Mafia Rusa

History

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Russian Mafia emerged. This process was the result of the temporary instability of the country’s transition from a Soviet State to a free market democracy

[…] “Russia is a society whose centuries-old attitudes towards various kinds of crime still prevail. The prevalent attitudes reflect the stages of social development that Russia has undergone, as well as the influence of specifically Russian factors such as geography, climate and religion. […] Russian society was historically under-policed and corrupt. In response, citizens replied with banditry, uprisings and widespread criminality.” […]

There are many mafia groups in Russia, but only a handful are large enough to maintain a serious threat.

The biggest gangs are the Dolgopruadnanskaya and the Solntsevskaya and each of one has around 5,000 members. Its principal leader is believed to be Sergei Mikhailov who has been held by the authorities in Switzerland.

The gangs specialize in drugs, gun smuggling and extortion. The extortion has become a way of life in Russia. By other hand the criminal existing culture in Russia promote in an important amount the kidnapping, robbery and laundering money. Any institution with access to large amounts of money can expect a visit from the mafia.

The Russian Mafia is growing up and expanding in a rapidly way, official estimates of the size and influence of the Russian Mafia make frightening conclusions, because in 1994 the number of organized crime groups grew from 785 to 5,691 during Gorbachev’s reign, by 1996 this groups grew to 8,000, each group with members of between 50 and 1,000 and it’s estimate that Russian Mafia controls 40% of private business and 60% of state-owned companies in Moscow.

Hundreds of ex-KGB men and veterans of the Afghan war veterans offered their skills to the crime bosses.

The Russian authorities are fighting a losing battle to control the mafia.

Part of Globalization

The Russian Mafia is part of Globalization because it began to move and expand into United States and to other parts of the world, like Israel, Latin America and the Caribbean.

This process of globalization facilitates the transnationalization of Russian Mafia activities, and it involves many countries and it represents a great threat to these countries in the economic, political and social sense.

[…] “Russian Criminal Organization have been able to exploit the increased ease international travel, the liberization of emigration policies,, the expansion of international trade, the spread of high technology communications systems and the underegulation of international financial networks to extend their criminal enterprise well beyond the borders of their

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