yup it's bad.
the way it works is people (pimps/masters) put out an ad in the newspaper or similar publication offering young women work in a faraway place - be it another city or another country. The work they are offered ranges from telemarketing, interpreter, hostess, waitressing, pretty much anything. the clinch that attracts the women is the pay - they are offered sometimes 10x the amount of pay that they would normally get where they live doing the same thing. They target uneducated, clueless women living in poor, economically destitute areas of the country. Women from the caucases or siberia and similar far-off regions are targeted to come to cities like moscow or st.petersburg, and the women from those cities are generally targeted to go to places like the netherlands, spain, middle eastern countries and a few certain ex-soviet countries (hungary, Czech rep) Usually, the woman goes for an interview, everything looks legit, and if she's pretty enough they offer to pay for her plane ride to wherever the job is. Once she gets there, she finds out there is no job, and she owes whomever the transport fare. she is also peniless, homeless, and hungry. because often they are on tourist visas or simply smuggled into the country, they have no way of getting legitimate work. so they start prostituting themselves for the people that brought her there. This eventually leads to an endless cycle of debt where the pimp contrives new reasons why she owes money and needs to work. the only way out of this is if the prostitute meets a man who is willing to marry her, take her under his wing, and get her out of the country and (usually) to the U.S. This is often complicated by the fact that her pimps often still want the debt repaid, and will hunt the woman to the ends of the earth to get it. this often means the future husband has to "buy" the woman from the pimp..... (does the whole russian brides thing make sense to you now?)
It's not like every russian woman is a slave. This is not a huge huge huge endemic problem. It is a problem though, more so than in any other developed nation. Any russian you meet there or abroad with probably know someone who was subject to this kind of treatment, or knows a friend who knew someone who was.
Also, just to be clear, russian mafia goons dont kidnap and rape little girls from foreign countries, especially not america. Pedophile is more of a taboo in russia than in the U.S. Any russian criminal found out to be a pedophile is an instantly dead russian criminal. The underworld has zero tolerance for such behavior, and will not hesitate to eliminate anyone suspected of trafficking or abusing children. Anyone sent to prison for such a crime can be certain he will not leave alive - and no amount of bribery will get a pedophile out of trouble. Granted, in russia, the age of majority as accepted by the culture is different - anyone over 16-17 is considered an adult although that may differ from individual to individual.
