is the country’s Nuclear Shield? Where is our most fearsome weapon — the deft, skillful judo moves mastered by the Chief Spy?
The photo does not show an employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office, but a zander (pike-perch). Nothing is happening. The first reports appeared on December 26. And those reports said the companies had already been fined. *What’s more, I think there are every reason to assume that only four companies were caught paying bribes. *The others were paying bribes too, but booking them properly in their accounts, so the investigation never touched them. Another вполне reasonable assumption: the local law enforcement agencies, the FSB, and customs were simply getting a cut — and still are. So they have no particular reason to investigate anything. As we well remember from the "Daimler case", the Prosecutor General’s Office traditionally refuses to notice any media reports unless there is outside pressure. They’ll puff out their cheeks and stare out the window. So for now, this is what we have done: Filed an official demand with the Prosecutor General’s Office to open an inquiry based on the media reports and request all necessary case materials from the Japanese side. I asked a Japanese acquaintance I studied with at Yale to make the necessary inquiries in Japan and, more generally, figure out who can help us there in the likely event that the Prosecutor General’s Office starts playing dumb and does not request the documents itself. This could turn into an interesting case.
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