While scrolling through the internet it’s impossible to not come across ads. One particular message that consistently appears, and is joked about, is the concept of a “Russian Mail-Order Bride.” Even when googling Russian phrases the ads that appear read along the lines of, “Beautiful Russian Brides”, “Find Russian Brides”, “Buy your Russian Wife Here.” Whether it be through a spam email, an over-heard green card joke, or just conversation, everyone has heard of the “Russian Mail Order Bride.” But, this phrasing clouds the true horror that is the Russia’s “shadow economy.” Following the collapse of the Soviet Empire the nation of Russian alongside all post-communist states were faced with this growing second economy. Those who were Soviet prisoners …show more content…
had networks, mafias were given the chance to make huge profits through the interdiction of a capitalism based market, and the newly opened boarder depleted the need for check points and the observation of migration. The newly opened globalized world of interconnection, technology, travel, and lack of restriction gave Russia the opening to join the massive market of modern day slavery known as Human trafficking. The 1990s marked Russia as an origin, transit, and destination country for human trafficking, particularly focused on the sexual trafficking of women and minors. Due to Human trafficking being an illegal practice the exact number of Russian women who have endured this is unknown. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) does however estimate that between 1992 and 2002, about 500,000 women and girls were trafficking from the former Soviet Union, mostly from Russia. The disintegration of the USSR in 1991 resulted in extreme transfers in the region’s economic system from which rose an increased level in unemployment and poverty, especially for women. This wide spread change in governmental structure, employment and investment patterns allows for many to exploit individuals in need, without the fear of law. Because Slavic women has been particularly prized for their blonde hair and high cheek bones the market of supply and demand took over. Profit drove the market to exploit women of all ages, particularly those under the legal age, and sell them into illegal prostitution through Europe, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, China and North America. Companies began to invite women to become waitresses, dances, nannies, nurses, office workers, travel agents, etc, with the one requirement being their willingness to travel. During this time their passports would be taken, and they would be relocated to different brothels as well as homes of buyers around the world. Unwillingness to comply more often than not resulted in rape, violence, and an instance to pay off their flights through work as well as sex at wages that couldn’t possibly be repaid. Progress has, however, been made.
In 2003, President Vladimir Putin spoke out in favor of making human trafficking illegal in Russia. Although this was not made a reality, the Criminal Code was amended and Article 127.1 declared human trafficking punishable by prison terms. This small victory as well as the combating methods of the Russian government are not enough. The punishment for Bride-kidnapping, or forced marriage, involving the abduction and sometimes rape of a woman or a girl, can be exonerated from all criminal liability if the individual voluntarily releases his victim under Article 126. In 2013 the US State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report downgraded Russia from its Tier 2 “Watch List” to its lowest classification of Tier-3, meaning Russia is not sufficiently meeting anti-trafficking standards. Because of the tense relationship between the US and Russia, Konstantin Dolgov responded to the downgrade by stating the authors used an “unacceptable ideological approach that divides nations into rating groups depending on the US State Department’s political sympathies or antipathies.” The woman of sexual trafficking in Russia not only lack the support of their government but a great deal of their peers. In June 2007 over 43 percent of male respondents and 38 percent of females blamed the women and girls themselves for ending up in the sex trade. Over a majority of those polled believed that their institutions of government would not be able of combat human trafficking, while 23 percent also believed no one could effectively solve the
problem. A strong political will is needed to stop human trafficking across Russia and its boarders. Through the cooperation of NGOs, governmental resources, and bilateral discussion more can be effectively done to support the prevention, rescue, and repatriation of trafficked persons. Sadly, the fight to end human trafficking, particularly sexual trafficking, is a long one and requires the cooperation of multiple entities. With Russia’s political focus being anywhere but human trafficking, the fight will a difficult one.
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
Mau, Vladimir. " The road to 'perestrokia': economics in the USSR and the problem of
In terms of employment, the former Soviet Union had the largest percentage of women in the labor force than any other comparative society. This still remains the case in the present day Russia. Unemployed women in Russia will be quickly employed. They have a very high success rate of reemploying women if they were to lose their jobs. “Compared to Western women, although Russian women have a much higher representation in law, medicine and engineering as well as in the skilled trades, such as metalworking and construction,...
As victim count continues to rise, its difficult to see how such great numbers of men, women and children are bought and sold every year. Trafficking can be found in many forms, including: prostitution, slavery, or forced labor (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). It wasn’t until the 1980’s that international human trafficking became globally noticed. With the lack of government intervention and control in several nations, and the free trade market, slavery once again became a profitable industry (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). As previously mentioned, easier movement across nations borders is one of the outcomes of globalization. It is also what makes human trafficking so easy today. It is estimated that about 20.9 million people are victims across the entire globe (United Nations Publications, 2012); trafficking accounts for 32 billion dollars in generated profit globally (Brewer, n.d). 58 percent of all human trafficking was for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and of this 55-60 percent are women (United Nations Publications,
An estimated 20.9 million people are currently being trafficked worldwide (The Polaris Project, 2014). According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, reauthorized in 2013), sex trafficking is defined as, “A commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, and/or in which the person induced to...
