Yekaterinburg, Russia – A massive child sex ring was exposed in downtown Yekaterinburg this week. The accused were caught selling young boys, renting them for sexual services and routinely raping them. Their victims were over 1,000 boys, ages 12 through 17. This “business” has been operating for five years, so many of the victims were 7 to 12 years old when they were first kidnapped. Police have documented 116 cases of rape and sexual abuse and the alleged owners of the “business” have been caught. One of the suspects committed suicide in jail after he was imprisoned with common criminals. The leader of the group however, escaped. It is rumored that several powerful citizens of Yekaterinburg frequented the establishment and pressured the court to release the accused ring leader pending his trial date. Thanks to this release the lead suspect in the case has now fled the country.
It is amazing that this story, along with news about dedovshina brutality in the Russian army very rarely makes it into international media coverage of Russia. By pursuing generic, pre-written stories such as “Putin's crackdown on dissent” and “the Kremlin’s centralization of power”, international news outlets are neglecting their duty to report the worst human rights abuses in Russia. A good journalist or citizen can make better use of their time by asking more relevant questions. For instance: how can subsidies for Russian mothers prevent the depopulation of the country, if so many children between the ages of 7 and 17 are sexually abused, and so many young men ages 18 to 20 are tortured in the army? It is these defiled innocents who grow into psychologically wrecked adults dying from suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse and AIDS throughout Russia.
Unfortunately, even the U.S. State Department’s annual human trafficking report isn’t nearly as harsh on Russia as it should be. The report places Russia in the Tier 2 Watch List – which means that there are major human trafficking or slavery issues to be worried about. The report says “Child sex tourism remains a concern”. These timid words come despite the well-established fact that Russia is responsible for 75% of online child pornography!
The Yekaterinburg pedophile gang was caught after one of the police officers “purchased” a boy, according to a planned sting operation. For police officers working the case, it was like opening the doors to hell – an old building downtown, next to the largest public market in the Urals region, served as the pedophile “brothel”. Pedophiles were finding their little slaves at this market. They promised them shelter, food and showers, then raped them and put them to “work”. The criminal profits from this establishment were huge because besides providing sexual services from children, the joint served as a production studio for child pornography. And these videos and pictures are often sold in open air markets throughout Russia!
Anyone who takes the Moscow subway on a cold winter day knows that the last car of each train is filled with smelly, dirty children. There are thousands of these runaways in the major cities. There it is possible to find peers, unite in gangs, do drugs, and have sex with other kids and adults. They can find food, shelter, and showers in exchange for sexual services and participating in making child pornography. One recent report by a major Russian news channel featured 9, 10, and 11 year-old girls pregnant and giving birth. The shocking part is that the police are aware of these activities and often receive a very good cut of the profits for their complicity.
Yekaterinburg is a relatively small city of 1.3 million people. It doesn’t serve as a main hub for human trafficking like Moscow or St Petersburg. According to UNICEF, the number of homeless children in Russia in 2003 was 700,000. Today, the number is estimated to be 2 million homeless children! This is the result of widespread alcoholism, imprisoned parents, domestic abuse, poor and abusive orphanages, and absence of rule of law and any child protective services.
In spite of coming from impoverished backgrounds and broken homes themselves, many Russian oligarchs don’t have an interest in solving these national problems. Roman Abramovich, who spent his childhood in an orphanage, has invested nearly two billion dollars into the British soccer club Chelsea; much more is simply stashed away or working for his multiple businesses. The Russian Federation’s stabilization fund, valued at between 75 and 115 billion dollars, is being invested into foreign businesses. Meanwhile, American media outlets focus on Russian legislation which they claim could limit freedom of speech as part Putin’s alleged crackdown on dissent, while missing the two worst ongoing human rights abuses in Russia – child exploitation and army brutality.
The suspects caught in Yekaterinburg were Alexey S., 31 – a former police officer; Yuri A., 30 – the full time leader of the group; Sergey M., 53 – a masseuse at a spa; Alexander S., 47 – a city employee; and Vladimir L., 52 – occupation unknown. Interpol is currently searching for Yuri A. after he successfully fled the country. The former police officer was either murdered or committed suicide in prison. The three other suspects are awaiting trial for their crimes.
