From social dislocation to human trafficking: The Russian case

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 51, Issue 6, 2004, Pages 14-22

  Orlova, Alexandra Y ^a,b  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 10144250943     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2004.11052184     Document Type: Review

References (116)

1. "The Sex Trade: Trafficking of Women and Children in Europe and the United States": Hearing Before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 2 (1999). Available at www.house.gov/csce/.
2. Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, "The United Nations Response to Trafficking in Women and Girls" (paper presented at the Expert Group Meeting on Trafficking in Women and Girls, Glen Cove, NY, November 18-22, 2002).
3. Some authors state that around 175,000 women and children from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are trafficked annually to Western Europe and the United States. See Elena V. Turukanova and Ludmila D. Erokhina, eds., Torgovlia liudmi (Trade in People) (Moscow: Akademia. 2002). It is difficult to provide precise numbers because of the hidden nature of the trafficking market and the lack of official statistics in countries of origin, transit, and destination.
4. Gillian Caldwell, Steve Galster, Jyothi Kanics, and Nadia Steinzor, "Capitalizing on Transition Economies: The Role of the Russian Mafiya in Trafficking Women for Forced Prostitution," in Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex: The New Slave Trade, ed. Phil Williams (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1999), pp. 42-74: Sarah Shannon, ''Prostitution and the Mafia: The Involvement of Organized Crime in the Global Sex Trade," in ibid., 122.
5. Gillian Caldwell, Steve Galster, Jyothi Kanics, and Nadia Steinzor, "Capitalizing on Transition Economies: The Role of the Russian Mafiya in Trafficking Women for Forced Prostitution," in Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex: The New Slave Trade, ed. Phil Williams (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1999), pp. 42-74: Sarah Shannon, ''Prostitution and the Mafia: The Involvement of Organized Crime in the Global Sex Trade," in ibid., 122.
6. Donna M. Hughes, "Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation: The Case of the Russian Federation," IOM Migration Research Series, no. 7 (Geneva, June 2002).
7. Sally W. Stoecker, "The Rise in Human Trafficking and the Role of Organized Crime," Demokratizatsia 8, no. 1 (2000): 5.
8. Hughes, "Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation," p. 9.
9. Larisa Ponarina, "Rabstvo na rubezhe tretego tysiacheletiia: initsiativy nepravitelstvennykh organizatsii, napravlennye na iskorenenie sesk-torgovli" (Slavery on the Eve of the Third Millennium: Efforts by Non-Governmental Organizations Directed Toward Combating Sex Trafficking), Prava zhenshchin r Rossii: zakonodatelstvo i praktika 2 (1998); see also Louise Shelley, ed., "Focus: Trafficking in Human Beings," Organized Crime Watch: Russia 1 (February 1999): 2.
10. Larisa Ponarina, "Rabstvo na rubezhe tretego tysiacheletiia: initsiativy nepravitelstvennykh organizatsii, napravlennye na iskorenenie sesk-torgovli" (Slavery on the Eve of the Third Millennium: Efforts by Non-Governmental Organizations Directed Toward Combating Sex Trafficking), Prava zhenshchin r Rossii: zakonodatelstvo i praktika 2 (1998); see also Louise Shelley, ed., "Focus: Trafficking in Human Beings," Organized Crime Watch: Russia 1 (February 1999): 2.
11. Caldwell et al., "Capitalizing on Transition Economies." p. 49; also see Gillian Caldwell, Steve Galster, and Nadia Steinzor, "Crime and Servitude: An Exposé of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the Newly Independent States" (paper presented at conference on "The Trafficking of NIS Women Abroad," Moscow, November 3-5, 1997).
12. Caldwell et al., "Capitalizing on Transition Economies." p. 49; also see Gillian Caldwell, Steve Galster, and Nadia Steinzor, "Crime and Servitude: An Exposé of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the Newly Independent States" (paper presented at conference on "The Trafficking of NIS Women Abroad," Moscow, November 3-5, 1997).
13. I b i d.
14. L.D. Erokhina, "Sotsiologicheskii analiz rosta prostimtsii i treffika na Rossiiskom Dalnem Vostoke" (Sociological Analysis of the Causes for the Increase in Prostitution and Trafficking in Russia's Far East), Prava zhenshchin y Rossii: zakonodatelstvo i praktika 1, no. 11 (2001).
