This is significantly lacking in Russian society today. This is why no foreign investor dares to offer to convert the military production plants into factories making goods for peaceful purposes. We should not allow Western business leaders to remain at the primitive level of barter agreements. The largest Swiss bank reached an agreement some years ago with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to exchange Swiss francs for gold and silver. This relatively primitive situation has remained unchanged and no private investor is granted a loan, the excuse being made that the necessary legal order is not yet in place.
Economic crime is, of course, a tremendous obstacle to rapid and healthy economic development.
It involves Mafia-like organisations that must be combated. We want the secret service FSB to establish the office of an ombudsperson to enable the efficient forces of the secret service to be called upon for help at any time. We now know of cases where this has worked, where the Mafia attacks were stopped as a result of the intervention of the secret service. These are solutions that can be achieved step by step if we have the courage to act on the spot. The local conflicts are an additional problem to which the Council of Europe must not close its eyes.