VZCZCXRO3965
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #1619/01 1701133
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191133Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3897
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 3288
RUEHYG/AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 3642
RUEHLN/AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 5406
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 001619 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PGOV PHUM PREL KCRM KJUS SNAR RS
SUBJECT: BUSINESS LEADER ON LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRUPTION 
 
MOSCOW 00001619  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, NOT FOR INTERNET 
DISTRIBUTION 
 
REFTEL: MOSCOW 02477 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: On June 12, Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) met with 
Yanna Yakovleva, the head of Business Solidarity, a NGO dedicated to 
protecting Russian businesses from government extortion.  Yakovleva 
expressed appreciation for a recent joint project with the Embassy 
that had changed the law on pre-trial detention to require 
prosecutors to support detention applications with evidence in 
court.  However, she expressed concern that some agents of the State 
Narcotics Control Agency (FSKN) are threatening small and medium 
sized-businesses with bogus criminal charges if they do not give in 
to FSKN extortion demands.  Recent abuses include criminal 
prosecutions of bakers for using poppy seeds in food preparation, 
veterinarians for using anesthetics in performing routine operations 
on pets, and pharmacists for distributing analgesics.  Yakovleva 
said that many of these abuses are made possible by poorly drafted 
money laundering laws and sought RLAQs assistance in a campaign to 
redraft them.  She also said that she hopes to participate in the 
civil society summit scheduled to take place during President 
ObamaQs visit to raise issues of business protection.  End Summary. 
 
 
------------------- 
BUSINESS SOLIDARITY 
------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Yakovleva, who runs a chemical company, started Business 
Solidarity after FSKN agents attempted to extort her by offering 
QprotectionQ to her business. When she refused, they brought 
criminal charges against her in 2006 for distributing diethyl-ether, 
a chemical solvent whose distribution is not criminalized by Russian 
law.  Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled that the case had no legal 
basis.  Prosecutors dropped all charges and admitted that no laws 
had been broken.  However, in the meantime, she and her business 
partner had spent seven months in jail. (REFTEL). 
 
------------------- 
PRE-TRIAL DETENTION 
------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Upon her release in 2007, YakovlevaQs first goal was to 
reform the law on pre-trial detention, which, at the time, made it 
easy for investigators to obtain an order detaining a suspect based 
on little or no evidence.   She focused on this issue because, she 
explained, even if a case has no legal merit, extended detention is 
enough to break most people and ruin their businesses.  Therefore, 
the simple threat of detention is enough to make most business 
owners capitulate. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Yakovleva sought the EmbassyQs support and in October 2008, 
the Law Enforcement Section (LES), Business Solidarity and the 
Public Chamber organized a conference on international standards of 
pre-trial detention, featuring presentations by a U.S. judge and an 
expert from the European Court of Human Rights.  As a result of the 
conference, Russian law was changed in December 2009 to require 
judges to base detention orders only on evidence presented and 
verified in court hearings. (Previously, the law had allowed 
detention solely on the basis of prosecutorsQ claims, without any 
supporting evidence, thereby making it very easy for prosecutors to 
detain almost anyone.) 
 
---------------- 
MONEY LAUNDERING 
---------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Yakovleva said that despite these changes, FSKN and other 
law enforcement agencies continue to terrorize businesses.  In 
particular, she noted the disturbing trend of bakery owners being 
threatened with prosecution for purchasing large quantities of poppy 
seeds for culinary uses, veterinarians being prosecuted for using 
anesthetics in operations on pets, and pharmacists being threatened 
with prosecution for distributing pain killers.  She said that a 
pharmacist had recently been sentenced to 7 years for Qillegal 
entrepreneurshipQ and money laundering for distributing pain killers 
without a license, an absurd result given that dispensing 
prescription drugs without a license is, at most, an administrative, 
rather than criminal, offense. 
 
¶6. (SBU) According to Yakovleva, many of these cases are made 
possible by a broadly drafted article in the Criminal Code on money 
laundering, which carries a 15 year sentence.  The law, she said, 
makes it easy for investigators to charge a business owner with a 
 
MOSCOW 00001619  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
relatively minor offense based on an administrative violation, tack 
on money laundering charges on the theory that all of the business 
profits are illegal proceeds of the violation, and threaten a long 
prison term if the business owner does not pay. 
 
¶7. (SBU) To address this problem, Yakovleva is starting a campaign 
to re-write the money laundering laws and requested RLAQs assistance 
in compiling materials on U.S. law and international standards, 
drafting proposed amendments and organizing a conference.  (Note: 
Several years ago, the U.S. sentencing scheme for money laundering 
was changed in response to similar claims that prosecutors were 
tacking money laundering charges on to relatively minor offenses and 
threatening defendants with long sentences if they did not plead 
guilty to the underlying offense. End Note.) 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment:  Cooperating with Business Solidarity appears to 
present a good opportunity to promote the rule of law in Russia. 
The organization seems to have broad support.  Its advisory council 
includes both Lyudmilla Alekseyeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group and 
Duma Deputy Mikhail Grishankov (from the ruling United Russia 
party), a former FSB official and now Deputy Chair of the Duma 
Security Committee.  Yakovleva is hoping to participate in the civil 
society summit and hopes to raise issues related to business 
protection there.  Post recommends urging business community 
contacts who have been victimized by law enforcement corruption to 
consider working with her. 
 
BEYRLE