Diplomats, businesses, mayor grapple with rampant crime in Russian city

By Rachel Katz

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (UPI): Crime has gotten so bad in Russia's second largest city, St. Petersburg, that diplomats have appealed to the city to protect foreign businessmen while the mayor has appealed to the president for help policing the city.

Foreign consuls were to meet last Friday with Mayor Anatoly Sobchak to press their case for better protection. Sobchak has requested federal help and special powers to rid the city of rampant crime. Police, meanwhile, have been conducting sweeps to try to stem the growing wave of crime.

Sobchak, in a letter recently to President Boris Yeltsin, requested special powers to fight street crime as well as the organized crime that has proliferated since Soviet authority dropped away along with the old regime.

"Crimes carried out by organized groups took on a particularly horrible and daring character, provoking a challenge to society," Sobchak said in his letter to Yeltsin.

Among the mayor's requests were for Russian Interior Ministry help in developing extraordinary measures to combat organized crime; the right to call on troops stationed in the city and the Leningrad region to help fight crime; and additional police for the city to be paid for out of the federal budget.

"The failure to use extraordinary measures in the struggle against organized crime in St. Petersburg is complicating the future course of social, economic and political reform in the city," Sobchak said.

Police already have begun making sweeps in what has been dubbed "Operation Signal" and in three days scooped up 738 accused criminals including 11 murder suspects.

St. Petersburg is preparing for an influx of visitors: large numbers of businessmen for this month's conference of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, then the summer wave of tourists and finally hordes of sports fans for this summer's Goodwill Games. But the city also is trying to lure foreign businesses and investment on a regular basis.

A U.S. State Department report says overall crime rose 12 percent last year, and this year crime has been skyrocketing, everything from petty street crime to gangland-style shootouts.

There are also many reports of bribery and extortion carried out against foreign businessmen by local mafia groups.

Diplomatic missions have appealed to the St. Petersburg mayor to protect foreign interests. A letter signed by representatives of the French, German, Finnish and U.S. consulates expressed concern for the safety of foreign businessmen in the city and requested a meeting between the consuls-general and the mayor.

Consulate officials played down the significance of their letter, saying only that they did not want the situation to be blown out of proportion. "We are seriously concerned about the crime situation, but we don't want to exaggerate it as the press has done," said Michael Siebert of the German Consulate.

U.S. Press Attache David Evans said the letter was not intended as a complaint. "It's more of a form of encouragement, presenting our ideas on how to deal with the problem," he said.

Swedish Vice-Consul Johan Frisell said that in February the Swedish consulate was so concerned that it organized its own meeting between Swedish businessmen, city officials and the police.

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