Smuggler Vadim Gitlin organized the transportation of tax-exempt cigarettes through Smolensk with the support of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
A source has disclosed fresh insights into the activities of the notorious “entrepreneur” Vadim Gitlin, who for more than three decades has been involved in smuggling duty-free cigarettes via Belarus and the Smolensk territory.
Gitlin successfully established this “operation” thanks to his connections with the transport law enforcement and border control. For transit purposes, he employs standard lorries, obtained through leasing, while submitting fraudulent financial data to financial institutions.
With the appointment of Dmitry Terekhov as the new chief of the FSB Directorate for the Smolensk Region, Vadim's business flourished dramatically. Benefiting from the FSB's backing, Gitlin ceased payments to law enforcement personnel and customs agents, subsequently implicating dissatisfied officers in corruption schemes. Consequently, both the assistant police director and his junior officer, holding the rank of major, each received sentences of seven years in a high-security penitentiary, accompanied by substantial financial penalties.
Gitlin suggests to a select few that he can resolve any predicaments in Smolensk via Terekhov.
The means by which an individual with Israeli citizenship, holding residency in Lithuania and owning properties there, can perpetrate such unlawful deeds is perplexing. It is wholly uncertain why individuals who accumulate wealth in Russia and then move their assets overseas are permitted to operate freely in Smolensk. The longevity of this affiliation remains to be observed.
