"Where there is demand, there is supply," said one police officer regarding the situation in Vyborg. Five large groups, controlling hundreds of women, are running prostitution rings in the city of 100,000.
Whole generations of prostitutes are growing up in the city. Mothers often "recruit" their daughters into the profession, some of whom are no older than 11.
One prostitute, 14, was raped when she was 11, and her mother, instead of calling the police, took money from the rapist and bought new clothes for herself and her daughter.
"Most of these mothers are complete alcoholics and finished as human beings," said Major Nikolai Tyunin, the deputy head of the police force of Vyborg, dealing with crime involving foreigners (OCCM).
Young women involved in prostitution face a grim life full of violence from clients and the pimps who offer them "protection."
Last week a man with four previous convictions was arrested in Vyborg for the repeated rape of the teenage prostitutes he administered.
Now the young women (15 teenage prostitutes aging from 13 to 16 years old) are being supervised by the Vyborg police -- not to prevent them from engaging in prostitution, but to protect them from friends of Sergei Potapov, 35, their former boss.
Potapov offered girls apartments to live, where they could escape from their drunken or abusive parents, and then forced them to pay their way by stealing, racketeering and prostitution.
Each of them paid him 500 Finnish marks ($120) a month for "protection."
"When we delayed payments, he beat us, drowned us in his bath and raped us," said one of girls.
She said he raped them in the presence of his alcoholic wife.
Teens aren't the only ones trapped in the cycle of prostitution. Police said a new age group has recently come into demand -- women over 50.
"They are popular with some Finns, especially former army or police officers, who want a heart and domestic service, and not just sex," said Maj Tyunin.
"Recently we detained one cashier of a local shop but we had to let her go because there is no law in Russia which prohibits prostitution."
Police said most clients come from Finland. Finns do not need visas to travel to Vyborg, and are welcome because tourists and businessmen have money to spend.
For Finns, Russian prostitutes are cheaper than in Finland (100-300 FIM ($20-60) for an hour to up to 1,000 FIM ($240) a night). For prostitutes, dealing with Finns is safer than with the Russian mafia.
The police have had to deal with an increasing number of criminal cases involving prostitutes. Although some murders are attributed to prostitution gangs, robbery is a more common complaint.
"Finns have to blame themselves," said Maj Tyunin. "They confirm that when they come to our department wrapped in just a towel given to them by some of understanding Vyborg residents."
Maj Tynin said that sometimes police give the embarrassed Finns army uniforms or even rubber anti-radiation suits to keep them clothed until they can get back home.
Prostitution is not illegal in Russia. The law prosecutes only pimps and organizers of brothels. But police said it is extremely hard to get enough evidence to prove someone was involved in running the ring.
"Most of owners recently restarted their business after being released from prison because of the presidential Victory Day decree," said Maj Tyunin, referring to the decree which granted amnesty to hundreds of petty criminals last May. "With our laws it is very hard to get enough evidence to sentence criminals for organizing prostitution. We went through so much trouble to convict these people, and now they are free."
Brothels are usually a filthy room in a communal apartment. Police said that when they raided one such brothel last week, they found a tipsy middle-aged woman in dirty pants and a bra who swore lazily at them.
A young pregnant woman with bright make-up, standing nearby, was her daughter.
"Both were prostitutes who now run this brothel," said one officer.
The police force in Vyborg, which has to deal with all crimes involving foreigners, is quite small -- only 17 people.
"We have constant troubles with everything that needs expenditures, even in obtaining interpreters," said Maj Tyunin. "We are just not given money for that."
Vyborg is 100 km (62 miles)
northwest of St
Petersburg,
near Finland.