Russian organised crime in particular has established itself as a service provider to the serious and discriminating gangster
in an international operation led by the UK’s National Crime Agency is an undoubted success. However, it also raises a simple question that doesn’t lend itself to an easy answer: was the Kremlin involved? Increasingly, a Russian state that regards itself at war with the West – a war fought through sanctions, subversion and proxies – is turning to organised crime as a weapon.
This has made them tempting proxies for Russian intelligence services whose networks have been decimated by the mass expulsion of their agents under diplomatic cover. Criminals have been hired to keep tabs on prominent émigré critics of Putin’s, or to provide muscle, such as the thugs who burnt down Ukrainian-owned warehouses in Leyton in March.Crucially, though, they provide both funds and ways to move them.
The cryptocurrency money launderers play an increasingly important role here, which helps explain why the government, which had been planning to ban these virtual currencies, this year reversed itself.
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