The weapon for the terrorist attack in Crocus was most likely to be taken out on the black market. How does it work?

Novyevropa tells where millions of “trunks” came from in the illegal circulation in the Russian Federation

The terrorists who attacked the audience in Crocus City Hall were armed with Russian assault rifles. The origin of this weapon has not yet been revealed. However, it is clear that Islamic militants acquired it in the black market. The New Gazeta Europe says that it is known about the underground weapons trade in the Russian Federation, from where it comes from in Russia and who can profit from the deadly product.

How many "black" weapons?

Center for Public Relations of the FSB of the Russian Federation
reports
The fact that the Federal Service, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Russian Guard in 48 regions of Russia, has revealed 134 “black” gunsmiths and 28 underground weapons workshops since the beginning of the year. More than 500 units of firearms were seized.

“There are no accurate data on the amount of illegal weapons in Russia today with any organization or authority,” says a Russian expert in security matters, who agreed to talk from the New Europe on the basis of anonymity. - Even before the start of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation officially stated that in criminal circulation in Russia there could be from 5 to 20 million units of weapons. Now this figure has grown strongly and can significantly exceed the previously named upper bar. In 2022, the number of crimes using weapons, ammunition and explosive devices increased by a third. In 2023, this indicator decreased, but we do not know how sly statistics. Perhaps it did not get a certain number of cases of illegal turnover - you just have to imagine the situation in the so -called "new territories", where large -scale military operations are underway.

“Russian law enforcement agencies adjust the statistics to the indicators necessary,” says Sergey Aslannyan, journalist and weapons expert. - At the level of the Ministry of the Interior, it is important that the figures of crimes related to weapons are lower than for the same period last year. Otherwise, the punishment for bad work will follow. And police commanders invent various ways to hide the real state of things. Several criminal cases become episodes of one, some of the investigations generally end in nothing. And now the generals receive bonuses and new awards. And as a result, officially registered murders in Russia are no more than 17 thousand a year, but more than 90 thousand people are missing. And annually there are about 90 thousand unidentified corpses, which are then few interest.

Where does it come from?

The leadership of the Russian Federation stated that weapons from abroad were going on to the country. So,
According to the version
Vladimir Putin, weapons from the territory of Ukraine illegally get into Russia.

The Russian expert claims that since the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, in the first place among the sources of the criminal weapon market in Russia is the transportation of trunks from the Zone zone. As from any hot point, for example, from the Caucasus during the Chechen campaigns, from Ukraine back in 2014, a stable influx of weapons began, which was lost during battles, stolen from army reserves, taken from the corpses of the dead or received as trophies from the enemy. These are thousands of unaccounted trunks. As a rule, we are talking about Kalashnikov machine guns with cartridges to them, about machine guns and manual grenades. But sometimes there are Western samples with which the APU soldiers were armed. In areas where battles are going on, the weapon costs a penny, and sometimes simply exchanges for useful things, food or alcohol. Entire gangs arrive from Russia to organize the channels of illegal sale of weapons and ammunition from Russia.

“Weapons were brought from conflict zones in Soviet times,” Sergey Aslannyan agrees with this point of view. - From Afghanistan, caravans of cars with various kinds came on the ground. There was a weapon there. It spread in all regions of the USSR, including its Russian part. Then conflicts followed in the states of Central Asia. Russian peacekeepers also participated there and the military served on military bases, who also brought the “trophies”. Two Chechen campaigns saturated the country with a huge amount of illegal trunks. Since 2014, there is a war in Ukraine. A huge number of Russians, including the military, special services and the Russian Guard and other units, are participating in it and is now involved in it. The lion's share of these people hid the barrel "just in case."

Many were able to bring “echo” home. No wonder in the reports there are more and more cases when war veterans are undermined on their own grenades.

“In the Donbass, from 2014 to our days, a sustainable Voentorg market has developed, which allowed the militias to purchase armament at a similar price,” says Evgeny K., an employee of the Russian intelligence services, - to buy a rusty howitzer and ammunition for it were not difficult for a cerebral or Dremov (field commanders of the DPR militia in 2014-2015 years). In this business, the intermediaries were usually Chechens. This was directly purchased from the storage warehouses of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, which passed into the direct subordination of Zolotov as the head of the Russian Guard in connection with the reorganization. AK could be bought for $ 100-150, the TT pistol cost up to $ 900.

