Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a
collective of various
organized crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
elements originating in the
former Soviet Union
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Group, used to refer to any of the Russian mafia groups, sometimes modified with a specific name, e.g. Orekhovskaya OPG. Sometimes the initialism is translated and OCG is used.
Organized crime in Russia began in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, but it was not until the Soviet era that ''
vory v zakone'' ("thieves-in-law") emerged as leaders of prison groups in
forced labor camps, and their
honor code became more defined. With the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the
death of Joseph Stalin
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
, and the
fall of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, more gangs emerged in a flourishing
black market, exploiting the unstable governments of the former Republics.
Louis Freeh
Louis Joseph Freeh (born January 6, 1950) is an American attorney and former judge who served as the fifth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from September 1993 to June 2001.
Graduated from Rutgers University and New York Univers ...
, former director of the
FBI, said that the Russian mafia posed the greatest threat to
U.S. national security in the mid-1990s.
In 2012, there were as many as 6,000 groups,
with more than 200 of them having a global reach. Criminals of these various groups are either former prison members, corrupt officials and business leaders, people with ethnic ties, or people from the same region with shared criminal experiences and leaders.
In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian National Central Bureau of
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
, stated "Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad",
while in August 2010,
Alain Bauer
Alain Bauer (born 8 May 1962) is a French criminologist who has been a professor of criminology at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM Paris) since 2009. He is also a senior research fellow at the John Jay College of Criminal ...
, a French criminologist, said that it "is one of the best structured criminal organizations in Europe, with a quasi-military operation."
The Russian mafia is similar to the
Italian Mafia
Organized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century.
There are six ...
in many ways, the groups' organization and structure follow a similar model. The two groups also share a similar portfolio of criminal activity. The highly publicized Italian Mafia is believed to have inspired early criminal groups in Russia to form Mafia-like organizations, eventually spawning their own version. The Russian mafia, however, differed from the Italians due to their environment. The level of political corruption and arms sales in a post-Soviet Russia allowed for massive expansion and incorporation of many government officials into the crime syndicates. The Russians also dabbled in uranium trading, stolen from the Soviet nuclear program, and human trafficking.
History
''Origins''
The Russian criminality can be traced back to Russia's
imperial period, which began in the 1720s, in the form of banditry and thievery. Most of the population were
peasants
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
, in poverty at the time, and criminals who stole from government entities and divided profits among the people earned
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
-like status, being viewed as protectors of the poor and becoming
folk heroes. In time, the ''Vorovskoy Mir'' (Thieves' World) emerged as these criminals grouped and started their own code of conduct that was based on strict loyalty with one another and opposition against the government.
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
was a
crime boss and
gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
during the early 1900's. Amid growing violence, Stalin formed his own armed Red Battle Squads. They raised funds through a
protection racket
A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...
on large local businesses and mines. Stalin also established a small group which he called the Bolshevik Expropriators Club, although it would more widely be known as the Group or Outfit. Containing about ten members, three of whom were women, the group procured arms, facilitated prison escapes, raided banks, and executed traitors. (See
Early Life of Joseph Stalin)
When the
Bolshevik Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
came around in 1917, the Thieves' World was alive and active.
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
attempted to wipe them out, but failed, and the criminals survived into Joseph Stalin's reign.
Russian organized crime is also unique in that it does not possess a clearly defined, top-down hierarchy. Unlike the Italian mafias, with their capofamiglia, or the Chinese triads, with their “mountain masters,” the Russian Mafia structural ranking does not include irreplaceable leaders. It would be impossible to take down a few “heads
'' of the Red Mafia in order to topple the entire organization because they simply do not exist. This gives ROC an invaluable strategic advantage over those attempting to dismantle it.
The main difference between Russian and Italian mafia is that Italian mafia uses murders and thefts as the main methods of violence. The Russian mafia groups use extortion, credit card fraud, murder, kidnap, and fuel frauds (Friedman 2000, p. 160-161).
''1917–1991: Soviet era''
During Stalin's reign as ruler, millions of people were sent to ''
gulag
The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
s'' (Soviet labor camps), where powerful criminals worked their way up to become ''vorami v zakone'' ("
thieves-in-law"). These criminal elites often conveyed their status through complicated tattoos, symbols still used by Russian mobsters.
After
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's
invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Stalin was recruiting more men to fight for the nation, offering prisoners freedom if they joined the army. Many flocked to help out in the war, but this act betrayed the codes of the Thieves' World that one must not ally with the government. Those who chose not to fight in the war referred to the traitors as ''suka'' ("bitch"), and the traitors landed at the bottom of the "hierarchy". Outcast, the ''suki'' separated from the others and formed their own groups and power bases by collaborating with prison officials, eventually gaining the luxury of comfortable positions. Bitterness between the groups erupted into a series of
Bitch Wars
The Bitch Wars, or Suka Wars (russian: Сучьи войны , translit= ''Suchyi voyny '' or in singular: russian: Сучья война , translit= ''Suchya voyna''), occurred in the Soviet Gulag labor-camp system between 1945 and 1953, around ...
from 1945 to 1953 with many killed every day. The prison officials encouraged the violence, seeing it as a way to rid the prisons of criminals.
