Russia Black Market Value: $27.75 Billion

World Average: $15.54 Billion

Click on the market value to see source.

   




Data on Russia


Drug addicts in Russia

There were an estimated 5 million drug addicts in Russia in 2010, with half of all addicts addicted to heroin.

Heroin causes at least 30,000 deaths per year in Russia.

Source: Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, “Russia blames Nato for heroin surge from Afghanistan,” BBC News, February 27, 2010.

Police corruption leads to unsolved crimes in Russia

Filed under: Europe, Financial Crime

Russia President Dmitry Medvedev stated that police corruption and incompetence lead to 760,000 theft cases, 124,000 burglaries and over 2,000 murders or attempted murders to all go unsolved each year.

Source:  AFP, “Medvedev orders crackdown on Russian police corruption,” Google News, February 18, 2010.

Percentage of stores in Russia selling pirated copies of Windows

In 2009, one-quarter of all stores selling software in Russia were selling pirated copies of Windows, according to Microsoft.

Source:  Associated Press, “Microsoft: Pirated software still in Russian shops,” San Jose Mercury News, February 8, 2010.

$1 Billion of Russian made cigarettes smuggled into Europe

Filed under: Europe, Vice

$1 Billion worth of “Jin Ling”, a Russian-made cigarettes that is only sold on the black market, is smuggled into Europe each year.

The illegal factories in Russia making cigarettes to be smuggled are able to produce up to 24 billion cigarettes annually, equal to 7 percent of the EU’s legal imports.

Source:  Roman Shleynov, Stefan Candea, Duncan Campbell, and Vlad Laurov, “Made to be Smuggled,” Tobacco Underground, Center for Public Integrity, October 19, 2008.

Economic impact of illegal logging in Russia

Filed under: Environmental, Europe

The economic impact of illegal logging activities in Russia is estimated to be $2 Billion, according to the WWF.

Source:  Andreas Schloenhardt, “The illegal trade in timber and timber products in the Asia-Pacific region,” Australian Institute of Criminology, Research and public policy series no. 89, January 2008, page 67.

Corruption charges against officials in Russia

Filed under: Europe, Financial Crime

In the first nine months of 2009, over 800 Russian officials faced charges of corruption.

Source: “Over 800 Russian officials face corruption charges in 2009,” Xinhua, January 13, 2010.

Counterfeit Alcohol sales in Russia

Filed under: Uncategorized

The sales of counterfeit vodka bottles in Russia is estimated to be $3.3 Billion (101 Billion Rubles).

Source:  Bloomberg, “Bootleg Vodka Crackdown May Lift Legit Brands,” BusinessWeek, December 29, 2009.

One-third of all logs in Russia are controlled by organized crime

According to officials in Russia, more than one third of all logging activities in the country is controlled by organized crime syndicates.

Source:  Alfonso Daniels, “Battling Siberia’s devastating illegal logging trade,” BBC News, November 27, 2009.

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