ORGANIZED

2. Howard Abadinsky ORGANIZED CRIME Eighth Edition

3. CHAPTER SEVEN RUSSIAN ORGANIZED CRIME

4. RUSSIAN ORGANIZED CRIME Includes any ethnic or national group—Chechen, Armenian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Jewish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Tatar—of former Soviet Union (FSU). Some include Albanians or prefer the term “Eurasians.” Law enforcement in FSU is inadequate. Public officials are frequently murdered. Significant anti-crime legislation is consistently blocked or watered down by legislators who are de facto OC representatives.

5. Three levels of Russian OC: Gruppirovki: Low-level gangs of swindlers, thieves, extortionists, and drug traffickers with a rudimentary and episodic structure. Prestupnaia organizatsiia: Relatively large groups with connections to authorities at regional levels. Soobshchestvo: Highest level; influence extends to multiple regions of the country, often with international ties.

6. Under Communist rule, confidence in and respect for the rule of law was nonexistent. For the average Russian, the consequence of honesty was deprivation. The sudden onset of a market economy gave rise to unrestrained aspirations—Émile Durkheim’s anomie writ large. People unable to obtain justice through legitimate sources took justice into their own hands, often with OC assistance.

7. The vory v zakone, the FSU’s professional underworld, developed in prison camps. The sole basis for criminal organization is economic, not ethnic or familial. Hence, elements that traditionally promoted trust among conspirators are absent. Vory’s strict conspiratorial code forbade involvement with politics or the state. Vory is exclusively male; being married is a weakness that undermines loyalty to vory.

8. Following Communism’s collapse, corrupt managers and their vory partners took over state enterprises. Ensuing gang wars led to agreements defining territories, functional boundaries. Intimidation and violence then allowed criminals to infiltrate the banking industry. By 1992, the bosseshad divided the country into 12 regions where they openly interact with bureaucrats, industrial managers, and government officials.

9. The Russian Mafiya emerged from young men’s participation in sports clubs/fitness centers. Fighting sports and martial arts supply all that is needed to create a racketeer gang: fighting skills, willpower, discipline, and team spirit. Gangs emerged from the FSU’s gyms/sports clubs whose members found their physical assets could produce cash by offering to protect businessmen for a regular fee. The Mafiya and the vory extort from both legitimate and illegitimate entrepreneurs.

10. In a country where contract law and a tradition of property rights are weak, OC is a viable alternative to a formal justice system that is ineffective, if not corrupt. Banks have fallen under the control or ownership of OC groups who use them to launder and embezzle money. Bank records also provide information for selecting businesses to extort. OC also traffics in military weapons; there is fear they will inevitably include nuclear devices in their trafficking activities.

11. Chechnya has become a center of illegal trade in narcotics, contraband, weapons, counterfeit money/financial documents. Violent Chechen gangs run protection rackets, enforce restraint of trade. Russian-émigré criminals in the U.S. are engaged in extortion, insurance fraud, Medicaid scams, securities-related fraud, con games, identity theft, counterfeiting, tax fraud, and narcotics trafficking.