They are charged with Russian Federation Criminal Code articles #127-1 (trafficking in persons), #132 (forceful acts of sexual abuse), #134 (sex acts with a minor under 16 years of age), #135 (perversion), #242-1 (production and sale of pornographic materials involving minors), #151 (enticing or forcing minors into anti-social activities). The city government has also sent letters of notification to the neighborhood police, which had conveniently “missed” the prostitution ring under their noses, and another letter to a local school where one of the accused worked as a first aid teacher.
Today Russia is awash in oil and gas money, the nation’s cities are growing again, and the country produces more young billionaires per capita than any other nation in the world. It is a shame that such widespread depravity is not addressed by the Russian government, society, foreign NGOs operating in Russia, or covered much by the international media. While freedom of press is very important and should be written about in The Wall Street Journal, defending the basic human rights of children and draftees to be free from sexual exploitation and torture are more immediate concerns for ordinary Russians.
UPDATE:
Some of our readers have doubted the truthfulness of this story and challenged me on the facts presented in this article. I am personally dismayed by such reactions, because it either means that:
1) RussiaBlog isn't viewed as a trustworthy source and I'm assumed not to be doing my homework;
2) Some anonymous blogging collectives would rather pick personal fights rather than express compassion for the young victims. Below is an extensive list of links to various Russian news sources, and two pictures taken during the arrest:
New Region Newspaper, Yekaterinburg - http://www.nr2.ru/ekb/36658.html
NewsBattery.Ru - http://news.battery.ru/theme/crime/?from_m=theme&from_t=crime&from_n=39284365&newsId=39237261
Nakanune.Ru - http://nakanune.ru/news/v_ekaterinburge_zaderzhany_pedofily
Komsomolskaya Pravda (Ural) - http://www.ural.kp.ru/2006/08/02/doc128900/
Argumenti i Fakti - http://www.aif.ru/online/aif/1323/35_01
Photos taken during the arrest:
The youngest victim is only 8 y.o.
Comments
Sorry, but this post strikes me as being somehwat bizarre.
What is your source of information about this child prostitution ring? I presume it was the Russian press, since you say the Western press didn't report it. I hope it's not just idle gossip you've heard. If it is the Russian press, then obviously a serious crackdown on the press would have deprived you of the knowledge of this event, so the Western press is quite right to focus on that issue. (I might say as well that it is rather annoying that don't link to whatever your source of information was, so we can read it for ourselves).
It could very well be that the Russian media is already so strangled that this story didn't get enough play to register on the radar screens of the Western press.
It could also be that the Russian press, quite justifiably, is not viewed as being trustworthy enough to pick up the story without corroboration from Western journalists, which could be in the works even as we speak so that the story is only delayed.
And in any case I seriously doubt that more Western coverage would result in any favorable changes in Russia. The Kremlin might well use such a problem as an excuse for even more Draconian police activity, with little of it aimed at helping these victims (most of whom, as I understand it, Russians would generally view as expendable refuse). It would certainly use it as an excuse to attack foreign "Russia-haters" and to further circle Russia's wagons against the outside world.
Posted by: Lenard | August 4, 2006 3:26 PM
I am so sad.
What has happened to chidhood?
The American idyllic childhood has been threatened with broken homes and parents working too much, MTV, video games,"rough" skate parks, TV, sex, and drugs. American kids know too much of adult life at a young age.
But how can one possibly respond to this? The children's very souls are destroyed. There is no "childhood", and no recovery from the depravity within. The next generation will suffer from the perversion inflicted upon these innocent lives. And the cycle will continue exponentially.
My heart is broken for these children. And for the generations of children who follow.
May the souls of those who perpetrate this perversion and unspeakable violence rot in HELL.
Read "The Kite Runner", to get a brief glimpse of a child's life in this situation.
Posted by: Tanya | August 4, 2006 7:33 PM
And these videos and pictures are often sold in open air markets throughout Russia!
And beyond, I'll wager.
Posted by: Tim Newman | August 6, 2006 12:01 AM
I must agree with Lenard. It seems very odd that this news is not mentioned anywhere else in English news media. For such dramatic revelations, a source is indispensible, even if it is only a Russian language source. Please post this or refrain from such sensationalist reporting in future. Thanks.