While Hitler’s invasion of Russia during WWII caused countless casualties on the battlefield, it also led to one of more violent periods in the history of Russian organized crime. In 1941, as the German army approached, Stalin desperately looked for ways to bolster the Russian army’s numbers. Turning to the seemingly endless supply of able-bodied men overflowing the gulags and prison system, Stalin promised the vor a chance to win back their freedom by defending Russia against the imminent attack. Joining the army to fight for Stalin (cooperating with the government) was a flagrant violation of the criminal code of honor, yet for many, this offer was too tempting to refuse. Thousands of prisoners signed up to defend against the Nazi threat and regain their freedom; that freedom, however, proved to be only momentary. Following the conclusion of the war in 1945, Stalin reneged on his initial promise, throwing the vor soldiers right back into the gulags that they had so desperately tried to escape. This marked the beginning of what would be known as the “Suki Wars.” Though the prison system had never been a particularly safe haven to begin with, the return to the gulags was a death sentence for the vor who had fought in the Red Army. To the vory v zakone, cooperating with the government was tantamount to treason; therefore, the thieves who had remained in prison saw the actions of the thieves-turned-soldiers as the ultimate betrayal. These “traitors,” called suki, were systematically slaughtered in the gulags as a punishment for their treachery and cowardice. The prison guards did nothing to stop the massacre, and in fact often encouraged the violence, as they viewed it was a quick and cost-effective method for thinning the criminal ranks within the prison system. It is unknown just how many suki were killed during this extermination process, but in 1953, eight million prisoners were finally released. By then, the culture of the Russian criminal underworld had been irreparably altered—no longer did a criminal need to abide by the antiquated rules of the old “Thieves’ World.”
Then, in the 1980s,
Mikhail Gorbachev loosened restrictions on private businesses, allowing them to grow legally, but by then, the Soviet Union was already beginning to collapse.
Also during the 1970s and 1980s, the United States expanded its immigration policies, allowing
Soviet Jews
The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. "For ...
, with most settling in a southern
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
area known as
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
(sometimes nicknamed "Little
Odessa"). Here is where Russian organized crime began in the US.
The earliest known case of Russian crime in the area was in the mid-1970s by the "
Potato Bag Gang," a group of
con artists disguised as merchants that told customers that they were selling antique gold
rubles for cheap, but in fact, gave them bags of potatoes when bought in thousands. By 1983, the head of Russian organized crime in Brighton Beach was
Evsei Agron
Evsei Borisovich Agron ( rus, Евсей Борисович Агрон, r=Yevsei Borisovich Agron; 25 January 1932 – 4 May 1985) was boss of New York City's Russian mafia during the 1970s and 1980s. Known for his cruelty, he was called the "God ...
.
Pauol Mirzoyan was a prime target among other mobsters including rival Boris Goldberg and his organization,
and in May 1985 Agron was assassinated.
Boris "Biba" Nayfeld, his bodyguard, moved on to employ under
Marat Balagula
Marat Yakovlevich Balagula (russian: Мара́т Я́ковлевич Балагула; 8 September 1943 – 19 December 2019) was a Jewish-American organized crime figure, crime boss, and close associate of the Lucchese crime family and Colom ...
, who was believed to have succeeded Agron's authority. In the following year, Balagula fled the country after he was convicted in a fraud scheme of
Merrill Lynch customers, and was found in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, West Germany in 1989, where he was extradited back to the US and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Balagula would later be convicted on a separate $360,000
credit card fraud in 1992.
Nayfield took Balagula's place, partnering with the "Polish Al Capone", Ricardo Fanchiniin, in an import-export business and setting up a heroin business.
In 1990, his former friend, Monya Elson, back from a six-year prison sentence in Israel, returned to America and set up a rival heroin business, culminating in a mafia turf war.
''1992–2000: Growth and internationalization''
When the USSR collapsed and a free market economy emerged, organized criminal groups began to take over Russia's economy, with many ex-
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
agents and veterans of the
Afghan war offering their skills to the crime bosses.
Gangster
summit meetings had taken place in hotels and restaurants shortly before the Soviet's dissolution, so that top ''vory v zakone'' could agree on who would rule what, and set plans on how to take over the post-Communist states.
