ABSTRACT
In Russia, the pervasive criminality of post-communist society, presents in unvarnished detail, a picture of corporate and organized crime. Its consequences are the almost limitless forms of degradation visited upon ordinary people in the transition to a market economy. Privatization was supposed to make workers “co-owners” but put 80% of Russian enterprises in private hands by 1996. Russian oil companies which had been poised to seek listing, have had their applications delayed by US accounting frauds, underlining neatly the global nature of corporate crime. A few contrite oligarchs may publicly apologize for previous excesses, some may seek sanctuary abroad, like Khodorkovsky, appear to remain defiantly unrepentant. The International Marine Forum may threaten, and the European Union may huff and puff about the need for “good corporate governance,” but Russia reveals the true criminogenic face of a capitalism which no codes of conduct can alter, and no judiciary can match.
