ABSTRACT
The present state of criminality in Russia is closely related to changes in the Russian government. The process of regionalization resulting from these changes has forced criminal organizations to focus their attention not only on large cities, but on territories of separate regions of the Russian Federation. The resources in East Siberia attract the attention of criminal organizations. Enormous reserves of strategic and raw materials are confined in this region. The Irkutsk Region is the center of enhanced criminal activity of organized crime in Siberia. Criminal formations acquiring weapons within the region are importing them from frontier countries to be delivered and sold to other organized crime groups, individual firms and private persons. The regional economy is infected with criminality: there are hundreds of criminal enterprises, fraudulent banking transactions amounting to billions of dollars, illegal currency transactions, tax evasion. Organized criminal structures gain protection by corrupting law-enforcement officers.