Sergei Aslannyan is sure that the border with Ukraine as before and remains a hole in today. According to him, at a time when the “DPR” was not yet recognized by Russia, a real weapons clledike arose there. For relatively little money, almost any weapon could be purchased. In Ukraine, both produced and stored a huge number of small arms. The warehouses have been scored since Soviet times. Then they added to them what was released under a license in Vinnitsa and other areas. And all these “souvenirs of war” are now going from occupied territories to the Russian Black Market.

“From the combat contact line, the fighters carry weapons either to the border regions - the Rostov, Belgorod, Bryansk and others, or immediately to large cities and the capital,” says a Russian military expert. - It is extremely difficult to control this process. After all, soldiers tens of thousands move from the war zone to the "large land" and vice versa. The army command, the FSB and the Russian Guard are trying to stop such criminal transit of prohibited goods, but they reveal only a meager percentage of carriers. At the Eastern Station of Moscow, where trains from the southern regions come, almost every day they delay people trying to bring something forbidden into the capital. Often it is the weapon.

Where are they stealing?

Various PMCs, volunteer detachments and other semi -legal formations with vague status receive weapons from the depots of the Ministry of Defense and use it for training at shooting range and training grounds in different regions of Russia. Our Russian interlocutor in the special services suggests that these trunks also go to the criminal market.

“According to my data, from the beginning of the special operation, the cost of the machine has decreased in some regions, including central Russia, ten times,” says Evgeny K. “In some cases, 30-40 thousand rubles are now asked for Kalashnikov, while the machine used to cost 150-400 thousand. PM and PMM (Makarov Pistol and Makarov Pistol, modernized), which are relatively rarely brought from the war, cost in the region of one thousand dollars.

Starting from the 90s of the last century, another source of criminal weapons has been warehouses of law enforcement agencies. Often, the warehouses themselves, after the theft of their contents, suddenly burned, destroying all traces of the crime. And although since then it could have passed a lot of time, then stolen trunks from criminal turnover have not gone away. Only the meager part of this weapons was seized by law enforcement agencies.

“Previously, the Ministry of Internal Affairs published a card index of the wanted weapons,” recalls the Russian military expert. - It included about 400 thousand units with numbers and losses of loss. Moreover, the list began with an old nagan taken from an armed security officer, and ended with a 71 portable missile system.

“There is also smuggling imports from abroad,” continues the employee of the Russian special services. - The countries of Europe and Asia supply many interesting models to the Russian Black Market.

As a rule, these are new trunks, the origin of which is almost impossible to calculate. They are often used by professional killers.

A very small part of the black weapon market, according to our sources, is made up of homemade and the fact that black diggers took out of the ground. The number of in this way the units of weapons in working condition gravitates to mathematical error.

“Black diggers practically stopped supplying models suitable for real shooting to the market,” says an employee of the Russian special services. -Very rarely you can find something in working condition.

How do they sell?

“In Russia today, you can illegally purchase almost any type of weapons, including foreign models,” the Russian expert believes. - There is a stable demand for illegal weapons in the country. Accordingly, a stable offer also appears. Today's Russian law enforcement officers are not actually able to deal with the shadow market of weapons. They close small underground workshops, arrest the craftsmen who remake civilian weapons for combat, or plant black diggers, looking for weapons that remained from the Second World War on the fields of long -threatened battles. Sometimes the police manage to identify the “brook”, according to which the trunks come from the war or from abroad. But these are relatively small numbers. It is good if you manage to catch one professional seller out of a hundred.

Weapons trade occur through a chain of intermediaries or in a darknet. The customer pays with bitcoins and receives instructions about where you can pick up the weapon disassembled into pieces. As a rule, various details are hidden in several places.

“It is interesting that until recently in Russia, Dadne toys company completely openly traded barrels for combat pistols,” says Sergey Aslanyan. - But it is the barrel that is the most difficult from the point of view of making a part of small arms. The rest in the presence of a production base and skill can be made by artisanal. This organization participated in all weapons salons. They sold boxes.

Most often, loners or small bipods, buying, transporting or selling a dangerous load, come across and undergo criminal prosecution. The security forces, with whose conduct, this is probably done, are probably in the share of the criminal business, remain aside.

“There is a serious danger on the Black Market to run into a stand of law enforcement agencies,” said Sergey Aslanyan. -As a rule, the first to meet in specialized forums and in shadow online stores are FSB or police officers. But with due caution and carefulness, anyone will be able to find a real underground seller. We will not give advice on how to do it correctly.

“I suppose that individual employees of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Russian Guard can occupy their niche in the illegal weapon market and control individual crime segments,” says the Russian military expert.

