-policed and endemically corrupt. A culture of underground resistance fostered the emergence of the Thieves World which flourished in the Soviet era as the national economy faltered in the 1960s and 1970s.
Galeotti (421) states that ôthe mafiya are thus both a cause and effect of the central stateÆs lack of authority. Its inability to control terror and organized crime is undermining MoscowÆs moral and practical authority.ö The activities of the Russian Mafiya include but are in no way limited to carefully targeted assassinations of opponents, the pursuit of bureaucratic corruption, the maintenance of a black market in vital goods and services, and the plundering of newly privatized formerly state-owned industries (Dempsey and Lukas, 32-33). Currently, four of five Russian legitimate businesses are said to pay protection money to these gangs while crime boss oligarchs control many important businesses and industries in such sectors as utilities, banking, minerals, and manufact
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