Net capital outflow from Russia in the first quarter (!) of 2013 reached $25.8 billion. For all of 2012, $57 billion was taken out of Russia. Of course, not all of that amount consists of criminal or illegal transactions, but the Bank of Russia officially classified $35 billion of those $57 billion as "dubious transactions." If you remember, I wrote a post about the interview with the head of the Bank of Russia, in which he gave these figures and also stated that "dubious transactions" are linked to drugs, kickbacks, tax evasion, etc. in his view, a significant share of these "dubious transactions" is controlled by an organized group of individuals. As a responsible, law-abiding citizen, after reading that interview I shouted "Alarm, alarm!" and wrote to the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor's Office, and the Interior Ministry, asking them to verify the published information. Here are the responses:
Not only did they fail to open a criminal case, they even refused to conduct a review. There is no information, no indication, nothing contained that would warrant verification. So, the statement of the person in Russia best informed about banking operations (I quote): This may be payment for shipments of narcotics or other goods prohibited from being imported into Russia. It may be payment for gray-market imports. Such transactions fall under the current account of the balance of payments. These purposes may include bribes and kickbacks to officials, with the money ultimately transferred to foreign bank accounts under their control. It may also involve kickbacks to procurement managers in large private companies with ineffective internal controls. It may be tax evasion schemes. ... I estimate the damage to the budget system from such transactions at about 30% of the volume of dubious transactions—around 450 billion rubles a year. If we add domestic cash-out operations organized by the same people, I think the total damage to the budget system exceeds 600 billion rubles a year. ... as our analysis shows, more than half of the total volume of dubious transactions is carried out by firms directly or indirectly linked to one another through payment relationships. It creates the impression that all of them are controlled by one well-organized group of individuals contains not the slightest information indicating a crime. Absolutely none. None at all. Wonderful.
This is exactly what I mean when I say that the current government is anti-Russian, anti-national, and effectively an occupying power. These people do not merely refuse to defend Russia's national interests—they do everything they can to ensure that those who harm the country live as comfortably as possible. So that nothing is ever found where it ought to be found. And conversely, wherever people are fighting for the interests of the public and the country, everything must be found there. Yesterday, Coordination Council member Alexei Gaskarov was arrested:
It turns out he, too, was supposedly "leading the riots on Bolotnaya Square" (site of the 2012 protest crackdown in Moscow). And yet everything supported by objective evidence shows that if Gaskarov was involved in any incident on Bolotnaya Square, then that incident consisted of an OMON riot policeman kicking him in the face for no reason, after which the police refused to consider Gaskarov's complaint: nothing was found. Gaskarov went out into the street to defend his own rights and those of his people—and suddenly there were operatives, investigators, prosecutors, and judges for him. Crooks siphon $35 billion a year out of the country through illegal transactions—and nothing is found, and there is no one to check and no reason to do so. That is why we must take to the streets on May 6, and then keep coming out as many times as necessary. Because we do see something in the annual carving away of our $35 billion, and in the normal actions of an honest person—we do not. We cannot stay silent. Our silence will only mean longer prison terms for all the Gaskarovs, while roads/construction projects/Olympics spending keeps soaring at record rates, and teachers, instead of teaching, will be busy "preventing students' protest activity."
Yandex Money wallet for collecting funds to hold the rally ("Romanova's wallet"): 410011232431933 P.S. We will, of course, appeal the refusals by the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor's Office in court, and we will also demand that the new head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, formally обратиться to law enforcement regarding the facts disclosed by Ignatyev.