Introduction
Developed and developing countries have not only experienced economic and social stability but they also have to deal with a well-organized gang of criminals who are out to exploit every opportunity in the world to benefit in monetary terms using systematic criminal means. Organized crime has always had several definitions from different quarters. The United States’ FBI defines Organized crime as a group of highly coordinated enterprises within a city, across nations as well as on an international scale and are usually run by well-organized criminals who are out to execute illegal activities, even by bribery with a primary objective of obtaining monetary profits (O’Neal, 2000). Russian Organized Crime (ROC) is a term used to refer to groups of criminals that are found in the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union.
These criminals have established extensive illegal networks in most of the major cities across the globe and they are currently emerging in smaller cities. The groups comprising the ROC are mainly characterized by money laundering, murder, smuggling of weapons across international boundaries, extortion, auto theft, drugs trafficking, use of counterfeit currency, prostitution, and a vast of very complex schemes of fraud. Mafia, on the other hand, refers to a general term that describes a number of other criminal groups all over the world and includes the Russian Mafia, American Mafia, Albanian Mafia, and Italy’s Costa Nostra which was the first to bear the name Mafia. This research paper seeks to focus on Russian Organized Crime. It will elaborately discuss its history, notable ROC personalities, size and scope, causes, and significances of the Russian organized crime especially in the wake of technological advancement.
The History of Russian Organized Crime
Taking a worldwide rather than a local view of crime may reveal that organized crime can be traced back several centuries. Gangs of criminals have their roots in the 13th century when they went from town to town extorting and looting from businesses in countries such as India, Italy, and Russia. But we are only interested in the origin of organized crime in Russia. When the economy of the Soviet Union came crumbling downhill in 1991, Handelman (1997), many citizens were left at the brink of need where they could not meet their basic requirements like food, clothing, and proper shelter. This state of economic affairs played a great role in cultivating corruption in the former Soviet Union region. Entrepreneurs formed small groups through which they could supply the then very rare commodities and items-resulting in the emergence of the black market. The transition from communism to capitalism the Russian Federation saw the use of organized crime as a way of facilitating the reform. This step blurred the line between the criminal underworld and real business. The then newly formed Russian government realized that it risked interfering with the smooth transition to capitalism if it had started combating the emerging corruption and organized crime.
The political, social, and economic crises that Russia witnessed once the Soviet Union fell can be considered to have contributed significantly to the rise of organized crime in the west. The economic crises and reforms were seen by the Russian organized crime as an opportunity to increase their wealth potential and hence strengthen their influence. In 1994, Boris Yeltsin, the then sitting president referred to Russia as one of the world’s biggest mafia as well as the superpower of organized crime (Handelman, 1997). However, little did he know that this situation would only worsen in the later years of the last decade of the previous century. By the time Russia thought of privatizing property owned by the state in 1992, most of the assets had been snapped by Russian organized crime. Apart from helping them expand and strengthen their base with the government, it also enabled them to gain tremendous political and economic power since their control of assets ensured direct connection to the Russian government. This situation led to the ROC exercising some functions of the government which included; business market regulation, the division of territories among the various competing actors in the economic sector, the imposition of security fees, and the recognition of Mafia as a form of de facto government. It is important to note that the organized crime groups execute their actions by the use of violence and other coercive forms and this is what differentiates Russian organized crime from any other legal association.
Furthermore, there are four major criminal centers from which Russian organized crime emerged. The historical criminal elite in Russia was the first and comprised of the ordinary criminals, and the Vory v Zakone (theft in law). This group of criminals has been in existence long before the Soviet Union. It has grown to a situation of developing its own way of organization which is strictly adhered to by the members, the inmates.
The second key group emerged from corrupt members of the Communist Party, business people of the Soviet elite, and some government officials who decided to abuse their positions of authority to develop mutually beneficial links with the criminal groups (Webster, et al., 1999). The organized groups operated through payoffs, underground barter economy, and extensive cases of bribery (Iannacci & Morris, 1999). Many members of this group were high-ranking government officials both before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union and this helped them to develop a strong base of operation. Much more, retired and current senior government officials continue to make a significant contribution to the growth of ROC through the provision of demolition training, intelligence operations, expertise in weaponry, and other techniques in operational security.