Posted by: Andre Schmidt | August 7, 2006 5:32 AM
I'm sorry about not providing the links. I've read about it in www.lenta.ru and www.gazeta.ru. Here's Gazeta.Ru's link to the actual story: http://www.gazeta.ru/2006/08/01/oa_210252.shtml. The rest of the information comes from the previous researches; please see the RussiaBlog post from July 15, 2007 http://www.russiablog.org/2005/07/russian_porn.html. As a Russian who lived all my life in Moscow, I am neither shocked nor surprised by this news. It is very sad, but very true.
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | August 7, 2006 11:47 AM
Maybe it wasn't covered in the much praised and never complacent Western media because they were busy manufacturing news stories and falsifying documentation for their own witch hunts. More likely though (and like the State Department) they lack personnel who can actually read non-Latin scripted foreign languages.
Posted by: Nick | August 7, 2006 11:47 PM
Thank you Yuri for posting the source. Even with global media and the Internet, distance, language and cultural barriers make some things difficult. It takes a cold heart to mistreat people, esp kids, in such an organized way, when they should really be enjoying their lives and learning sports and other meaningful things.
Posted by: Andre Schmidt | August 8, 2006 6:15 PM
I'm glad to see you have finally posted a link to your source material after multiple demands, and I am amazed that you can fault Western media for failing to pick up on a story that was only reported by one Russian source a week ago. The article doesn't name the sources of the information (it refers to anonymous "sources in the provincial procuratorship") and it doesn't include any actual photos of either the culprits or the alleged victims.
If the New York Times can have a Jayson Blair, then Gazeta.ru sure can have one. There are plenty of newspapers in Russia that make the National Enquirer look like the Wall Street Journal. It is bizarre to say that the Western press should rush to prominently print an isolated story like this without doing a lot of legwork to check it out first. Your conclusion about the Western press was cleary rash and rushed (you yourself admit you failed to include the source material). You ought to apologize for that as well.
Posted by: Lenard | August 9, 2006 4:21 PM
Dear Lenard,
Please see the new UPDATE posted at the bottom of the article. It contains multiple links and more photos. If you need more proof, photos and links I will be glad to e-mail them to you. Originally I didn't want to spend much time researching and posting additional links and sources, because I personally didn't think it was necessary. I hope the above provides enough proof and additional information. Thank you for reading the RussiaBlog.
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | August 9, 2006 4:50 PM
Yuri, I'm glad to see that you've now produced an article which is as it should have been at first, and happy that you appear responsive to your readers. However, I'm offended by your suggestion that I or any reader should take what you say on faith and "assume" you've done your homework. In the age of Stephen Glass, that's utter nonsense. And how dare you lecture us on how we should react to your story? What is this, Russia?
More important, you still haven't addressed my main point, which was that your source material for this story was the Russian press. I don't see how you can possibly conclude that the issue of Russian press freedom isn't vital, and more important than the existence of child sex crimes, since if the Russian press wasn't free to report this story you would never have known about it. It seems to me your own article proves the Western press is right to focus on Russian press freedom and therefore that your conclusion about their delinquency was rubbish.
As for your sources, they do nothing to suggest that this is a story the Western press should already be running. Most of them are local to the Ural region, not national coverage. Did Russian television run this story? If so, when? Kommersant is the most well-respected source of Russian news in the West, did they run the story?
I think it's perfectly reasonable for the Western press to be carefully investigating these reports from rather obscure and unreliable sources before rushing to print as you have done. Russia newspapers are quite famous for having their column inches available to the highest bidder. Basically, we have a "boy who cried wolf" situation here, and perhaps you should focus your ire on the Russian media for trashing their own credibility rather than on the West for disbelieving them.
Posted by: Lenard | August 11, 2006 4:31 AM
Lenard,
I agree with the fact that the sources I listed are local. Also, I apologize for assumption that you “have” to trust RussiaBlog website. The readers who personally know me and other fellows of Discovery Institute do trust information on this website.
I guess, what I am trying to say is, it’s not foreign media being guilty. There are think tanks and policy groups, which feed information to journalists and newspapers. The WSJ article was based upon information and report provided by Carnegie Endowment, which has a budget of over $7,000,000 a year for the work on Russia. 3 million goes to the Moscow office, the rest stays with the DC office. Khodorkovsky and Fund Open Russia have been generously supporting this organization.
