The Mafiya and the new russia

Australian Journal of Politics and History

Volumn 44, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 415-429

  Galeotti, Mark ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0039449479     PISSN: 00049522     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8497.00029     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. ITAR-TASS, 17 August 1996.
2. Inferfax news agency, 13 June 1997, in the BBC Summary of World Broadcasts: former Soviet Union (henceforward SWB), 14 June 1997.
3. For a good summary of the recent literature on the Italian Mafia, see J. Chubb, "The Mafia, the Market and the State in Italy and Russia", Journal of Modern Italian Studies 1, 2 (1996), pp. 124-31.
4. Interestingly enough, although hardly surprisingly, the Russians appreciated the Italian TV series Piovra - potenza della mafia (Octopus - Power of the Mafia), with its tales of corrupt politicians, isolated police and omnipresent organised crime. The image of the "octopus" (sprut) has become synonymous for organised crime.
5. This figure has become a standard - even though I have not been able to identify a single piece of hard research on which it is based. Given that the Russians can still not quantify their legal economy, though, it is perhaps unsurprising that they have no real notion of the size of its illegal counterpart.
6. Daily Telegraph, 6 June 1997.
7. See V. Chalidze, Criminal Russia (New York: Random House, 1977), chapter 1.
8. See S. S. Ostroumov, Prestupnost' i ee prichiny v dorevolutsionnoi Rossii (Moscow: MGU, 1980), A. I. Gurov, Professional'naya prestupnost' (Moscow: Yuridicheskaya literatura, 1990), chapter 2 and M. Galeotti, "Criminal Russia: The Traditions Behind the Headlines", History Today 44, 8 (1994), pp. 12-14.
9. See S. S. Ostroumov, Prestupnost' i ee prichiny v dorevolutsionnoi Rossii (Moscow: MGU, 1980), A. I. Gurov, Professional'naya prestupnost' (Moscow: Yuridicheskaya literatura, 1990), chapter 2 and M. Galeotti, "Criminal Russia: The Traditions Behind the Headlines", History Today 44, 8 (1994), pp. 12-14.
10. See S. S. Ostroumov, Prestupnost' i ee prichiny v dorevolutsionnoi Rossii (Moscow: MGU, 1980), A. I. Gurov, Professional'naya prestupnost' (Moscow: Yuridicheskaya literatura, 1990), chapter 2 and M. Galeotti, "Criminal Russia: The Traditions Behind the Headlines", History Today 44, 8 (1994), pp. 12-14.
11. L. Rosner, The Soviet Way of Crime (New York: Bergan & Garvey, 1986) p. 11.
12. Ekho Moskvy radio, 14 June 1997, in SWB 16 June 1997.
13. Most of these statistics are based on, or supported by, conversations with Russian law enforcement officers in 1996-97.
14. Following on from Diego Gambetta's study of Italian crime in his The Sicilian Mafia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), the role of the mafiya as an economic enforcer has been developed by Federico Varese in his "Is Sicily the Future of Russia? Private Protection and the Rise of the Russian Mafia", Archives europeennes de sociologie 35 (1994), pp. 224-58 and "What is the Russian Mafia?", Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 5, 2 (1996), pp. 129-38.
15. Following on from Diego Gambetta's study of Italian crime in his The Sicilian Mafia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), the role of the mafiya as an economic enforcer has been developed by Federico Varese in his "Is Sicily the Future of Russia? Private Protection and the Rise of the Russian Mafia", Archives europeennes de sociologie 35 (1994), pp. 224-58 and "What is the Russian Mafia?", Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 5, 2 (1996), pp. 129-38.
16. Following on from Diego Gambetta's study of Italian crime in his The Sicilian Mafia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), the role of the mafiya as an economic enforcer has been developed by Federico Varese in his "Is Sicily the Future of Russia? Private Protection and the Rise of the Russian Mafia", Archives europeennes de sociologie 35 (1994), pp. 224-58 and "What is the Russian Mafia?", Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 5, 2 (1996), pp. 129-38.