The third epicenter of Russian organized crime emanates from the various Russian national and ethnic groups. There are a number of organized crime groups but the Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Ingush, and Dagestanis have been singled out as the most influential. The mentioned groups are very active all over Russia including Central Eurasia and they are mostly ethnic-based. They are known to be the most violent of all the organized criminal groups.
A compilation of disparate criminal groups forms the fourth and the largest of all the centers of organized groups. Some of these groups specialize in one kind of illegal activity, others control certain geographical sectors, while others have common members, shared experiences, and are under one leader.
Notable ROC Personalities
There are several figures that have been identified by Russia’s MVD intelligence agency and the United States’ FBI as either the core leaders or members of organized crime. The world’s most dangerous gangster, according to the FBI, and who controls most of the leaders of the Russian organized crime is known by the name Semion Mogilevich. “The Brainy Don,” is his nickname since he holds a degree in economics and has deep business acumen.
Another notable fugitive is Evsei Agron who was in charge of New York’s Russian organized crime group. He was a Vor and in 1975 he moved to the United States where he quickly established a base from which he could man operations. He positioned himself in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, occupied mainly by the Jewish-Russian community. Agron used violence in most of his undertakings to control the Russian underworld in New York and this made him be greatly feared by the people. He had advanced himself to become the Russian Godfather and in May 1985, he was assassinated. His chief advisor, Marat Balagula, a Ukrainian-Jewish crime commandant immediately took over Agron’s mantle. Surprisingly, Balagula was thought to be behind the assassination of his former boss. He engineered the billion-dollar gasoline tax racket and had maximum protection from the Lucchese crime family. Balagula was released in 2004 from the American prison and deported to Russia.
Boris Nayfeld, Agron’s former bodyguard and driver rose through the ranks until he took over his operations and the title of the Russian criminal underworld. He ultimately became the kingpin of international drug trafficking. Furthermore, Monya Elson is also one of the most dreaded professional killers in Russian organized crime. Elson has been convicted of three murders and is imprisoned. The list of such personalities is long and cannot be entirely listed (Webster, et al., 1999).
Size and Scope of the Russian Organized Crime
The size and the current scope greatly depend on the definition of ROC. The Russian law enforcers define its organized crime as a community of organized criminals whose number ranges from 50 to 1,000 individuals, which deals mainly in systematic illegal businesses and keeps evading the law through corrupt means (Handelman, 1997). This is quite a broad definition since it includes organizations with criminal specialties having two or more levels of hierarchy across regions. The ability to corrupt upright government officials or influence them is another criterion that can be used to classify a given group as an organized crime and determine its size.
According to the definition offered by the FBI, it gives the estimated number of active criminal groups in Russia at between 200 and 300, while in the United States, the number doubled in 1995 to 52 (O’Neal, 2000). Russian statistics revealed that in 1994, there were about 5,691 organized crimes and 8,000 in 1996 with a total of 100,000 full-time members. In 1994, the United Nations placed the number of transnational gang groups at 5,700 with a membership of ROC at about 3 million globally.
As far as transnational ROC activities are concerned, Russia’s MVD indicated in their statistics that there are about 3,000 professional criminals and approximately 300 ROC groups on the international scale. In the economic scope, the MVD reports that about 40,000 Russian industrial and businesses are under the direct control of OC (Rossiyskiye, 1997). As if that is not enough, the MVD statistics of 1996 states that 50% of Russian banks, 60% of state-owned companies, and 40% of private businesses are manned by organized crime members (Iannacci & Morris, 1999). It has also been observed by the MVD that there is a growing tendency for groups in different regions of Russia to form alliances hence strengthening their network, especially in drug and arms trafficking. Advancement in ICT has largely facilitated this trend.
