The New Global Sex Trade from Eastern Europe
(Arcade Publishing (September 15, 2004), Hardcover: 320 pages, ISBN: 1559707356)

Victor Malarek’s The Natashas exposes the newest trend in the global sexual slave trade: the sale, rape and sexual servitude of young women from the Former Soviet Union. Approximately 1 million young women are trafficked annually.

Sex trafficking is not new and victims come from all over the world. But what is new is the strength with which the trade has taken hold of Former Soviet countries while they undergo trying socio-economic transitions.

I spent the summer of 2003 in Kiev, training social workers working in rape crisis counseling at a women’s organization combating sex trafficking. Getting victims to understand it is not their fault that they are kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery is one of the most difficult tasks. Some women who managed to return to Ukraine - usually through deportation or escape - sought our help while remaining silent for the most part about their experiences. (more…)

Moscow’s Mafia Culture in a Snapshot

Casino Moscow
Author: Matthew Brzezinski
Publisher: Touchstone
Paperback: June 2002, $12.60 at Barnes and Noble

In Casino Moscow, Matthew Brzezinski gives a colorful, although superficial, snapshot of Russiaís corrupt business environment in which a handful of oligarchs and thugs stole much of the countryís wealth during the post-Soviet high rolling years, pre-1998 market crash. Brzezinski was serving as a Wall Street Journal reporter in Moscow during 1997-8, and was fortunate to witness the most crucial years in Russia by which limitless corruption, banditry, contract killings, graft, political favor and personal greed came to define the workings of Russiaís new economy.

Through manifold details and anecdotes, Brzezinski’s story (more…)