Piracy flourishes

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

Russia is cracking down on bootleggers and black marketeers in an effort to win an invitation into the World Trade Organization. A new trademark law that took effect last week is supposed to make it easier to trace the $20 billion worth of fake goods sold in Russia each year. But police say it will be an uphill fight, as at least half of all products in Russia—from bootleg vodka and medicines to knockoff shoes, furniture, and cosmetics to pirated copies of software—are either counterfeit or smuggled. “Basically, everything is fake,” Alexander Sheremekh, vice president of the Coalition for Protection of Intellectual Property, told the South China Morning Post. “You can hardly find a product that isn’t.”