Russian Secret Service Sue Over Migrant Slavery Allegations

An elite subdivision of the Russian police called the OMON, akin to the Secret Service, is livid following an accusation of human trafficking by local magazine The New Times. The magazine claimed that the police department had hired migrant workers to dig ditches, set up fences, and clean toilets for them. However, the workers were never paid for any of their labor and were beaten if they refused to work. To make matters worse, the OMON were billing the government for fees and wages for the workers, apparently pocketing the extra cash.

The story broke when a former police officer named Larisa Krepkova confessed the slavery scheme to a magazine reporter. She claims the use of slave labor went all the way up the chain of command; trafficked migrants worked at Deputy Interior Minister Colonel General Mikhail Sukhodolsky's vacation home. Krepkova hasn't worked for the OMON in over a year, so she doesn't know if the practice of enslaving migrant workers is still continuing. But she claimed she knew that it was happening, and sanctioned by the police, as recently as last year.

The U.S. equivalent of this scandal would be the Secret Service being accused of using enslaved workers from Latin America. This is by no means a minor scandal for Russia. And this article is the second in a month implicating the OMON for serious human rights abuses and poor working conditions. But what is the response of this government-funded security organization following reports of severe mistreatment and even slavery of workers? Launch an internal investigation? Interview top officials? No: it's to sue the magazine who published the article and, in doing so, attempt to suppress freedom of the press.

Police Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev justified the law suit by saying that an "internal investigation found the charges to be false." However, the suit was filed the day after the article was published. Either that's the most efficient internal investigation in the history of internal investigations, or it was absolute crap. I'm voting for option B. It sounds like OMON wants to keep on enslaving migrant workers and paying them nothing, charging the Russian people for the victims' wages, and then pocketing the difference.

Since The New Times first ran this story, they've gotten dozens of letters from other former police officers who also witnessed the enslavement of mirgrants to work for Russian security forces. No word yet on how long this practice has gone on or how many workers were enslaved because of it. But it looks like the OMON is going to have to start suing a hell of a lot more people if they want this scandal to go away without some serious reform.

Photo credit: Adam Jones, Ph.D.