ted out that reports of the number, size, and activities of Russian organized crime groups vary greatly. Official Russian reports have estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 criminal groups exist in the country while the FBI (applying a narrower definition of organized crime) believes that approximately 80 major organized criminal groups operate in Russia û and that many of these groups have established a presence in the United States and throughout Eastern and Western Europe.
According to Cameron Half (53), the best antecedent of todayÆs ROC is the vorovskoi mir or ôThievesÆ Worldö of the Soviet underworld. This consisted of approximately 600 powerful individuals known as Thieves in Law who were joined by another 2,000 people who ôfollowed the law of criminals.ö This loosely organized group was opposed to all forms of communist power and did not admit any individual who had served in the Young Pioneers, the Komsomol, or other communist institutions. The Thieves World controlled the Soviet UnionÆs black market, including many transactions in spare parts, automobiles, timber, and gems at an estimated 1992 value of U.S. $60.5 billion.
The emergence of the Russian Mafiya as a particularly distinctive, flexible, and violent form of organized crime is linked by Mark Galeotti to Russian tradition and a unique historical and political context reflecting four key factors. These factors are: 1) a criminal and terrorist political culture; 2) a sense of political and economic alienation; 3) links between criminals and rulers that could almost be described as traditional; and 4) a deliberate ôstrategy of tensionö on the part of certain political actors (Galeotti, 415-417).
Despite the transformation of the tsarist system after the Russian Revolution, Galeotti (417) argues that Russian and Soviet society has never been characterized by the rule of law. Russian society, even under repressive communist rule was historically under...