17. J. Serio and A. Razinkin, "Thieves Professing the Code: The Traditional Role of vory v zakone in Russia's Criminal World", Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 4, 1 (1995), pp. 72-88.
18. Even Aleksandr Gurov, doyen of Russian organised criminal studies, has accepted that "they are fulfilling the role of state agencies". Moskovskii komsomolets, 10 November 1996.
19. Federico Varese has examined the extent to which petty entrepreneurs in the city of Perm' voluntarily turn to the mafiya in his unpublished DPhil dissertation, The Emergence of the Russian Mafia, Oxford, 1997.
20. This is discussed in Chalidze, Criminal Russia, chapter 2.
21. This process, and the ensuing war between the traditionalist blatnye and the collaborationist suki ("bitches") has been comprehensively chronicled in much of the "camp literature", such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago (London: Collins, 1975) Edward Buca's Vorkuta (London: Constable, 1976) and Dmitri Panin's The Notebooks of Sologdin (London: Hutchinson, 1976). See also Chalidze, Criminal Russia, chapter 4.
22. This process, and the ensuing war between the traditionalist blatnye and the collaborationist suki ("bitches") has been comprehensively chronicled in much of the "camp literature", such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago (London: Collins, 1975) Edward Buca's Vorkuta (London: Constable, 1976) and Dmitri Panin's The Notebooks of Sologdin (London: Hutchinson, 1976). See also Chalidze, Criminal Russia, chapter 4.
23. This process, and the ensuing war between the traditionalist blatnye and the collaborationist suki ("bitches") has been comprehensively chronicled in much of the "camp literature", such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago (London: Collins, 1975) Edward Buca's Vorkuta (London: Constable, 1976) and Dmitri Panin's The Notebooks of Sologdin (London: Hutchinson, 1976). See also Chalidze, Criminal Russia, chapter 4.
24. This process, and the ensuing war between the traditionalist blatnye and the collaborationist suki ("bitches") has been comprehensively chronicled in much of the "camp literature", such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago (London: Collins, 1975) Edward Buca's Vorkuta (London: Constable, 1976) and Dmitri Panin's The Notebooks of Sologdin (London: Hutchinson, 1976). See also Chalidze, Criminal Russia, chapter 4.
25. For discussion of the rise of organised criminality within the CPSU, see J. Millar, "The Little Deal: Brezhnev's Contribution to Acquisitive Socialism", Slavic Review 44, 4 (1985), pp. 694-706;
26. K. Simis, USSR: Secrets of a Corrupt Society (London: JM Dent, 1982
27. V. Coulloudon, La Mafia en Union Sovietique (Paris: JC Lattes, 1990),
28. A. Vaksberg, The Soviet Mafia (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991)
29. and W. A. Clark, Crime and Punishment in Soviet Officialdom (London: ME Sharpe, 1993).
30. For a neat summary of the rise of these "clans", see Olga Kryshtanovskaya, in Argumenty i fakty 21 (1997), p. 12.
31. J. Kampfner, Inside Yeltsin's Russia (London: Cassell, 1994), chapter 20.
32. See, for example, Moskovskyi komsomolets, 8 July 1995, and Kommersant-daily, 19 August 1995.
33. See, for example, Moskovskyi komsomolets, 8 July 1995, and Kommersant-daily, 19 August 1995.
34. Sunday Times, 9 March 1997. In fairness, it should be noted that there are 14,000 such "aides", the title often being little more than an honorific granted to a sponsor or fund-raiser.
35. The services are: the Interior Ministry (MVD), Federal Security Service (FSB), Federal Government Communications and Information Agency (FAPSI), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the Tax Police (NP), the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS), Procuracy, the Main Military Procuracy, the Federal Protection Service (FSO) and Presidential Security Service (SBP). The detailed assessments of the security troops are in M. Galeotti. "Russia's Praetorians". Paper distributed by the NATO Special Adviser for Central & Eastern European Affairs, 1996.
