Before the war, the two countries “controlled a lucrative transnational smuggling highway,’ GI-TOC said. Corrupt officials and crime bosses siphoned off millions from Ukraine’s status as a transit country for Russian gas into the West. Now, however, the year-long invasion has made collaboration between Russian and Ukrainian organized crime groups all but impossible and longstanding business ties are now no longer viable, GI- TOC said, at least for the present. In the span of a few months, “most Russian criminal actors had been apprehended or ejected from the country,” the report said.
Source: Written by Henry Pope, 2023-02-25; https://www.occrp.org/en/daily//en/daily/17364-gi-toc-organized-crime-in-ukraine-and-russia-split-since-the-invasion