The Web. 5 May 2015. Franklin, Simon and Emma Widdis, eds. National Identity in Russian Culture: An Introduction.
Awareness of child sexual trafficking can be viewed as a balanced scale, with one side representing the country’s population that is fully informed of the issue, while the other side is either unaware or unattached to the issue. The public needs to have more involvement with this affair based on multiple concerns; first, the act of child sex trafficking itself is a serious crime that violates human rights (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Second, various negative health repercussion including transmittable sexual diseases, physical damages, mental disturbance, post traumatic stress disorders, and other illnesses plague many victims (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Third, sexual trafficking is responsible for generating poverty as a result of obstructing economic, and social development (Reid, 2012). Child sex trafficking proves to be a global dilemma affecting numerous countries
When we think of slavery today, our minds usually drift off into colonial America, where slavery was not only condoned but seen as a way of life by many. Slavery has since been banned in America, and all around the world. With that said, however, slavery still exists in all areas of the world. As a society of predominantly “good men” and women, we have done nothing – or very little – about a demon that plagues all of Eastern Europe, and whose influence spans the entire globe. These demons are the Ukraine sex syndicates that comb the countryside of former soviet nations for fresh prey. They are efficient, ruthless and brutal in each step of the trafficking process, from the recruiters to the brothel owners. They threaten, beat and rape their victims into submission. Even the local police are powerless to stop these atrocities. It is said One quarter of all women trafficked globally are taken illegally from Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Block countries. Officials estimate that in Europe alone this affects more than 200,000 women and girls, half of which end up in Western Europe and one fourth in the United States.[1] Most end up working as enslaved prostitutes, with no chance of a bright future. With very little public awareness about the issue, little to no support and protection for victums, and barley any enforcement of anti trafficking laws, it seems that unless society at large rises up to combat the challenge there is no hope for these poor women
The United States is a major port for human trafficking and, “Due to the covert nature of human trafficking, it is difficult to ascertain which countries are the primary source nations for trafficking into the US” (Hepburn). People of all ages and genders are at risk to human trafficking (Hepburn). Women and girls make up about fifty-six percent of the people trafficked for forced labor, while men and boys make up the other forty-four percent; children make up forty to fifty percent of those numbers (Hepburn). Ninety-eight percent of the people trafficked for sexual explorations are women and girls (Hepburn). Children tend to be targeted more than adults because they are much more vulnerable. Human trafficking has different forms, and “While trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation is more publicized in the media, it is not the only form of trafficking that takes place in the US” (Hepburn). Trafficking for the purposes of forced labor is just as likely to occur as trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation (Hepburn). Many citizens have never heard of human trafficking for something other than sexual exploitation. Hepburn shows that, “Forty-three percent are trafficked for purposes of...
Russia, spanning 11 time zones and serving as home to about 150 million people, possesses tremendous natural and human resources. Demand today for imported consumer goods, capital equipment, and services remains remarkably strong, with imports representing an unusually large percentage of the national market. Despite outstanding long-term market potential, Russia continues to be an extremely difficult country in which to do business.
Trafficking in Persons Report (2007) discusses many different tiers in relation to a counties response to human trafficking. Tier one consists of countries whose government fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, for example Australia, Uk, Germany and Norway. In tier two the countries whose government do not fully comply with TVPA’s minimum standards but making efforts to bring themselves up such as Japan, Romania, Peru and Rwanda. And finally tier three are governments that do not full...
An analysis of the signs and symbols used in Patek Philippe Geneve's "Begin your own tradition" advert.
One reason why human trafficking is a serious crime that many people are unaware of is because it secretly takes place in the United States. Between 2007 and 2012, there were reports of 9,298 different cases of human trafficking (Polaris Project). An example of how unknown this topic is is that 41% of sex trafficking cases and 20% of labor trafficking cases were proven to have United States citizens as victims (Polaris Project). And this is only what we know so far. There are thousands of cases that we don’t know about. Many people also don’t know that men, women, and even children are also taken hostage by human traffickers. An example of this would be that out of those 9,298 cases that were reported, women were victims of sex trafficking in 85% of those cases. Men were victims of labor trafficking in 40% of those cases (Polaris Project). Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice). Children are even more under the radar than we know about. On average, one in three teenagers on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving their home (National Runaway Hotline). For example, two female friends who were minors ran away from home and were prom...
Russian Crime organizations have grown to a high number since the end of the Cold War. The Nuclear Black market is no stranger to the Russian Mafia. Russia may be poised to sell nuclear weapons to the highest bidder as organized crime expands its influence in Russian society (Phinney). Some of the 200 Russian organized crime groups now operate worldwide, including in the United states and gaining the ability to manipulate its banking system and financial markets (Phinney). Roughly two-thirds of Russia’s economy is under sway of crime syndicates, and protection rackets have been the norm since the collapse of communism(Phinney). The Russian Mafia and the antifada
The average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.