![]() The company’s facilities lack addresses or any identifying signs. Number 10, Pravaya Naberejnaya is a large, wooded complex of factories and warehouses adjacent to the town’s distinctive elevating rail bridge, and the home of Baltic Tobacco. (Their video report is available here.)īTF’s neighborhood, Pravaya Naberejnaya, Kaliningrad (“the Right Bank”), winds along the north bank of the Pregol river past former anchorages of Soviet Baltic fleet frigates and submarines. They carried concealed video and recording equipment to witness all that they saw and heard. To investigate the Baltic Tobacco Factory company (BTF) in the high risk environment of Kaliningrad, ICIJ’s reporters went undercover in June 2008, with one posing as a Romanian smuggler setting up a new route to the EU. And it is hard to imagine that law enforcement does not know what is going on.” Inside Baltic Tobacco “But not one of those crimes was disclosed. “In Kaliningrad there were even contract killings of tobacco businessmen,” says Rudnikov, a local parliamentary deputy. The paper’s co-founder, Igor Rudnikov, was then prosecuted for “beating 22 police officers.” In 2006, after criticizing the police - including the protection they give to smugglers - the local Novye Kolesa newspaper was raided and its newspapers confiscated. In 2006, after criticizing police in Kaliningrad, local newspaper Novye Kolesa was raided and its newspapers confiscated Russian journalists working in Kaliningrad know that to openly ask about the cigarette contraband trade is a risky business. The city is home to a noisy night life and frontier atmosphere, with luxury limousines a frequent sight on the streets. It has also gained a reputation as a haven for smugglers and money launderers, and for a police force accommodating to smugglers’ interests. The Russian territory, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, went into rapid and cataclysmic decline after the break up of the Soviet Union, but has since profited immensely from its close proximity and excellent transport to the European Union. Kaliningrad can be a dangerous place to ask questions about smuggling. Kaliningrad has a reputation for crime and corruption, with a busy nightlife and frontier-like feel Image: Credit: Stefan Candea. ![]() But Jin Ling was available to smugglers, in huge quantities, from its manufacturer, the Baltic Tobacco Factory. They quickly learned that packets of Jin Ling could not be purchased even in the shops, markets, or street stalls of the Russian city where they are made, Kaliningrad. ICIJ’s reporters went to Russia to uncover the truth about the billions of black market Jin Ling cigarettes turning up across Europe. ![]()
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