In the 1990s in Russia, as well as in other post-Soviet countries, vast deposits of natural resources and businesses that the state had owned for decades
were privatised. Former Soviet bureaucrats, factory directors, aggressive businessmen and criminal organizations used insider deals, bribery and simple brute force in order to grab lucrative assets. Businesses began building their own private armies of security agents, bodyguards and commercial spies. They often simply bought the people and weapons of the former Soviet state, or even those of the
current Russian police. Russia's new capitalists spent millions of dollars for protection, buying armor-plated cars, bomb sensors, hidden cameras, bulletproof vests, anti-wiretapping gear, weapons, recruiting veterans of the Afghan and
Chechen wars as their bodyguards. However, almost every business in Russia, from curbside vendors to huge oil and gas companies, made payments to the organized crime for protection ("
krysha"). Businessmen said that they needed the "krysha" because the laws and the court system were not functioning properly in Russia. The only way for them to enforce a contract was to turn to a criminal "krysha". They also used it to intimidate competitors, enforce contracts, collect debts or take over new markets. It was also becoming increasingly common for Russian businesses to turn to the "red krysha" (the corrupt police who doubled as a paid protection racket).
Contract killings were common.
The discussion notes that Russian mobsters now operate in more than 50 countries around the world. Their background in a totalitarian country with widespread corruption has resulted in their development of a unique business acumen. Thirty Russian crime syndicates operate in at least 17 cities in the United States. The Red Mafiya is the most brilliant and savage Russian mob organization in the world; the Russian mob virtually controls Russia. In addition, both the Bush and the Clinton Administrations have unwittingly facilitated the Russian mob and the untrammeled corruption of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
In early 1993, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported there were over 5,000 organized crime groups operating in Russia. These groups had an estimated 100,000 members with a leadership of 18,000. Although Russian authorities have currently identified over 5,000 criminal groups in that country, Russian officials believe that only approximately 300 of those have some identifiable structure. 11 organized crime groups in Russia are not nearly as structured as those in the U.S., such as the LCN.
It was the period of internationalization of Russian organized crime. It was agreed that
Vyacheslav "Yaponchik" Ivankov would be sent to
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
in 1992, allegedly because he was killing too many people in Russia and also to take control of Russian organized crime in North America.
Within a year, he built an international operation that included, but was not limited to,
narcotics,
money laundering, and prostitution and made ties with the
American Mafia and Colombian
drug cartels
A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the l ...
, eventually extending to Miami, Los Angeles, and
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
Those who went against him were usually killed.
Prior to Ivankov's arrival, Balagula's downfall left a void for America's next ''vory v zakone''. Monya Elson, leader of Monya's ''Brigada'' (a gang that similarly operated from Russia to Los Angeles to New York), was in a feud with Boris Nayfeld, with bodies dropping on both sides.
Ivankov's arrival virtually ended the feud, although Elson would later challenge his power as well, and a number of attempts were made to end the former's life.
Nayfield and Elson would eventually be arrested in January 1994 (released in 1998)
and in Italy in 1995, respectively.
According to
FBI reports, the crime boss
Semion Mogilevich had alliances with the
Camorra, in particular with Salvatore DeFalco, a lower-echelon member of the
Giuliano clan
The Giuliano clan was a powerful Neapolitan Camorra clan that had its base in the area of Forcella, in Naples. Its sphere of influence extended to all the centre of the city of Naples for over four decades.
History
The clan was founded by Pio Vi ...
. Mogilevich and DeFalco would have held meetings in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
in 1993.Semion Mogilevich's net worth is estimated to be 10 billion dollar.
Ivankov's reign also ended in June 1995 when a $3.5 million extortion attempt on two Russian businessmen, Alexander Volkov and Vladimir Voloshin, ended in an FBI arrest that resulted in a ten-year maximum security prison sentence.
Before his arrest and besides his operations in America, Ivankov regularly flew around Europe and Asia to maintain ties with his fellow mobsters (like members of the ''Solntsevskaya Bratva''), as well as reinforce ties with others. This did not stop other people from denying his growing power. In one instance, Ivankov attempted to buy out Georgian boss Valeri "Globus" Glugech's drug importation business. When the latter refused the offer, he and his top associates were shot dead. A summit held in May 1994 in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
rewarded him with what was left of Glugech's business. Two months later, Ivankov got into another altercation with drug kingpin and head of the
''Orekhovskaya'' gang, Segei "Sylvester" Timofeyev, ending with the latter murdered a month later.
In 1995, the
Camorra cooperated with the Russian Mafia in a scheme in which the Camorra would bleach out US$1 bills and reprint them as $100s. These bills would then be transported to the Russian Mafia for distribution in 29 post-
Eastern Bloc countries and former Soviet republics. In return, the Russian Mafia paid the Camorra with property (including a Russian bank) and firearms, smuggled into Eastern Europe and Italy.
A report by the United Nations in 1995 placed the number of individuals involved in organized crime in Russia at 3 million, employed in about 5,700 gangs.
