The ever-growing economic polarization of the population – visible in the stark contrast between the poor majority and the nouveau riche minority (the «New Russian») – is a guaranteed source of continuing social conflict. The official unemployment rates in Russia were as follows: 1992 – 4.8 % of the able-bodied population; 1993 – 5.5 %; 1994 – 7.4 %; 1995 – 8.9 %; 1996 – 9.6 %; 1997 – 11.9 %; 1998 – 13.3 %; 2003 – 8.9 % (Human Development Report, 1999: 57; Questions of Statistic, 2004: 31). Today, unemployment in Russia stands at 5.2 %. From 2002 to 20 12 the average unemployment rare was 8.3 % (Trading Economics 2013).
Technological backwardness and the absence of competition in domestic production and the service sectors have manifested themselves in the course of the reforms. A consequence of this is the inferiority complex of employees, their de-qualification, marginalization and lumpenization. The excluded population in the face of corruption engages in deviances, including crime (Lenoir, 1974; Paugam, 1996; Finer and Nellis, 1998; Young, 1999).
Legal system
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Russia) there are levels of legal institutions (Art. 118, Part 2):
– The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation
– The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
– Courts of the subjects of the Russian Federation (Supreme Courts of the smaller republics in remote parts of the Russian Federation); regional – «krai», «oblast», «autonomous regions» courts; Moscow and St. Petersburg city court
– Area (district) and city courts
– Martial courts
– Arbitral courts (the Supreme Arbitral Court of the Russian Federation; arbitral courts of the subjects of the Russian Federation).
The goals of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are protection of Russian sovereignty; defence of the constitutional structure; defence of the general rights and freedoms of population; and guarantee of the application of the Russian Constitution in all territories of the Russian Federation. Martial courts are included in the common legal system. The arbitral courts resolve disputes between juridical persons.
It is a pity, but contemporary Russian judicial system is not independent. First, many judges are very corrupted. Secondly, many courts depend upon politicians and power. For example, often the Basmany court would decide a case in favor of a power base. «Basmany court» is now common jargon for lack of independence and injustice in the Russian justice system
[501].
Finally, there are the «mirovye sud'i» (magistracy). They try cases that are not very important (administrative and civil delicts, minor criminal delinquency).
The Office of Public Prosecutor
The goals of this institution are protection of the law's leadership and the unanimity of law; defence of the rights and freedoms of people; and defence of the legal interests of society and the state. The organizational basis of the Office of Public Order is the principle of one-man management. The General Prosecutor is the head of the Office of Public Prosecutor. There is an Office of Public Prosecutor in each region, city, and district of the Russian Federation. The important functions of the prosecutor are common supervision of public order and legality, criminal investigation, and prosecution of cases.
There is an Advocatory Chamber (the Bar) in each subject of Russian Federation. The Bar is independent of the government and includes advocatory collegiums, juridical offices, and individual barristers. There are three new organizational forms of the Bar, while only advocatory collegiums existed in the former Soviet Union.
System of Government
Russia has an area of 6,593,000 square miles. The population in 2011 was 141,930,000, and in October 2012, the population was 123,300,000. In 2010, ethnic Russia constituted 81 % of the population (World Bank 2012).
The contemporary Russian Federation (Russia) came into existence in 1991 after the breakdown of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Russia includes 21 republics in the remote regions of the Russian Federation, six krai (large regions or territories), fifty oblast (provinces or regions), one autonomous area (Chukotsk) and two cities under federal administration (the capital Moscow, and the former capital St. Petersburg). Moreover, seven Federal Okrugs (Central, North-Western, Southern, of the Volga, Ural, Siberian, and Far-Eastern) were recently constituted. Every Federal Okrug includes some regions. The representative of president is the head of each Federal Okrug. It is a realization of the idea of the consolidation of the central power («power's vertical line»).
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation there are division of powers. The president of the Russian Federation is head of state. The Russian Federation is a presidential republic with powerful presidential power. Moreover, there are presidents in the republics in the organic parts of the Russian Federation (Bashkiria, Dagestan, Tatarstan and others).
Federal legislature is a parliament (Federal'noe Sobranie – Federal Assembly) of two chambers: upper chamber, the «Sovet Federatsiy «(Council of Federation) and lower chamber «Gosudarstvennaja Duma» (State Duma
[502]). There are also parliaments in the republics of Federation.
Federal executive power is exercised by a government with a Prime Minister. Regional executive power is exercised by a governor (or mayor in a city) with a government (administration).
Unfortunately, many criminals are part of the contemporary power structures, such as the former mayor of Lenin-Kuznetsk, the former governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, the mayor of Vladivostok, the former head of department of the St. Petersburg's administration, many «assistants» of the deputies of the Duma, and so on.
Crime and Deviance
Crime
We are obliged to use official statistical data, because federal victimologi-cal survey is absent. Official police crime statistics are not reliable. The correct number and rates of crime are much more than the official statistical data in all countries. But since 1993-1994 there is mass cover-up of crimes that are not being registered (Gavrilov, 2001; Gilinskiy, 2002: 46-48; Luneev, 1997: 145). For example, the clearance rate in Russia is almost impossible to achieve (table 1). The data of murders cept by medical departments (World Health Statistics, 1996) are more reliable than police data (1992 – 22.9 and 15.5; 1993 – 30.4 and 19.6; 1994 – 32.3 and 21.8).
