Organised Crime Raises Its Head

The shocking shooting of first deputy chairman of the central bank, Andrei Kozlov in September, apparently in a contract killing linked to his efforts to clean up Russia's banking sector, has revealed that organised crime is still very much present in the country, despite having receded from the headlines since the unlawful 1990s. Combined with the admission of leading officials, including President Putin, that corruption is the largest problem facing the economy, the incident could help establish law and order as a key election issue in 2008. Rather than attempting a wholesale onslaught on the problem, however, we would expect

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