Back in Eastern Europe in May 1995,
Semion Mogilevich held a summit meeting of Russian mafia bosses in his U Holubu restaurant in
Anděl, a neighborhood of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
. The excuse to bring them together was that it was a birthday party for Victor Averin, the second-in-command of the ''
Solntsevskaya Bratva''. However, Major Tomas Machacek of the Czech police got wind of an anonymous tip-off that claimed that the ''Solntsevskaya'' were planning to assassinate Mogilevich at the location (it was rumored that Mogilevich and ''Solntsevskaya'' leader
Sergei Mikhailov had a dispute over $5 million), and the police successfully raided the meeting. 200 guests were arrested, but no charges were put against them; only key Russian mafia members were banned from the country, most of whom moved to Hungary.
One person who was not there was Mogilevich himself. He claimed that "
the time I arrived at U Holubu, everything was already in full swing, so I went into a neighboring hotel and sat in the bar there until about five or six in the morning."
Mikhailov would later be arrested in Switzerland in October 1996 on numerous charges,
including that he was the head of a powerful Russian mafia group, but was exonerated and released two years later after evidence was not enough to prove much.
The global extent of Russian organized crime wasn't realized until
Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg was arrested in January 1997, primarily because of arms dealing. In 1990, Fainberg moved from Brighton Beach to Miami and opened up a strip club called Porky's, which soon became a popular hangout for underworld criminals. Fainberg himself gained a reputation as an ambassador among international crime groups, becoming especially close to Juan Almeida, a Colombian cocaine dealer. Planning to expand his cocaine business, Fainberg acted as an intermediary between Almeida and the corrupt
Russian military
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...
. He helped him get six Russian military helicopters in 1993, and in the following year, helped arrange to buy a
submarine for cocaine smuggling. Unfortunately for the two of them, federal agents had been keeping a close eye on Fainberg for months. Alexander Yasevich, an associate of the Russian military contact and an undercover
DEA agent, was sent to verify the illegal dealing, and in 1997, Fainberg was finally arrested in Miami. Facing the possibility of life imprisonment, the latter agreed to testify against Almeida in exchange for a shorter sentence, which ended up being 33 months.
The
FreeLance Bureau (FLB.ru) published a website in 2000 containing
Philipp Bobkov's MOST Group Security Database along with files from RUOP and other departments and special services.
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
was a preferred location for Russian mafia laundering money.
''2001–present''
As the 21st century dawned, the Russian mafia remained after the death of Aslan Usoyan. New Mafia bosses sprang up, while imprisoned ones were released. Among the released were Marat Balagula and
Vyacheslav Ivankov, both in 2004.
The latter was extradited to Russia, but was jailed once more for his alleged murders of two Turks in a Moscow restaurant in 1992; he was cleared of all charges and released in 2005. Four years later, he was assassinated by a shot in the stomach from a sniper.
Meanwhile, Monya Elson and Leonid Roytman were arrested in March 2006 for an unsuccessful murder plot against two
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
-based businessmen.
In 2009, FBI agents in Moscow targeted two suspected Mafia leaders and two other corrupt businessmen. One of the leaders is Yevgeny Dvoskin, a criminal who had been in prison with Ivankov in 1995 and was deported in 2001 for breaking immigration regulations; the other is Konstantin "Gizya" Ginzburg, who was reportedly the current "big boss" of Russian organized crime in America before his reported assassination in 2009, it being suspected that Ivankov handed over control to him.
In the same year,
Semion Mogilevich was placed on the
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William K ...
list for his involvement in a complex multimillion-dollar scheme that defrauded investors in the stock of his company YBM Magnex International, swindling them out of $150 million.
He was indicted in 2003 and arrested in 2008 in Russia on tax fraud charges, but because the US does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he was released on bail.
Monya Elson said, in 1998, that Mogilevich is the most powerful mobster in the world.
Around the world, Russian mafia groups have popped up as dominating particular areas. Russian organized crime has a rather large stronghold in the city of Atlanta where members are distinguished by their tattoos. Russian organized crime was reported to have a stronger grip in the
French Riviera region and Spain in 2010;
and Russia was branded as a virtual "mafia state" according to the
WikiLeaks cables.
In 2009, Russian mafia groups had been said to reach over 50 countries and, in 2010, had up to 300,000 members. According to recordings released in 2015,
Alexander Litvinenko, shortly before he was assassinated, claimed that
Semion Mogilevich has had a "good relationship" with
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
since the 1990s.
[Listen: Alexander Litvinenko's apparent warning before his death](_blank)
By Lyndsey Telford, Edward Malnick and Claire Newell. 23 January 2015
On 7 June 2017, 33 Russian mafia affiliates and members were arrested and charged by the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and NYPD for extortion, racketeering, illegal gambling, firearm offenses, narcotics trafficking, wire fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, fraud on casino slot machines using electronic hacking devices; based in Atlantic City and Philadelphia, murder-for-hire conspiracy and cigarette trafficking. They were also accused of operating secret and underground gambling dens based in
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to ...
