They have stripped and sexually abused a woman, severely burned a toddler by firebombing a house and broken a woman’s pinkie as a warning. Gang members, bandits, mobsters? Not exactly. These are debt collectors, a peculiarly Russian variety that is flourishing amid the country’s economic turmoil.
As a punishing recession stretches into a second year, people struggling to make ends meet are resorting in growing numbers to borrowing at astronomical interest rates that many cannot possibly afford.
With unpaid debts mushrooming, collection has turned into something of a blood sport reminiscent of the shocking gang violence of the 1990s, with threats and violence by debt collectors spreading across the sprawling Russian hinterland largely unrestrained by public authorities.
“As a rule, small sums are involved in these cases, and it is easier to recover them by physical force,” said Danila S. Mikhalishchev, a debt collector turned consumer advocate. “It is easier to frighten people than to sue them.”
In 2015, the amount of unpaid debt surged by almost 50 percent to $15 billion, or about 13 percent of all personal debt, according to Alexander A. Akhlomov of the United Credit Bureau, a private organization that tracks credit ratings. A borrower making no payments for three months is considered to be in default. Just since March of last year, the number of Russians in that category has leapt to 7.5 million from six million, he said.
It is not hard to see why. In 2015, real wages declined 10 percent in the face of a steep drop in the global price of oil, a weak ruble and Western economic sanctions imposed over Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. This March, for the first time since 2008, Russians spent more than half their income on food, beverages and cigarettes, according to government statistics.
To make matters worse, banks have tightened credit, so the growing ranks of Russians living paycheck to paycheck have fewer options. “What changed with the crisis is that banks became much stricter about issuing new loans,” Mr. Akhlomov said. “Before, if people did not have the money to pay off a loan, they could go to another bank. That does not work anymore.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/world/europe/russia-debt-collectors-mob.html