15. I b i d.
16. For a discussion of how modern technology influences trafficking, see Cheryl Hanna, "Symposium on Sexual Slavery: The Trafficking of Women and Girls into the United States for Sexual Exploitation: An Introduction," Hastings Women's Law Journal 13 (2002): 3.
17. Shelley, "Focus: Trafficking in Human Beings," p. 1; "Sex Trade," p. 49.
18. Shelley, "Focus: Trafficking in Human Beings," p. 1; "Sex Trade," p. 49.
19. I b i d.
20. Caldwell et al., "Capitalizing on Transition Economies," p. 49.
21. See U.S. Department of State, Human Rights Country Reports: Russia (1997), estimating that the average salary is around $300. See also Erin E. Arvedlund, "Russia Told It Understates Dependence on Oil Sales," New York Times (February 19, 2004), stating that at least 31 million people were still living in poverty in 2003.
22. See U.S. Department of State, Human Rights Country Reports: Russia (1997), estimating that the average salary is around $300. See also Erin E. Arvedlund, "Russia Told It Understates Dependence on Oil Sales," New York Times (February 19, 2004), stating that at least 31 million people were still living in poverty in 2003.
23. Shelley, "Focus: Trafficking in Human Beings," p. 2.
24. Stoecker, "Rise in Human Trafficking," p. 6.
25. "Vypiska iz stenogrammy otkrytykh parlamentskikh slushanii, provedennykh komitetom gosudarstvennoi Dumy po delam zhenshchin, semi i molodezhi na temu, sotsialno-pravovaia zashchita detei ot seksualnoi ekspluatatsii i rastleniia" (Excerpt from the Open Parliamentary Hearings Conducted by the Committee of the Duma Responsible for Women Family and Youth Issues, on the Topic of Socio-Legal Protections of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Demoralization), Prava zhenshchin v Rossii: zakanodatelstvo i praktika 2, no. 12 (2001).
26. A.M. Nechaeva, "Detskaia besprizornost - opasnoe sotsialnoe iavlenie" (Child Homelessness - A Dangerous Social Occurrence), Gosudarstvo i pravo 6 (2001): 2; see also D. Ziyadova, "Vovlechenie shkolnikov v prestupnuiu deiatelnost" (Enticing Schoolchildren into Criminal Activities), Zakonnost 2 (2002): 37, for a description of some of the factors responsible for the emergence of homeless and unsupervised children, such as underfunded educational institutions, disappearance of statefunded leisure institutions, and violence in families, poverty.
27. A.M. Nechaeva, "Detskaia besprizornost - opasnoe sotsialnoe iavlenie" (Child Homelessness - A Dangerous Social Occurrence), Gosudarstvo i pravo 6 (2001): 2; see also D. Ziyadova, "Vovlechenie shkolnikov v prestupnuiu deiatelnost" (Enticing Schoolchildren into Criminal Activities), Zakonnost 2 (2002): 37, for a description of some of the factors responsible for the emergence of homeless and unsupervised children, such as underfunded educational institutions, disappearance of statefunded leisure institutions, and violence in families, poverty.
28. Victor Malarek, Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade (New York: Viking, 2003).
29. Hughes, "Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation," p. 36.
30. Nechaeva, "Detskaia besprizornost," pp. 61-62.
31. See S. Yagodin, "Zakonodatelstvo o migratsii: pliusy i minusy" (Legislation on Migrations: Pluses and Minuses), Zakon, no. 11 (2002): 108-109.
32. I b i d.
33. M.I. Barannik, Kriminologicheskie i pravovye problemy borby s nezakonnoi migratsiei (Criminological and Legal Issues in the Battle with Illegal Migration) (2003). Available at www.crime.vl.ru.
34. "Sex Trade," p. 67.
35. See Andrei Chernenko, "Migratsionnyi potok i ruslo zakona" (The Flood of Migration and the Law), Zakon. no. 11 (2001): 106; see also Ivan Viktorov, "Nezvannye gosti?" (Uninvited Guests?), Zakon, no. 11 (2002): 102-104.
36. See Andrei Chernenko, "Migratsionnyi potok i ruslo zakona" (The Flood of Migration and the Law), Zakon. no. 11 (2001): 106; see also Ivan Viktorov, "Nezvannye gosti?" (Uninvited Guests?), Zakon, no. 11 (2002): 102-104.
