Terrorism and Corruption
This was essentially a repeat of an attack that occurred in August 2007. On 5 December 2009, an indoor pyrotechnic display at “The Lame Horse” Night Club in the Urals city of Perm got out of control and the ensuing fire led to at least 120 deaths and an as yet undetermined number of injured, mostly from smoke inhalation.
In both cases the Russian public jumped to the conclusion that these were acts of terror. Adjusting for other circumstances such as the level of enmity directed toward a specific population – Israel, for example, being statistically a chart buster – the opportunities for committing acts of terror are directly related to the reliability and transparency of law enforcement. In a highly reliable and transparent country such as the United States, the United Kingdom or Germany, terrorists must work overtime even for small rewards. In a country with a less reliable and transparent law enforcement infrastructure, terrorists can operate more freely.
The distinguishing factor, as everyone knows, is money. If corruption among the law enforcement organs – including quasi-law enforcement functions such as the customs service – is relatively high, then the opportunities for terrorists to slip through are far higher. Shortly after the horrific Beslan massacre of 2004, local residents interviewed on Russian television commented on the terrorists’ ability to transport so many weapons in a relatively rural, thinly populated region. The sine qua non, of course, was money – the ability to grease the palms of regional and local traffic enforcement. Pay the going rate for freight, and few questions are asked. Who would suspect that this particular shipment was of semi-automatic machine guns and hand grenades instead of watermelons?
Arguments about the percentage of GDP represented by graft in comparison with realistic estimates of the number of innocent lives – not even counting turf wars between the bribers and the bribed – in Russia are beside the point. Corruption is lethal.
In Russia (and not just in Russia), a fire inspector approaches any building within his purview as a cash cow. The point is not so much to enforce fire safety regulations as to extort bribes. The more violations and the longer they remain uncorrected, the greater the inspector’s income. One Russian priest I know, the dean (rector) of his parish church, once described for me his first encounter with a fire inspector. The inspector looked around the church structures and named a figure. The priest protested, of course, shocked that on behalf of his parish he was being shaken down so bluntly. The inspector warned that if he was forced to formalise his alleged fire safety violations in writing “by the book,” the “fines” for such violations would increase exponentially. Better just to pay the inspector’s first demand without protest.
Consider, for a moment, that this was a clergyman representing Russia’s semi-official church. By way of comparison, what treatment could a shop-owner or other entrepreneur possibly expect?
Several days after the lethal night club fire, Prime Minister Putin sacked the fire chief in Perm. This was a necessary but cynical act. With reference to the classic film Casablanca, one could imagine the aggrieved fire chief’s reaction: “I am shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that my inspectors accept bribes.”
This is the core of the problem. The entire bureaucratic infrastructure in Russia is self-serving and corrupt. Shortly after the explosion on the Nevsky Express, one parliamentarian – from the ruling United Russia Party, no less – suggested sacking the entire Interior Ministry (Russia’s federal police structure) and then rehiring only the honest law enforcement officers. In his generous (ludicrous, perhaps) estimate, one-half of Russia’s police force is “honest.” Inevitably, his suggestion was shelved. It was characterised as a misguided “Georgian experiment,” the reference to Russia’s southern neighbour and recent enemy being the kiss of death for such a proposal.
The ultimate playground for terrorists is a failed state – Afghanistan, Somalia, or Sudan. But a highly corrupt country provides sufficiently enticing terrain to operate almost with impunity. And given the level of cynicism among the population in a highly corrupt country, terrorists can also gain “freebies” by credibly claiming credit for disasters that had nothing to do with terrorist acts. Evil twins, indeed.
°C
°C
°C
°C
°C
°C
°C
°C
 |
 |
 | René Kuhn "Zurück zur Frau - Weg mit den Mannsweibern und Vogelscheuchen, ein Tabubruch", Luzern, 2009 |
|---|---|
10.03.2010 | |
| Dieses Buch ist kein Ratgeber aus der pseudo-psychologischen Ecke, sondern eine Streitschrift, welche die Geschlechterbeziehung aus Männersicht... |
| Разместить Poster | Читать Lire |
Cinéfil, un must pour les yeux
De Glinka à Chostakovitch
Neither East nor West