, and using violence to those who owed gambling debts, establishing nightclubs to sell drugs, plotting to force women associates to rob male strangers by seducing and drugging them with
chloroform, and trafficking over 10,000 pounds of stolen
chocolate confectionery; the chocolate was stolen from shipment containers. It is believed that 27 of the arrested are connected to the Russian mafia ''Shulaya clan'' which are largely based in New York. According to the prosecution, the ''Shulaya'' also has operations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Nevada. According to law enforcement and the prosecution, this is one of the first federal arrests against a Russian mafia boss and his
underboss
Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The under ...
or co-leader.
On 26 September 2017, as part of a 4-year investigation, 100
Spanish Civil Guard officers carried out 18 searches in different areas of
Malaga, Spain related to Russian mafia large scale money laundering. The raids resulted in the arrests of 11 members and associates of the ''Solntsevskaya'' and ''Izmailovskaya'' clans. Money, firearms and 23 high-end vehicles were also seized. The owner of
Marbella FC, Alexander Grinberg, and manager of AFK Sistema, a Spanish football club in Malaga, were among those arrested.
On 19 February 2018, 18 defendants were accused of laundering over $62 million through real estate, including with the help of
Vladislav Reznik, former chairman of
Rosgosstrakh, one of Russia's largest insurance companies. The accused stood trial in Spain. The
Tambov
Tambov (, ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna and Studenets Rivers, about south-southeast of Moscow. Population: 280,161 ( 2010 Census); 29 ...
and Malyshev Russian mafia organisations were involved.
Aleksandr Torshin is allegedly a high ranking Russian mafia boss.
Structure and composition
''Bratva structure''
Note that these positions are not always official titles, but rather are understood names for roles that an individual performs.
* Pakhan – also called Boss, Krestniy Otets ("Capo di tutti capi , Godfather"), Vor (
вор, "Thief"), Papa, or Avtoritet ("Authority").The Pakhan controls everything. The Pakhan controls four criminal cells in the working unit through an intermediary called a "Brigadier."
[Russian Organized Crime: Organization and Structure](_blank)
1993
* Two Spies – a security group who watches over the action of the brigadiers to ensure loyalty and that none becomes too powerful. They are the Sovietnik ("Support Group") and Obshchak ("Security Group").
* Derzhatel Obshchaka - the bookkeeper, collects money from ''Brigadiers'' and bribes the government with Obshchak (money mafia intended for use in the interests of the group). This could be Brigadier, Pakhan, Authoritet.
* Brigadier – also called ''Avtoritet'' ("Authority"), is like a ''captain'' in charge of a small group of men (similar to a
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a '' made member'' of an Italian crime family who he ...
in Italian-American Mafia crime families and Sicilian Mafia clans), He gives out jobs to Boyeviks ("warriors") and pays tribute to Pakhan. He runs a crew which is called a "Brigade." A "Brigade" is made up of 5–6 Patsanov or Brodyag.
* Bratok – also called Patsan or Brodyaga, works for a Brigadier having a special criminal activity to run (similar to
soldiers in
Italian-American Mafia
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its mem ...
crime families
A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activ ...
and
Sicilian Mafia clans). A Boyevik is in charge of recruiting new soldiers and associates, and paying tribute up to his Brigadier. Boyeviks also make up the main strike force of a brigade.
* Shestyorka – an associate to the organization, also called the "six" (similar to associates in Italian-American Mafia crime families and Sicilian Mafia clans). He is an errand boy for the organization and is the lowest rank in the Russian Mafia. The "sixes" are assigned to Avtorityets for support. They also provide intelligence for the upcoming "delo" or on a certain target. They usually stay out of the main actions, although there might be exceptions depending on circumstances. During a "delo" Shestyorkas perform security functions standing on the look out (Shukher – literally: danger). It is a temporary position and an individual either makes it into the Vor-world or is cast aside. As they are earning their respect and trust in Bratva, they may be performing roles of the regular Boyeviks or Byki depending on the necessities and patronage of their Brigadier or Avtorityet. The etymology of the word 'shestyorka' comes from the lowest rank of a 36-playing-card deck – "sixes."
In the Russian Mafia, "Vor" (plural: Vory) (literally, "Thief") is an honorary title analogous to a
made man
In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oa ...
in the Italian-American and Sicilian mafia. The honor of becoming a Vor is given only when the recruit shows considerable leadership skills, personal ability, intellect, and charisma. A Pakhan or another high-ranking member of an organization can decide if the recruit will receive such title. When you become a member of the Vor-world you have to accept the code of the Vor v Zakone ("
Thief in law
A “thief in law” (Russian: вор в зако́не, Georgian: კანონიერი ქურდი), in the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet states, and respective diasporas abroad is a specifically granted formal and special status of ...
").