- However, in my opinion, today there is no only owner of the illegal weapon market in Russia, which completely controls its turnover.

“In Russia, for many years there has been no business, both legal and illegal, which would not be under the control of the security forces,” says Sergey Aslanyan. - And the illegal turnover of weapons is huge money. It is most likely that most of this market is supervised by special services and Rosguard. After all, experience shows that specialized units roof their types of criminal pie: traffic cops participate in car thefts, anti -drug police and Ephesians carry prohibited substances, and the organs responsible for the fight against illegal trunks are trading or receive a bribe from such trade.

Who owns?

According to the special services employee Evgeny K., a large number of illegal weapons were settled after the war in the Caucasus. He recalls that during the raid of Chechen militants in Dagestan in 1999, local residents got in the way of invasion took thousands of machine guns and carbines from the caches. At least one gun, often not registered, is in every family living in Siberian villages, as well as in the Far North.

“When 7.62 mm caliber cartridges appeared in Russian weapons stores for the PPSh gunarrun converted under the hunting carbine, they were all dared from the shelves right away,” says Sergey Aslanyan. - Moreover, the carbines themselves practically did not buy. The fact is that this cartridge is suitable for a TT pistol, which is traditionally very popular in the weapon black market. For many Russians in families, such a relic has been stored since the Second World War.

“Millions of trunks lie in caches with bandits and members of the organized crime group,” supplements our source in the special services. - Sometimes Russian raiders and gangsters seize very interesting samples of small arms, including special forces weapons, silent pistols and machine guns - models that are not shown at exhibitions. But most often we are talking about classics: PM, TT and Kalashnikovs of various modifications. A shortened version of AKSU used to be special in the criminal environment, which could be worn under a long cloak. Currently, criminal authorities have legal armed guards. And various PMC commanders generally move around the country with entire arsenals.

“As far as one can judge, large flows of smuggled weapons can go to Russia from China,” says Sergey Aslanyan. - First of all, the Chinese themselves acquire such weapons, tens of thousands of illegally living in Siberia, the Trans -Baikal Territory and in the Far East. These migrants are engaged in illegal hunting, illegal forest harvesting, drug trafficking and other illegal actions. Local residents are very afraid of them and accuse the murder of hunters who have gone in the taiga of conversations.

“Separately, it is worth saying about de facto legalized award weapons in Russia,” says the Russian expert. - I was offered to pay for the purchase of a reward pistol. As a rule, this is PM or APS Stechkin. For 10 thousand dollars, the one who wants to receive both the pistol itself and the award documents for it. According to rumors, for 100 thousand, the trunk will present in a festive atmosphere one of the heads of the state right in the Kremlin under the television cameras. Since in Russia many in power and security forces have a service or award weapon, their statements that the Russians have not grown up to the possession and wearing of a short -barrel, look at least strange. Pistols are available to the elect, and it is dangerous to arm the serfs, from the point of view of power. One has only to recall the deputy of Khinshtein, who "mowed" from the army on mental illness, but still received a award pistol. Or a well-known political figure, the former first vice-speaker of the State Duma from United Russia Love Slush, who had two award pistols. Both of them were stolen from the drawer of the table, where, with a gross violation of all possible laws, the deputy kept them.

An ordinary person would be seriously punished for this. And Sluske was simply handed the third. It turns out that there is no equality in this matter.

“This service is in the market because there is demand,” says Sergey Aslanyan. - The award pistols issued in Abkhazia and permitted in Russia were removed during the searches of many criminal authorities killed on the showdown of merchants and officials involved in corruption crimes.

What to do?

The only effective way to combat the illegal weapon market, according to our interlocutors, is the legalization of trade, ownership and wearing of military weapons, including short -barreled.

“The only effective way to reduce the black weapons market is, in my opinion, the legalization of the possession and wearing of a short -barrel in Russia,” explains Sergey Aslanyan. - Every mentally healthy person after checking and learning should be able to buy a gun. The illegal turnover of the trunks will be reduced, and people will be able to protect themselves from owners of illegal weapons. 49 percent of terrorist attacks in Israel is prevented by peaceful, but armed citizens.

“In the USA, mass jokes occur, as a rule, only in places where weapons are prohibited,” the Russian expert completes the conversation. - If at least a few hundred armed people from more than six thousand spectators were in the Crocus City Hall hall, terrorists would have been destroyed at the very beginning of the attack. Кстати, официально зарегистрированное у россиян охотничье оружие крайне редко используется для совершения преступлений.