International security

Gangster Geopolitics: The Kremlin’s Use of Criminals as Assets Abroad

...The main activities criminal gangs are required to perform in the new Russian “Crimintern" tend to involve either intelligence missions or generating chernaya kassa (“black cash”)—money with no provable connection to the Russian state, but helpful in paying for some of its projects. The suspicion voiced by a number of European security services is that these funds then go toward bankrolling useful political figures or media outlets.

Criminal money-laundering networks can also be used to “clean” intelligence agencies’ operational funds. According to a specialist from the Italian Guardia di Finanza, or financial police, this tends to involve small-scale operations through individuals’ bank accounts, not huge, multi-beneficiary schemes like the 1998-99 Bank of New York money-laundering operation or the 2008-2014 “laundromat” documented recently 2008-2014 “laundromat” documented recently by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.