the political and economic power of a criminal class more sophisticated than anything Russia had ever experienced before. After August, 1991, police found evidence that organized crime had expanded into nearly all areas of the new Russian economy” (Handelman 21).
Indeed, the new Mafiya controls the majority of Russia’s commercial enterprises. By using threats, violence and aligning itself with corrupt politicians through bribes, the Mafiya began to interfere with any form of private enterprise that was profitable. Through kidnapping, assassinations, attacks on family members and other extrajudicial means, the Mafiya gained control of the banks and other commercial enterprises. The Mafiya would soon show its power to the politicians, businessmen and even the public, basically allowing it to become totalitarian in rule as Communist leaders had been for years. In other words, the corrupt leaders of Communist Russia were replaced by the corrupt leaders of the Russian Mafiya using many similar methods and tactics. The Mafiya often cloaks its deeds in legitimate business enterprises or has its work done through corrupt officials who have little choice in refusing bribes when the alternative may be death. Further, the Mafiya is clever in concealing its deeds in the rhetoric of democracy and public support when in reality it is only interested in illegally pursuing personal gain. Thus it acts as a reverse drag on market economies, “They are very clever about manipulating public opinion. Some of our crime
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