[James O. Finckenauer and Elin Waring]
"Challenging the Russian Mafia Mystique"
. ''National Institute of Justice Journal''. April 2001.[Stephen L. Mallory. ''Understanding Organized Crime''. 2007]
pp. 76–78
Although Russian criminal groups vary in their structure, there have been attempts to devise a model of how they work. One such model (possibly outdated by now, as it is based on the old style of Soviet criminal enterprises) works out like this:
# Elite group – led by a Pakhan who is involved in management, organization, and ideology. This is the highest group that controls both the Support group and the Security group.
# Security group – led by one of Pakhan's spies. His job is to make sure the organization keeps running, keeps the peace between the organizations and other criminal groups, and paying off the right people. This group works with the Elite group and is equal in power with the Support groups. Is in charge of security and in intelligence.
# Support group – led by one of Pakhan's spies. His job is to watch over the working unit, and collect money while supervising their criminal activities. This group works with the Elite group and is equal in power with the Security group. They plan a specific crime for a specialized group or choose who carries out the operation.
# Working Unit – There are four Brigadiers running criminal activity in the working unit, each controlling a Brigade. This is the lowest group working with only the Support group. The group is involved in burglars, thieves, prostitution, extortion, street gangs, and other crimes.
Notable individual groups
Groups based in and around the
City of Moscow:
* ''
Solntsevskaya Bratva ()'': Led by
Sergei "Mikhas" Mikhailov, it is Russia's largest criminal group with about 5,000 members, and is named after the
Solntsevo District
Solntsevo District (russian: райо́н Со́лнцево) is a district of Western Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. The area of the district is . Population: 122,400 (2016),
History
It originated in 1938 as a dac ...
.
* Lyuberetskaya Bratva () or Lyubery (): One of the largest criminal groups with around 3,000 members in late 1990s until today. Based in (and originating from)
Lyubertsy
Lyubertsy ( rus, Люберцы, p=ˈlʲʉbʲɪrtsɨ) is a city and the administrative center of Lyuberetsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Demographics
Population:
History
It was first mentioned in 1621 and was granted town status in 192 ...
district of Moscow. Led by Denis Sergin (Fraser) since the 2000s.
* The ''
Izmaylovskaya gang'': One of Russia's oldest modern gangs, it was started in the mid- to late-1980s by Oleg Ivanov; it has around 200–500 members in Moscow alone, and is named after the
Izmaylovo District.
Izmailovskaya has good relations with the Podolskaya gang. Anton Malevsky was the leader until his death in 2001.
[Подольская ОПГ: Славянские оргпреступные группировки в Московской области](_blank)
"FreeLance Bureau" (FLB) (18 November 2000). Retrieved 10 June 2021. The Ismailovskaya mafia is closely associated with
Oleg Deripaska, ,
Michael Cherney, and
Iskander Makhmudov
Iskander Kakhramonovich Makhmudov (russian: Искандар Кахрамонович Махмудов uz, Искандар Қаҳрамонович Маҳмудов; 5 December 1963 Bukhara, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union) is an Uzbek-born Russian bu ...
through their Switzerland based "Blonde Investment Company" and is closely associated with
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
's SP AG (). Liechtenstein police proved that Rudolf Ritter (brother to Michael Ritter, a Financial Minister) a Liechtenstein-based lawyer, jurist who practiced in offshore businesses (identification evasion), and financial manager for the accounts of both Putin's SPAG and the Ismailovskaya mafia and that Alexander Afanasyev ("Afonya") was connected to both SPAG and the Ismailovskaya mafia through his Panama registered Earl Holding AG. Also, Rudolf Ritter signed for Earl Holding, Berger International Holding, Repas Trading SA and Fox Consulting. The
Colombia-based
Cali KGB Cartel supplied cocaine to the Ismailovskaya mafia, too. Rudolf Ritter itself was arrested in May 2020 on money laundering charges.
* The Stukalov gang
* The ''
Orekhovskaya gang
The Orekhovskaya Organized Crime Group (russian: Ореховская организованная преступная группировка) was a powerful criminal organization based in Moscow active between the late 1980s and early 2000s.
H ...
'': Founded by Sergei "Sylvester" Timofeyev, this group reached its height in Moscow in the 1990s. When Timofeyev died, Sergei Butorin took his place. However, he was sentenced to jail for life in 2011.
* The ''
Podolskaya gang'': one of the richest with its common fund kept in the United States. Located in the
Podolsky,
Chekhovsky, and
Serpukhovsky districts of the Moscow region and beyond including close relations with mafia in the United States and Belgium. Their focus is oil and extortion. They provided support to
Anatoly Bykov
Anatoly Petrovich Bykov (russian: Анатолий Петрович Быков; born 17 January 1960) is a Russian businessman and politician. During the 1990s, Bykov gained prominence in Krasnoyarsk Krai and Krasnoyarsk as an entrepreneur, who ...
.