The Major Causes of Russian Organized Crime
A number of causes of ROC can be highlighted. First is the ever-decreasing strength of the rule of law in Russian history. Since the time before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has experienced the waning of the rule of law due to the totalitarian oppression tendencies (Webster, et al., 1999). This resulted in people losing confidence in the Russian government and hence has failed to win voluntary loyalty to the state and the rule of law from the people.
The communist ideology may have also caused the people to disregard the rule of law in order to feed their families by all means possible. This is because the ideology created a wide gap between reality and the rule of law resulting in moral compromises (Siegel, 2008). Many people had to rationalize all sorts of immoral activities like stealing from the state and occasionally breaking the rule of law in order to improve their economic status. Again, the eventual transition to the democratic-capitalist system from the totalitarian-socialist system helped in the creation of sociopathological conditions and the damage of the rule of law where people could no longer draw a clear line between legal or illegal activities.
The other key cause of ROC is the corruption and weakening of Russia’s criminal justice system. Since the downfall of the Soviet Union, Russia’s criminal justice system has greatly been enfeebled and suffered from deep-rooted corruption rendering the entire system incompetent (Siegel, 2008). This is due to the fact that corruption has penetrated the system from top to bottom. In fact, the Russian criminal justice system went beyond the traditional corruption which is limited to embezzlement and bribe-taking to become criminalized which means it was actively involved in criminal activities. This, to some extent, has been necessitated by the general weakness of the whole criminal justice system due to a lack of sufficient money, human resource, legal apparatus, and experience. The employees in the Russian criminal justice system are underpaid and hence have low living standards.
The disturbance of the formal social system of success is another possible cause of organized crime. Every member of society strives to put personal time and energy to be socially successful using the already set means of success in society. Social success may, however, be relative from one society to another. When this system is distracted, many will opt for alternative ways of achieving the desired social success leading to increased incidences of organized crime.
Significances of Russian Organized Crime
Russian organized crime is not only a threat to Russian alone but also a threat to the whole world especially the major cities of the United States and the Asian continent (Siegel, 2008). This has been worsened by the advent of information and technological advancement coupled with this era of business globalization. The use of the new technology has helped in strengthening the networks of organized crime. New forms of crimes have emerged which include; cellular phone theft, computer system hacking, and credit card theft. Firstly, Russian organized crime is strategically located since Russia has numerous international borders of the Eurasian continent making the threats of ROC more significant. This positioning enables Russian organized crime to bridge and manipulate transnational operations and makes it easier to engage in narcotics and arms trafficking among other illegal activities.
Secondly, the presence of ROC in Russia guarantees it the protection from international law enforcement agencies like the US’s FBI since Russia as a nation has its peculiarity as far as international cooperation is concerned (Siegel, 2008). International anti-Mafia response from the United States or the United Nations may not manage to hit the Russian organized crime due to Russia’s characteristic refusal to participate in the global politics. Any international attempt to create an international criminal justice system to address the transnational trend of criminal activities may actually be frustrated by the Russian stance on the consideration of criminal cases.
Conclusion
Although a number of meaningful researches have been conducted on the Russian organized crime phenomenon over the last decade, many of these are still far from being empirical. This research paper has attempted to focus on the Russian organized crime scenario by discussing its historical emergence, notable personalities, its size and current scope, causes, and the significance of Russian organized crime.
References
Handelman, S., (1997). Understanding the Soviet Union and Comrade Criminal (4th ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Iannacci, J. & Morris, R. (1999). Device access fraud and related financial crimes. CRC Press.
O’Neal, S. (2000). The Russian Organized Crime: A Criminal Hydra. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Vol.69, 1-5.
Rossiyskiye, V. (1997). MVD Report: The Latest Statistics on the Performance of Internal Affairs Agencies and Internal Troops in 1996. Moscow Press. 1997. pp. 1-5.
Siegel, L. J. (2008). Criminology (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Webster, W. H., Borchgrave, A. & Cilluffo, F. (1999). Corruption and Russian organized crime. CSIS.