Given their history and budget – Carnegie’s words are taken as gospel. I am trying to redirect media’s and readers’ attention to the subjects which really matter, versus the subject which are being raised due to their political value to certain parties. Also, it seems like with the budget like that, Carnegie could’ve looked closer to some other “human rights” violations in Russia, besides the ones conducted by Putin. I never hear a word from them on the issues of children, Russian army, Russian-speaking minorities in Muslim states, etc. In one of my future pieces, I will bring up an example of Christian camps available and attended by Muslim Chechen kids in Grozny! How about that for a new age of freedom in Russia?
Anyway, thank you for the lively discussion and reading the website! Come back for more articles and have a great weekend! Yuri.
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | August 11, 2006 9:22 AM
Yuri:
(1) If you admit now that the WSJ was not at fault in its report, you should post a prominent correction on the face of your post about the WSJ. Better yet, pull the whole article, apologize for it and write a new one about think tanks if you feel you have the bullets to back it up.
(2) I'm glad you agree that the sources are local. Do you also agree that the sources lack credibility and cannot be relied upon without independent verification? If so, you ought to post an appropriate correction on this post as well regarding your implication that that the sources were reliable and the failure to report neglectful.
(3) Readers who trusted your representations in these stories were mistaken. In fact, you don't know for a fact that this story is true, you are relying upon local reports that could very well be bought and paid for. Readers trusted the New York Times on faith, and when Jayson Blair appeared that turned out to be a mistake. I find it extremely bizarre that you feel your word is inherently more trustworthy than the Carnegie Endowment. Maybe their word is subject to question (though you have not put forth any evidence to support that claim), but yours certainly is as well.
Posted by: Lenard | August 13, 2006 5:09 AM
"If you admit now that the WSJ was not at fault in its report, you should post a prominent correction on the face of your post about the WSJ."
This seems to be based on a logic where if we have a different point of view from the WSJ about what should be the most important news items out of Russia on a given day, someone must be lying, or someone must have a hidden agenda, rather than maybe them simply relying on different sources than us. This kind of zero sum adversarial logic sounds like that of another commenter we've had here who was better at hectoring people than contributing anything positive.
"In fact, you don't know for a fact that this story is true, you are relying upon local reports that could very well be bought and paid for."
Why would someone pay for a story about a pedophile ring? Who benefits? The cops? It makes them look bad for this happening right under their noses for months.
According to your previous rationale about all local reporting in Russia being tainted, we can't trust any story from outside of Moscow that isn't reported by a very short list of Western sources you deem trustworthy. As we could agree based on the news out of Lebanon, just because a photo runs in the New York Times doesn't make it authentic, and this fact sustains a healthy skepticism in the blogosphere about mainstream media reporting on many topics, as well as what other bloggers are writing.
We don't ask that anyone accept on faith what we report here. People should read other sources and decide for themselves.
Posted by: Charles Ganske | August 14, 2006 8:56 PM
If you doubt the substance of the article, I advise you just to go to google and search for "young russian boys". It is not pretty. So argue all you want about semantics but the horrible truth is in the "search"
Posted by: Gary | September 2, 2006 11:29 PM
Came across your story on the ped. ring while researching Stephen Glass. I have no doubt as to the truthfulness of the story. One only need go to Dubai to see the legions of Russian sex slaves (girls, boys, women, men) being abused daily by the muslims and their followers. Keep up the reporting, God bless you, the wonderful people of Russia and watch your backs.
Posted by: 2b | November 27, 2006 4:57 PM
I am so glad to see someone else address the on going problem of sexual abuse and slavery in Russia. It has been a long-standing gripe of mine that the US doesn't involve itself in the continued sexual slavery that Russia perpetrates.
However, this seems to be the standard operating procedure for the US government. If a country can be of use to them, they ignore the human rights violations and the fact that a nation of women and children need protecting.
I am just glad to see someone else speaking up for what it right.
Posted by: Jennifer J Robison | May 9, 2007 10:58 PM
Sounds just like Vietnam
Posted by: Charlie White | May 24, 2008 1:54 AM
we live in a sick world, i'd like to pull off the ultimate rambo on some of these sick people, but the bible say's that vegence is for God and he will repay.
Posted by: matt | June 10, 2008 9:21 AM
I would like to really condemn such a kind of human trafficking.
__________________________
victor
http://www.hookup-tonite.com
Posted by: victor | September 14, 2008 9:04 AM
I fell so sorry about whut hapind to these boys. how old where the ixacly?
Posted by: Makylee carter | June 15, 2009 9:52 AM