Crimebusters Launch Into Action

The minister in charge of the fight against organized crime pledged Friday to launch an all-out nationwide campaign against criminal gangs next week, using special powers granted by President Yeltsin's decree on crime."We were given 10 days to work out the mechanisms. From Monday we go into action," Mikhail Yegorov, first deputy interior minister and head of the ministry's organized crime department, told a press conference. Defending the decree, Yegorov said he had been one of its main initiators and had played a major part in drafting it.Yeltsin issued the decree June 14, granting police sweeping powers to detain suspects for up 30 days, to examine the financial affairs of anyone suspected of organized crime and to search offices and homes without a court order.Sergei Dubinin, acting finance minister, told the Federation Council on Friday that his ministry would propose a special income-tax supplement to pay for the fight against crime.His deputy Vladimir Petrov said those on salaries between 70,000 and 300,000 rubles ($35 and $150) per month would face a levy at the rate of 0.5 percent while higher salaries would be taxed at a maximum rate of 3 percent.Yegorov said the main reason behind his initiative to draw up the decree was the magnitude of the threat from mafia gangs, who were now, he said, extremely well armed."In the past the gangs only had pistols," he said. "But now they have sub-machine guns and explosive devices."At a separate press conference, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, ultra-nationalist leader of the Liberal Democratic party, dismissed what he called the government's "feeble" efforts to restore order in the country and defeat organized crime."The decree could work against the political opposition like in 1937 but it's no use against crime," said Zhirinovsky. He said the only effective way of dealing with organized crime would be to close state borders, establish a national guard and launch a purge against bribe takers in the Interior Ministry.Viktor Veshnyakov, a Zhirinovsky aide who worked out the party's proposals for anti-crime measures, reiterated the line taken on previous occasions by his leader: "Shoot the" mafia "leaders on the spot."Yegorov said the worst regions for crime in the country included Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nakhodka in the Primorsky region.He said police registered 1,500 organized crimes each month, and seized on average 700 firearms and 5 billion rubles. He said there were five or six crime-related bomb attacks every day in the country as a whole.He said his department was working increasingly with foreign agencies to combat the international links in organized crime.Russian television reported Friday that the FBI had opened a special department in New York to fight the Russian mafia and would open an office in Moscow next week to coordinate its efforts with those of the Russian law-enforcement agencies.Another problem that Yegorov mentioned was an increase in the number of incidents involving the taking of hostages. He said there had been 118 such incidents this year in Moscow alone, compared with 16 in the whole of 1993. Of the 134 hostages seized this year, all had been released, while 312 terrorists had been detained, he said, adding that in 1993 four hostages had been killed. Yegorov said the decree would remain in force until the State Duma adopted a new law on dealing with organized crime."We are accused of violating human rights, but the decree will be applied only against organized-crime groups," he said.