37. Yagodin, "Zakonodatelstvo o migratsii," p. 110.
38. The legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation is governed by the law "O pravovom polozhenii innostrannykh grazhdan v Rossiiskoi Federatsii" (On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation), N.115-FZ (July 25, 2002), available at www.akdi.ru. The law's restrictive provisions include the following: Holders of temporary residence permits and landed immigrants are required to register with the local authorities every year (§ 21(4)), which means that migrants in these two categories are unable to change their place of residence to follow a job opportunity (§ 11(2)). In order to register every year with the local authorities, holders of temporary permits and landed immigrants must possess their original documents (§ 21(6)) as well as migration cards (§ 23). A landed immigrant who wishes to obtain Russian citizenship is required, among other things, to prove (in most cases) a lawful source of funds (i.e., a legal job). See On Russian Citizenship (O grazhdanstve Rossiiskoi Federatsii), N.62-FZ (in force May 31, 2002), amended by the federal law N.151-FZ (in force November 11, 2003), § 13(1)(v). available at www.akdi.ru; see also Freedom House. Nations in Transit 2003: Russia (New York: Freedom House, 2003), available at www.freedomhouse.org.
39. The legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation is governed by the law "O pravovom polozhenii innostrannykh grazhdan v Rossiiskoi Federatsii" (On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation), N.115-FZ (July 25, 2002), available at www.akdi.ru. The law's restrictive provisions include the following: Holders of temporary residence permits and landed immigrants are required to register with the local authorities every year (§ 21(4)), which means that migrants in these two categories are unable to change their place of residence to follow a job opportunity (§ 11(2)). In order to register every year with the local authorities, holders of temporary permits and landed immigrants must possess their original documents (§ 21(6)) as well as migration cards (§ 23). A landed immigrant who wishes to obtain Russian citizenship is required, among other things, to prove (in most cases) a lawful source of funds (i.e., a legal job). See On Russian Citizenship (O grazhdanstve Rossiiskoi Federatsii), N.62-FZ (in force May 31, 2002), amended by the federal law N.151-FZ (in force November 11, 2003), § 13(1)(v). available at www.akdi.ru; see also Freedom House. Nations in Transit 2003: Russia (New York: Freedom House, 2003), available at www.freedomhouse.org.
40. V. Cherepanov, "Nezakonnaia migratsiia" (Illegal Migration), Zakonnost 6, no. 824 (2003): 35-37.
41. Viktorov, "Nezvannye gosti?" p. 104; see also Irina Gavrilova, "The Scourge of Migration," Russian Politics and Law 36, no. 6 (November-December 1998): 63, 66, 67.
42. Viktorov, "Nezvannye gosti?" p. 104; see also Irina Gavrilova, "The Scourge of Migration," Russian Politics and Law 36, no. 6 (November-December 1998): 63, 66, 67.
43. See A. Medetsky, "ILO: 4 Million Enslaved in Russia," Moscow Times (March 5, 2004).
44. B. Fyodorov, "Cautiously Optimistic About 2nd Term," Moscow Times (February 26, 2004).
45. I b i d.
46. Shelley, "Focus: Trafficking in Human Beings," p. 5.
47. Caldwell, Galster, and Steinzor, "Crime and Servitude."
48. See Hughes, "Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation," p. 13. describing the idealized view of the West held by many Russians.
49. See Ludmilla D. Erokhina, "Dalnevostochnye pravookhranitelnye i administrativnye organy v reshenii problemy nelegalnogo vyvoza zhenshchin za rubezh" (The Efforts of [Russia's] Far Eastern Law Enforcement and Administrative Agencies in Resolving Problems of Illegal Transportation of Women Abroad), Vladivostok Center for the Study of Organized Crime (2001), available at www.crime.vl.ru.
50. I b i d.
51. I b i d.
52. "Sex Trade," p. 44.
53. Erokhina, "Sotsiologicheskii analiz."
54. Stoecker, "Rise in Human Trafficking," p. 8.
55. I b i d.
56. "Sex Trade," p. 44.
57. Erokhina, "Sotsiologicheskii analiz," states that when interviewed, employees of government migration services in Russia's Far East region said that in the past ten years there had only been one request from Germany for nurses.