36. Ibid.
37. See M. Galeotti, "Moscow's Chechen War", Jane's Intelligence Review 7, 2 (1995). pp. 50-52.
38. As a case in point, during 1995 Russia's police and security groups were very interested in developing cooperation with Western agencies; the FSB was also "repackaging" itself as a police rather than a political security arm. As a result, both the FSB and MVD began warning of the apocalyptic threat posed by the mafiya. In 1996, as attention shifted towards forestalling NATO enlargement, Russia sought to play down any threat it could pose to the West. In short order, both FSB and MVD suddenly began down-playing the mafiya threat and grumbling about Western "hysteria." On the other hand, Interior Minister and then also Deputy Prime Minister Kulikov, developed his conservative position on "economic security" in late 1996/early 1997, warning that the government was losing control over the country's financial and import/export flows.
39. ITAR-TASS, 11 February 1997,
40. in SWB, 13 February 1997.
41. See M. Galeotti's discussion of this phenomenon in "Boom Time for Russia's Protectors", Jane's Intelligence Review 9, 9 (1997), pp. 339-41.
42. The company's Sluzhba bezopasnosti is headed by Vladimir Marushchenko former department head at the KGB Higher School, Federal Security Agency colonel and head of the Main Directorate of Tax Collection of the State Tax Service. Nezavisimaya gazeta, 6 February 1997.
43. Samosud has been ably discussed in C. Frierson, "Crime and Punishment in the Russian, Village, Slavic Review 46, 1 (1987), pp. 55-69. For a recent case, see Kommersant-daily 6 June 1997.
44. Samosud has been ably discussed in C. Frierson, "Crime and Punishment in the Russian, Village, Slavic Review 46, 1 (1987), pp. 55-69. For a recent case, see Kommersant-daily 6 June 1997.
45. V. Shlapentokh, "Decentralization of Fears: Life in Post-Communist Society", Paper distributed by the NATO Special Adviser for Central & Eastern European Affairs, 1997.
46. G. H. Turbiville, "Mafia in Uniform: The Criminalization of the Russian Armed Forces", on the internet @http://www-leav.army.mil/fmso/geo/pubs/mafia.htm, 20 June 1998.
47. For a comprehensive exposé of the National Sports Fund, see Ogonek 43 (1996), pp. 8-13.
48. To give one example, Konstantin Pimonov, chair of the Coordinating Council for Miners' Protests at Vorgashurskaya coal mine (Vorkuta), was threatened at gun point to end a month-old strike. St Petersburg Times, 10-17 February 1997.
49. One report actually purported to represent the criminals' views - ùsupporting the status quo. Segodnya, 7 May 1996.
50. Moscow News, 7 May 1993.
51. This view has been articulated best by Evgenia Albats: see her KGB: State Within a State (London, IB. Tauris, 1995), especially chapter 7.
52. P. Morvant, "War on Organized Crime and Corruption", Transition, 15 February 1996.
53. Conversation with MVD officer, January 1997.
54. See M. Galeotti, "Cross-Border Crime and the Former Soviet Union", IBRU Boundary & Territory Briefing 1, 5 (1995),
55. and C. Ulrich, "The New Red Terror: International Dimensions of Post-Soviet Organized Crime", Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 5, 1 (1996), pp. 29-44
56. For a particularly over-dramatic picture of a global Pax mafiosa, see Claire Sterling's Crime Without Fronteirs (London: Little, Brown, 1994).
57. ITAR-TASS, 21 February 1996.
58. E. Luttwak, "The Good Bad Guys", Guardian, 31 July 1995; Popov's comments were during a conference in Moscow, 26 July 1995.
59. There is a growing literature on the economic implications of organised crime - based largely on Italy - which points to its long-term costs. See, in particular, S. Zamagni, ed., Mercati illegali e mafie (Bologna: il Mulino, 1993) and G. Fiorentini and S. Peltzman, eds, The Economics of Organised Crime (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995).
