In this column, I decided to share a story from the Russian criminal world, which recently was brought back to the public's and my attention and shocked me.
Unfortunately, up to these days, organized criminal gangs (OCG), which once were known all over the world as the Russian mafia, remain a rudimental but not least a real parallel universe existing in some distant areas of my home country. Please, don't take this case as a representation of all of Russia, as there are a lot of great people and good things and developments happening there. But the reminder of this ugly crime and a story of a corrupt and compromised system once again attracted my attention to the systematical failures that allow for things like that to occur and fruit. While this particular case is a "scary story from far-away Russia," systems of all kids do rot all over the world, and that's why I wanted to bring this case up.
That criminal story has been happening over the period of about 15 years and came to its culmination and then temporary conclusion about 10 years ago. But recently what was supposed to become history was brought back by brave journalists who decided to dig a bit deeper into what happened and why it still matters.
The Kushchyovskaya massacre (you can Google it for more details) took place when I just was starting as a reporter fresh out of the university. Twelve people, family of a wealthy local farmer, guests and bystanders, including four children were brutally murdered, stabbed to death, shocking the entire country and finally attracting some attention to what was going on in the village of Kushchyovskaya, Krasnodar region of southern Russia (the population of that village was 1,500 short of 30,000 people) for years. That crime highlighted the connections between an organized criminal gang named Tsapki (after the family that brought it together) and corrupt officials.
A decade later people who were silenced in fear for years started talking. Journalist Sasha Sulim conducted an investigation for Redaktsiya, telling a story of a compromised system that allowed for mass rapes, extortions, commandeering of land, murders and other crimes to happen and potentially continue happening.聽聽聽
The story told by quiet witnesses and victims was heartbreaking. The community, paralyzed by fear towards the criminals and assurance that many if not most officials sided with the offenders, for well over a decade was controlled by a small group that created a lawless environment in the village and built its own system inside the system, that benefitted the interests of the "family". Businesses were losing all they had with police standing by; people knew that women were 小蓝视频 raped, but the community just stood by; people would work for the gang knowing that they were slayers, but that was Kushchyovskaya. Everybody knew, but no one could do anything. It took a mass murder to kick off consternation and start resisting.
Most masterminds standing behind this OCG were imprisoned, however, people who suffered from their actions never saw any reimbursement or resolution. Moreover, while the criminal life died down for some time, it seems that it slowly started coming back, as, according to Sulim's investigation, not all of the gang members were imprisoned, but what's more important, people in the government structures that allowed for all that to happen remained in their positions.
The investigation concluded that not only there was no closure for the victims, but the lawlessness also didn't come to an end. The system that has been broken for years remained broken even when most toxic and extremist players were taken out of it. The rotten mechanism wouldn't heal and rather attracted new elements to keep the corruption and degeneration going.
Unfortunately, I'm sure there are many more such villages in Russia, where gangs are law and order, where officials are corrupt and where the system serves a few while making everybody else suffer. Criminal corruption is probably not that often a case in the western world, but corrupt systems exist everywhere. The closed systems are more susceptible to breaking and becoming inadequate. Corruption is like rust that destroys what seemed like the most durable materials.
Unlike individuals, corrupt systems are not that easy to uncover, break and get rid of. It's easier to convict and punish a person than to break and deconstruct a system, that later would need to be rebuilt. In a compromised system people are interconnected by collective responsibility or conspiracy of silence. Power imbalance, fear and shame also play a big role. And when government systems rot, it affects everyone in the society.
It takes an accident, a mistake or a power equal or bigger than the one operating to change a compromised system. While the public's opinion and pressure may start the process, it often takes some bravery to even direct the attention towards the well-known but silenced problem.聽
And unless the abscess is lanced people won't see any improvements.