58. Stoecker, "Rise in Human Trafficking," p. 9; see also Martina Vandenberg's two-part article, "Prodazha zhenshchin v Izrail i prinuzhdenie k prostitutsii" (The Sale of Women to Israel for Enforced Prostitution), Prava zhenshchin v Rossii: zakonodatelstvo i praktika, nos. 4/5 and 6/7 (1999), which states that in one case trafficked women were promised work as seamstresses in Israel. When they arrived, their passports were confiscated by the traffickers and many were forced to work as prostitutes.
59. Stoecker, "Rise in Human Trafficking," p. 9; see also Martina Vandenberg's two-part article, "Prodazha zhenshchin v Izrail i prinuzhdenie k prostitutsii" (The Sale of Women to Israel for Enforced Prostitution), Prava zhenshchin v Rossii: zakonodatelstvo i praktika, nos. 4/5 and 6/7 (1999), which states that in one case trafficked women were promised work as seamstresses in Israel. When they arrived, their passports were confiscated by the traffickers and many were forced to work as prostitutes.
60. "Sex Trade," p. 45.
61. Stoecker, "Rise in Human Trafficking," pp. 8, 9.
62. Caldwell, Galster, and Steinzor, "Crime and Servitude."
63. I b i d.
64. I b i d.
65. I b i d.
66. "Sex Trade," p. 44.
67. Malarek, Natashas, p. 10.
68. Erokhina, "Sotsiologicheskii analiz."
69. Vandenberg, "Prodazha zhenshchin v Izrail."
70. Caldwell et al., "Capitalizing on Transition Economies," p. 62.
71. Shannon, "Prostitution and the Mafia," p. 123.
72. I b i d.
73. "Sex Trade," p. 46.
74. Caldwell, Galster, and Steinzor, "Crime and Servitude."
75. Russian Criminal Code (UK RE 1997, N.63-FZ, in force January 1, 1997). See "O vnesenii izmenenii i dopolnenii v ugolovnyi kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii" (On Additions and Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), N.162-FZ (which took effect December 11, 2003). Available at www.akdi.ru.
76. On the international level, an influential factor in the passage of the Criminal Code amendments was the 2002 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) issued by the U.S. State Department to Congress, as required by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, Pub.L. N. 106-383 (2000). The TIP Report, which is widely considered to be one of the most comprehensive assessments of the anti-trafficking efforts made by governments around the world, identified Russia as a Tier-3 Country. Countries are classified as Tier-3 if their governments do not comply with the minimum standards prescribed by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. According to the act, countries that remained in the Tier-3 category in the 2003 TIP Report (issued in June 2003) and in subsequent TIP Reports could be subjected to certain sanctions, such as withholding of non-humanitarian and non-trade-related assistance, commencing at the beginning of the next fiscal year or on October 1, 2003. In addition. Tier 3 countries would face the possibility of U.S. opposition to assistance from international financial institutions (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related aid), such as the International Monetary Fund, and multi-lateral development banks, such as the World Bank. See Jennifer L. Enck, "The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime: Is It All That It Is Cracked Up to Be? Problems Posed by the Russian Mafia in the Trafficking of Humans," Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce, no. 30 (2003): 381.
77. Individual Duma members, especially Yelena Mizulina, have been instrumental in making sure that the relevant anti-trafficking amendments become a reality. On September 27, 2002, an inter-agency working group was created, with Mizulina as its head, to prepare a draft anti-human trafficking bill. The inter-agency working group was a part of the Duma's legislation committee, of which Mizulina was deputy head.
78. Yelena Mizulina, "Draft Anti-Human Trafficking Law: The Russian Situation" (speech delivered to the Russian-Swedish Conference, "Trafficking in Persons," Kaliningrad, November 19, 2003).
79. Mizulina belonged to the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party, which tailed to pass the 5 percent threshold to obtain Duma seats.
80. Jeremy Bransten, "Russia: Having Secured Near-Absolute Power, What Will Putin Do with Second Term?" Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (March 15, 2004). Available at www.rferl.org.
81. P. Baker, "Russians" Fears of Kremlin Re-emerge," Washington Post (March 7, 2004): A16.
82. C. McGregor, "Putin's Pursuit of the Power Vertical, "Moscow Times (March 11, 2004).
83. S. Mydans, "Putin's Dubious Allure: 'He's Not Making Things Worse'," New York Times (March 9, 2004).
84. Michael McFaul, Nikolai Petrov, and Andrei Ryabov, Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Post-Communist Political Reform (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004), p. 14.
