Economic Crime Grows Rapidly Under Favorable Conditions 

Since 1992 the number of economic cases in Ukraine has grown by 300%.

"A shadow economy cannot exist without a shadow government, shadow justice, and shadow police. We have all this," said Oleksandr Bandurka, People's Deputy and the Rector of the University of Domestic Affairs to an international scholarly and practical conference on problems related to combating economic crime. He thinks the low effectiveness in combating crime is caused by meager budgetary financing of law enforcement bodies. Mr. Bandurka also maintains that only 5% of the actual needs of these bodies are met.

However, this fact can also have other explanations. Not long before this conference, an international sociology conference was held at Kharkiv University. Tatiana Zaslavskaya, a prominent Russian sociologist, said that the dream of sociologists and political analysts back in Russia had finally come true. Society had formed a middle class. But, unfortunately, this class is practically completely criminal.

Are we right to look for similarities between our countries here?