Groups based in other parts of Russia and the former Soviet Union:
* The ''Dolgoprudnenskaya'' gang: Russia's second largest criminal group.
Originally from the City of
Dolgoprudny
Dolgoprudny (russian: Долгопру́дный, ) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located about north of Moscow city center. The town's name is derived from Russian "" (''dolgy prud'', lit. "long pond")—a long and narrow pond situated in t ...
.
* The
Tambov Gang of Saint Petersburg is very closely aligned with
Nikolai Aulov, who is the head of the Federal Drug Control Service;
Alexander Bastrykin, who is the head of the Investigative Committee; Japanese
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
from
Kobe and
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
; and with the political rise of
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
. Putin's long time personal body guard,
Viktor Zolotov is very close to this group as well. the man most associated with them is Vladimir Kumarin.
* The ''Komarovskaya organized criminal group'': (leader - Komar) controls the St. Petersburg-
Vyborg highway (
A181) called ''Scandinavia'' or the Russia part of the
European highway E18, which includes everything along the road (hotels, repair garages, cafes and restaurants, etc.) and the transportation process as well as St. Petersburg's trucking businesses. Komarovskaya OPG steal automobiles, commit robberies, provide protection racketeering, and receive strong support from the Usvyatsov-Putyrsky gang and its AOZT "Putus" to organize the supply of
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
from South America into Russia, Finland, Scandinavia and Europe and the trade in counterfeit dollars.
[Archived]
on compromat.ru on 9 October 2019 as Как расцвел "Путус" Вовы-Однорукого и Лени-Спортсмена: История питерского "авторитета" Владимира Путырского и бывшего тренера Путина дзюдоиста-рецидивиста Леонида Усвяцова (How Vova-One-Armed and Leni-Sportsman's "Putus" blossomed: The story of the St. Petersburg "authority" Vladimir Putyrsky and the former coach of Putin, the judoka-recidivist Leonid Usvyatsov).
* The ''Usvyatsov-Putyrsky gang'' (AOZT "Putus") led by Vladimir Putyrsky (Vova-One-armed) and Leonid Ionovich Usvyatsov (Lenya-Sportsman) organizes both the supply of
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
from South America into Russia, Finland, Scandinavia and Europe and the trade in counterfeit dollars and works closely with the Komarovskaya organized criminal group. Both Putyrsky and Usvyatsov have large estates in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
where they enjoy hunting. During the 1980s, sambo coach "Trud" Usvyatsov, who was imprisoned for rape, robbery and theft, coached
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
,
Arkady Rotenberg
Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg (russian: Аркадий Романович Ротенберг; born 15 December 1951) is a Russian billionaire businessman and oligarch. With his brother Boris Rotenberg, he was co-owner of the Stroygazmontazh (S ...
,
Boris Rotenberg and Nikolai Kononov.
[
* The Uzbek criminals in Litvinenko's Uzbek file, including Michael Cherney, Gafur Rakhimov, Vyacheslav Ivankov, and Salim Abduvaliev (also spelled ''Salim Abdulaev''); are Uzbek origin KGB and later FSB officers at Moscow including Colonel Evgeny Khokholkov; were organized by Vladimir Putin while Putin was Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of St Petersburg in the early 1990s; and control ]Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
origin drug trade through St Petersburg, Russia, and then to Europe. Boris Berezovsky told Litvinenko to brief his Uzbek file about corrupt FSB officers to the future Head of the FSB Putin which Litvinenko did on 25 July 1998 and, later, Litvinenko was imprisoned. Robert Eringer, head of Monaco's Security Service, confirmed Litvinenko's file about Vladimir Putin as a kingpin in Europe's narcotics trade. The Colombia-based Cali KGB Cartel supplied cocaine to this network, too.
* The ''Slonovskaya'' gang was one of the strongest and violent criminal groups in CIS in the 1990s. It was based in Ryazan
Ryazan ( rus, Рязань, p=rʲɪˈzanʲ, a=ru-Ryazan.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Cens ...
city. It had a long-term bloody wars with other active criminal groups in the city (''Ayrapetovskaya'', ''Kochetkovskie'', etc.) with which it initially coexisted peacefully. The gang virtually disappeared by 2000 as its members were getting hunted down and imprisoned by local Russian Police.
* The Uralmash gang of Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
.
* The Chechen mafia
The Chechen Mafia ( ce, Нохчийн мафи, ''Noxçiyn mafi''; rus, Чеченская мафия, Chechenskaya mafiya) is one of the largest ethnic organized crime groups operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafi ...
is one of the largest ethnic organized crime groups operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafia groups.
* The Georgian mafia is regarded as one of the biggest, powerful and influential criminal networks in Europe, which has produced the biggest number of "thieves in law" in all former USSR countries.
* The Mkhedrioni was a paramilitary group involved in organised crime led by a Thief in law
A “thief in law” (Russian: вор в зако́не, Georgian: კანონიერი ქურდი), in the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet states, and respective diasporas abroad is a specifically granted formal and special status of ...
