Russia is threatening to become a "crime-dominated oligarchy", a major US research group said in a study released yesterday that urged President Bill Clinton to speak out on Russian crime.
"Left unchecked, Russia is on the verge of becoming a crime-dominated oligarchy, controlled by shady businessmen, corrupt officials and outright criminals," the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said.
The report also said that the level of crime in Russia "presents a threat to US national security, as criminal organisations could seek to expand their power or wealth by exploiting the deteriorating security and safeguards over nuclear weapons and materials throughout the former Soviet Union".
Two years in the making, the study was released by the chairman of the research group's Global Organised Crime Project, the former FBI director, Mr William Webster. He said the group had "no hidden agenda" that motivated its conclusions.
The report said Russian organised crime needed to "receive public recognition from the President of the United States as a national security threat".
Citing evidence of organised crime's growing influence, "the government of Russia today is not entirely its own master", said a Republican senator, Mr John Kyl, who helped oversee the study. Participants included Republicans and Democrats.
The report said Russian criminal syndicates were "undermining the fragile democratisation and liberalisation process in Russia" and recommended that Washington "shift from supporting political personalities to backing segments of the Russian government that are working to usher in the rule of law".
The Clinton administration has been a big supporter of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. But the study said the United States "must avoid the appearance of unqualified support for what is routinely seen as a kleptocratic establishment".
It also recommended that the United States improve its scrutiny of who benefits from US aid in Russia and that it deny export credits to Western firms doing business with Russian companies controlled by organised crime.
"You have a government that is not totally in control," Mr Webster said, noting the risks to US businesses investing in Russia.
"People are investing in opportunities over there which suddenly may not be opportunities," he said.
Officials with the group declined to explicitly criticise the Clinton administration but hoped their report would serve as a strong warning about Russian crime and its implications on US policy.
A man was blown up as he carried a bomb in Moscow, ITARTASS news agency said yesterday, quoting the capital's police. No one else was injured by the explosion in an isolated district on the south-eastern edge of the capital.
It was impossible to identify the victim. Equally, it was unclear what the bomb, which contained about 400 grams of explosives, had been intended to blow up. Police have opened an inquiry.