60. There is a growing literature on the economic implications of organised crime - based largely on Italy - which points to its long-term costs. See, in particular, S. Zamagni, ed., Mercati illegali e mafie (Bologna: il Mulino, 1993) and G. Fiorentini and S. Peltzman, eds, The Economics of Organised Crime (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995).
61. Delovoi mir, 3 April 1997; Ekspert, 17 February 1997; Interfax, 5 June 1997, in 5WB 6 June 1997.
62. Delovoi mir, 3 April 1997; Ekspert, 17 February 1997; Interfax, 5 June 1997, in 5WB 6 June 1997.
63. Delovoi mir, 3 April 1997; Ekspert, 17 February 1997; Interfax, 5 June 1997, in 5WB 6 June 1997.
64. Delovoi mir, 3 April 1997; Ekspert, 17 February 1997; Interfax, 5 June 1997, in 5WB 6 June 1997.
65. S. Lunev, "Russian Organized Crime", Jamestown Foundation Prism 3, 8 (1997) (email bull).
66. Shlapentokh, "Decentralization of Fears".
67. In the words of the journalist Anna Blundy, "everything is seen as saleable. That is the underlying ideology and it is an ideology." Guardian, 27 May 1994.
68. Interfax News Agency, 12 July 1995.
69. Komsomol'skaya pravda, 1 February 1997.
70. J. Klebnikov, "Joe Stalin's heirs", Forbes, 27 September 1993.
71. See N. Modestov, Moskva handitskaya (Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 1996): excerpted in Moskovskaya pravda, 28 May 1996 and Segodnya, 3 April 1996, as well as articles in Kommersant-daily, 19 July 1995, Vechernaya Moskva, 29 November 1996 and Kommersant-daily, 1 February 1997.
72. See N. Modestov, Moskva handitskaya (Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 1996): excerpted in Moskovskaya pravda, 28 May 1996 and Segodnya, 3 April 1996, as well as articles in Kommersant-daily, 19 July 1995, Vechernaya Moskva, 29 November 1996 and Kommersant-daily, 1 February 1997.
73. See N. Modestov, Moskva handitskaya (Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 1996): excerpted in Moskovskaya pravda, 28 May 1996 and Segodnya, 3 April 1996, as well as articles in Kommersant-daily, 19 July 1995, Vechernaya Moskva, 29 November 1996 and Kommersant-daily, 1 February 1997.
74. See N. Modestov, Moskva handitskaya (Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 1996): excerpted in Moskovskaya pravda, 28 May 1996 and Segodnya, 3 April 1996, as well as articles in Kommersant-daily, 19 July 1995, Vechernaya Moskva, 29 November 1996 and Kommersant-daily, 1 February 1997.
75. See N. Modestov, Moskva handitskaya (Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 1996): excerpted in Moskovskaya pravda, 28 May 1996 and Segodnya, 3 April 1996, as well as articles in Kommersant-daily, 19 July 1995, Vechernaya Moskva, 29 November 1996 and Kommersant-daily, 1 February 1997.
76. See N. Modestov, Moskva handitskaya (Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 1996): excerpted in Moskovskaya pravda, 28 May 1996 and Segodnya, 3 April 1996, as well as articles in Kommersant-daily, 19 July 1995, Vechernaya Moskva, 29 November 1996 and Kommersant-daily, 1 February 1997.
77. Moskovskii komsomolets, 10 November 1996.
78. Fully twenty-five per cent of the sample admitted still to having ties with the criminal world. Interfax News Agency, 12 July 1995.
79. The vory v zakone are the traditional leaders, who maintain, interpret and enforce the "Thieves' code", while the avtoritety are the more numerous and entrepreneurial gang leaders.
80. Moskovskii komsomolets, 10 November 1996.
81. Izvestiya, 1 March 1997.