Jaba Ioseliani
Jaba (or Dzhaba) Ioseliani (Georgian ჯაბა იოსელიანი; 10 July 1926 – 4 March 2003) was a Georgian politician, member of Parliament of Georgia, writer, thief-in-law and leader of the paramilitary organisation Mkhed ...
in Georgia in the 1990s.
* The city of Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
was known for its gang culture, which later progressed into more organised, mafiaesque groups. This was known as the Kazan phenomenon
The Kazan phenomenon (russian: link=no, Казанский феномен, ''Kazanskiy fenomen'') was a term used by journalists to describe the rise in street-gang activity in the city of Kazan in the RSFSR and later, the Russian Federation.
Fro ...
.
Groups based in and around The United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
:
* The Odessa Mafia: The most prominent and dominant Russian criminal group operating in the US; its headquarters is in Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
.
* Armenian Power
Armenian Power 13, also known as AP, the Armenian Mob, or Armenian Mafia is an Armenian criminal organization and street gang founded and currently based in Los Angeles County, California.Krikorian, Michael (August 17, 1997)Violent Gang Is a Stai ...
, or AP-13, is a California-based crime syndicate tied to Russian and Armenian organised crime.
Groups based in other areas:
* The Brothers' Circle
The Brothers' Circle or Bratski Krug ( rus, Братский круг) is a term used to refer to Russian organized crime, commonly the Russian mafia. It is a loose translation of the Russian term "Bratva" (Russian: Братва), which can also be ...
: Headed by Temuri Mirzoyev, this multi-ethnic transnational group is "composed of leaders and senior members of several Eurasian criminal groups largely based in countries of the former Soviet Union but operating in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America." In 2011, US President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
and his administration named it one of four transnational organized crime groups that posed the greatest threat to US national security, and sanctioned certain key members and froze their assets. A year later, he extended the national emergency against them for another year.
* The Semion Mogilevich organization: Based in Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, Hungary and headed by the crime boss of the same name, this group numbered approximately 250 members as of 1996. Its business is often connected with that of the ''Solntsevskaya Bratva'' and the Vyacheslav Ivankov Organization. Aleksey Anatolyevich Lugovkov is the second-in-command, and Vitaly Borisovich Savalovsky is the "underboss" to Mogilevich.
See also
* Corruption in Russia
* Crime in Russia
Crime in Russia refers to the multivalent issues of organized crime, extensive political and police corruption, and all aspects of criminality at play in Russia. Violent crime has been on a decline in Russia. Violent crime in Siberia is much mor ...
* Criminal tattoo
Criminal tattoos are a type of tattoos associated with criminals to show gang membership and record the wearer's personal history—such as their skills, specialties, accomplishments, incarceration, world view and/or means of personal expressio ...
s
* Gulag
The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
* List of post-Soviet mobsters
This is a list of some organized crime figures within the underworld of the former Soviet Union.
See also
* Criminal tattoos
* Chechen mafia
*Georgian mafia
*List of mobsters by city
* Russian oligarchs
*Ukrainian oligarchs
* List of criminal en ...
* Mafia state
In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. According to US diplomats, the expressio ...
* Russian criminal tattoos
* Russian oligarch
Russian oligarchs ( Russian: олигархи, romanized: ''oligarkhi'') are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Sovi ...
* Thief in law
A “thief in law” (Russian: вор в зако́не, Georgian: კანონიერი ქურდი), in the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet states, and respective diasporas abroad is a specifically granted formal and special status of ...
* Russian mafia in popular culture
The Russian mafia has frequently been a subject of works in popular culture.
Anime and manga
* The Japanese manga and anime series ''Black Lagoon'' prominently features the Hotel Moscow which is a branch of the Russian mafia that operates in th ...
* Russian mafia in Germany
* Russian mafia in Israel
References
Sources
*
*
Further reading
* Galeotti, Mark. 2018
''The Vory''
Yale University Press.
*
* Varese, Federico. 2005
''The Russian Mafia''
Oxford University Press.
External links
Eurasian Transnational Organized Crime Groups
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Mafia
Mafia
Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
Crime in the Soviet Union
Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
Secret societies related to organized crime
Organized crime by ethnic or national origin
Transnational organized crime
Organised crime groups in Australia
Russian-Australian culture
Organised crime groups in Austria
Organized crime groups in the Czech Republic
Organized crime groups in Estonia
Organized crime groups in France
Organised crime groups in Germany
Organised crime groups in India
Organised crime groups in Israel
Organised crime groups in Italy
Organized crime groups in Russia
Organized crime groups in Slovakia
Organised crime groups in Spain
Organized crime groups in Switzerland
Organized crime groups in the United States
Gangs in Florida
Gangs in New York City
Second economy of the Soviet Union