Russian mafia
The Russian Mafia (Russian: русская мафия, rússkaya máfiya), bratvá (братва; «brothers» or «brotherhood») or red mafia (Russian: красная мафия, krásnaya máfiya) are names often used to designate a range of organized crime organizations originating from the former Soviet Union corresponding to the current post-Soviet states and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the economic opening of the region allowed these groups to expand internationally to the point of becoming highly influential criminal organizations worldwide. They are active in most sectors of Russian society.. Russian criminals are also active internationally in the illegal oil trade, people smuggling, drug trafficking, arms and nuclear material trafficking, and money laundering. In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Bureau Interpol's National Central in Russia, stated: "Certainly, there are crimes involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data to suggest that a former organized structure of Russian criminal groups exists abroad."
History
Organized crime has existed in Russia since the time of the Czars and Imperial Russia in the form of banditry and theft. In the Soviet period, the Vor v zakone or "thieves in law" arose. This class of criminals had to meet certain standards in the prison system. One of those rules was that cooperation with authorities of any kind was prohibited. But during World War II, some prisoners made a deal with the government to join the armed forces in exchange for a reduced sentence, resulting in their return to prison being attacked and killed by inmates who remained loyal to the thieves' rules. During the time when the Soviet economy took a downward turn, the Vory would take over the black market with the help of corrupt officials, supplying goods such as electronics or extra food during Brezhnev's time.[citation needed]
Rise in the collapse of the Soviet Union
The real advance of criminal organizations began in 1988 when the Soviet Union legalized private initiative, allowing free trade. However, the new law did not clarify anything about the regulations and safety of the market economy. Criminal markets began to form, the most notorious being the Rizhsky prostitution ring market near the Rizhsky railway station in Moscow. As the Soviet Union headed for its collapse, so did its economy, leading to social disintegration, causing many ex-government workers desperate for money to turn to crime, others joining former Soviet citizens who relocated abroad and the Russian Mafia became a natural extension of this trend. Former KGB agents, athletes, and veterans of the Afghan War and the First and Second Chechen Wars, now unemployed but with experience in fields that could be useful to them in crime, joined the growing wave of crime. Widespread corruption, poverty, and distrust of authorities only contributed to the rise of organized crime. Murders for hire, bombings and kidnappings are at an all-time high with numerous gang killings taking place and a large number still remaining unsolved. In the mid-1990s it was believed that the Ukrainian-Israeli "Don" Semyon Mogilevich had become the "boss of bosses" He was a member of most Russian Mafia syndicates and was described by the FBI as "one of the most dangerous men in the world". By 1993, almost all banks in Russia were owned by the Mafia., and 80% of companies were paying money for protection. In that year, 1,400 people were killed in Moscow, criminal members killed businessmen who did not pay their money, as well as journalists, politicians, bank owners and others opposed to them. Russia's new criminal class took a more westernized and entrepreneurial approach to organized crime, so the Vory based on a higher code of honor fell into extinction.
In recent years, the FBI and Russian security services have cracked down on the mafia, though the impact of this has yet to be measured[citation needed] . Many mobsters have become rich in North America, and have started to imitate the Italian mafia in terms of lifestyle. This has led to an apparent softening up of the mob, as it may actually be more dangerous than ever.
Internationalization
The opening of the former Eastern Bloc to the world and the internationalization of its economy also gave the Russian mafia connections to other criminal organizations around the world, such as the Chinese Triads or the Italian Cosa Nostra. Connections to organized crime cartels in Latin America allowed the Russian mafia to import cocaine into their country. Vyacheslav Ivankov, known as "Yapónchik", was the first major ethnically Russian organized crime figure to be persecuted by the government. from the United States, while running his Brighton Beach extortion ring in Brooklyn. Russian organized crime has spread to many other countries, including Israel, India, Hungary, South Africa, Spain, and Thailand.