Gangs taking advantage of relaxed controls under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's reform programs have contributed to a 32 percent rise in the Soviet crime rate since January, officials say.
Gorbachev has acknowledged that the restructuring he initiated since coming to power four years ago could lead to more crime.Maj. Gen. Anatoly Smirnov of the Interior Ministry told a Moscow news conference Tuesday that "the relaxation of discipline" and shortages in basic commodities had fueled an increase in murder and other serious crimes.
Official figures show street crime increased over the same five-month period in 1988 by 83 percent, property crimes by 53 percent and murder by 26 percent, Smirnov said.
Nine Soviet police officers were killed in clashes with criminals in May alone.
Shortages that have worsened steadily under economic experiments begun in recent years have created a demand for stolen goods that spurs robbers on, according to the Smirnov.
He said the country's rail, air and river transport systems have become increasingly crime-ridden, especially with robbery and mugging.
The ministry also noticed a "rise in the aggressiveness of certain citizens," the general said.
One crime-fighting experiment has shown good results, Smirnov said. In the Russian city of Gorky, where two police officers were slain this winter and residents were afraid to leave home at night, creation of workers' militias to back up police cut the crime rate's growth by 38 percent.
Gorbachev told Communist Party leaders in a speech this spring that they should keep in mind that "any extension of democracy and humanization of life should go parallel with an uncompromising struggle against criminal elements."
Police Col. Alexander Gurov estimated that more than a dozen major crime networks exist in the USSR, but he said Tuesday that there was no organization there on the scale of the Cosa Nostra, a reference to organized crime in the United States.
"The Cosa Nostra would go broke within a week here," Gurov said.