85. See Turukanova and Erokhina, Torgovlia ludmi, p. 58, for a comparative study of regions in Russia's Far East.
86. Ksenia Yudaeva, "The Russian Political System and Economic Growth," Carnegie Moscow Center Briefing Paper 6, no. 2-3 (February/March 2004). Available at www.carnegie.ru/en/print/70011-print.htm.
87. See Aleksandr Lukin, "Authoritarianism Deposing 'Clan Democracy'," Moscow Times (January 21, 2004); Sergei Markov, "The Future of Managed Democracy," Moscow Times (January 27, 2004); Stratfor, "Russia: Putin's Re-Election in the Bag?" (January 15, 2004). Available at www.stratfor.biz.
88. See Aleksandr Lukin, "Authoritarianism Deposing 'Clan Democracy'," Moscow Times (January 21, 2004); Sergei Markov, "The Future of Managed Democracy," Moscow Times (January 27, 2004); Stratfor, "Russia: Putin's Re-Election in the Bag?" (January 15, 2004). Available at www.stratfor.biz.
89. See Aleksandr Lukin, "Authoritarianism Deposing 'Clan Democracy'," Moscow Times (January 21, 2004); Sergei Markov, "The Future of Managed Democracy," Moscow Times (January 27, 2004); Stratfor, "Russia: Putin's Re-Election in the Bag?" (January 15, 2004). Available at www.stratfor.biz.
90. Bransten, "What Will Putin Do with Second Term?"
91. McFaul, Petrov, and Ryabov, Between Dictatorship and Democracy, p. 6.
92. According to McFaul, Petrov, and Ryabov at this time, "[Russian] society is not demanding a more liberal democratic order. Whereas some pockets of civil society have tried to resist authoritarian creep, the vast majority of Russian society has demonstrated little interest or capacity to withstand Putin's anti-liberal reforms" (ibid., p. 9).
93. S. Guriev, "Russia's Future, Putin's Legacy," New York Times (March 25, 2004).
94. Marshall I. Goldman, "Render unto Caesar: Putin and the Oligarchs," Current History (October 2003): 320-26.
95. The devaluation of the ruble in 1998 gave domestic production a competitive edge over imports. For a review of the causes of Russia's current economic growth, see Harry G. Broadman, "Global Economic Integration: Prospects for WTO Accession and Continued Russian Reforms," Washington Quarterly 27, no. 2 (spring 2004): 79-98.
96. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Country Analysis Briefs: Russia (2003). Available at www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/russia.html.
97. I b i d.
98. I b i d.
99. Moises Naim, "Russia's Oily Future," Foreign Policy, no. 140 (January/February 2004): 96-97.
100. M. Malloch Brown, "Balancing Social and Economic Goals," Moscow Times (March 18, 2004).
101. S.B. Glasser, "Stability Deadens Dreams for a Russian Family," Washington Post (March 12, 2004): A1.
102. Broadman, "Global Economic Integration," p. 85.
103. "Putin Tells Police to Free Business from Rackets," New York Times (March 24, 2004).
104. Broadman, "Global Economic Integration," p. 80.
105. C. Ruehl and M. Schaffer, "Transfer Pricing and Calculating GDP," Moscow Times (February 19, 2004).
106. Interfax, "Russian Oil Companies Almost Double Dividend Payments," Moscow Times (March 24, 2004).
107. Naim, "Russia's Oily Future."
108. Part of the annual budget surplus is placed in a "stabilization fund" in hopes of insulating the Russian economy from fluctuations in world oil prices. See Brown, "Balancing Social and Economic Goals."
109. Catherine Belton, "Putin Puts Focus on Democracy," Moscow Times (March 16, 2004).
110. Valeria Korchagina, "Putin Launches War on Poverty," Moscow Times (March 22, 2004).
111. Brown, "Balancing Social and Economic Goals."
112. I b i d.
113. Belton, "Putin Puts Focus on Democracy."
114. Brown, "Balancing Social and Economic Goals."
115. Boris Kagarlitsky, "A Good Word for Misha Kasyanov," Moscow Times (February 27, 2004).
116. Kevin O'Flynn, "Chuvash Village at Home with Putin," Moscow Times (March 11, 2004).