The Russian Mafiya
The Russian Mafiya has emerged to become among the largest networks
of organized crime in the world. It feeds off the political and economic
transitions taking place in Russia, undermining objectives of national reform
policies. A gray area between criminal and legal business activity has allowed
Mafiya groups to penetrate most areas of the Russian economy and has provided
them with a disproportionate amount of influence. Between 5,000 and 6,000
gangs operate within the boundaries of Russia, including several hundred
organizations whose activities span the territory of the Commonwealth of
Independent States, Central and Western Europe and the United States. These
transnational groups are regarded as very sophisticated and are believed
to be operating in approximately 29 countries.
What makes the Russian Mafiya unique is its infiltration of key
sections of the government bureaucracy. According to government investigators,
more than half of the country's criminal groups have ties to the government.
A number of Mafiya organizations are fronts for the former Soviet party
elites -- the "nomenklatura capitalists" -- who have engaged in
illegal activities, including bank fraud, to become wealthy monopoly owners.
Further, throughout 1993 successive corruption scandals paralyzed the Yeltsin
government; senior commanders of the Red Army were caught in smuggling rings
while cabinet ministers and police officials were discovered working for
shady commercial firms.
A major group based in Russia is the Georgian Mafiya, which controlled
much of the black market under the Communist system and has now extended
its range of activities. Two other ethnically oriented organizations include
the Chechens and the Azerbaijani groups, who have contributed to a major
upsurge in the illegal trafficking of drugs, metals, weapons, nuclear materials
and even body organs. Several of the Mafiya groups have 
infiltrated the
Russian banking system and have used tactics of intimidation and violence
against bankers and businessmen that do not cooperate.
Among the most influential Mafiya groups in the United States are
the Odessa Mafiya, based in Brighton Beach, NJ, the Chechens, who tend to
concentrate on contract killings and extortion, and the Malina Organizatsia,
a multi-ethnic group also in Brighton Beach that maintains extensive international
connections and is active in a variety of areas including drug trafficking,
credit card and tax fraud and extortion.
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