Global InformationRussian mafia information
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| Founding location | Soviet Union |
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| Years active | Late 1980s–present[1] |
| Territory | Post-Soviet states, European Union, United States, Israel, Australia |
| Ethnicity | Primarily Russians and Armenians, but also Jews, Ukrainians, Hungarians |
| Membership (est.) | 500,000 in 50+ countries |
| Leader(s) | Semion Mogilevich |
| Criminal activities | Human trafficking, racketeering, drug trafficking, extortion, murder, robbery, smuggling, arms trafficking, gambling, prostitution, pornography, money laundering, fraud, financial crime, terrorism |
| Allies |
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The Russian mafia (Russian: ру́сская ма́фия rússkaya máfiya [ˈruskəjə ˈmafʲɪjə] or росси́йская ма́фия rossíyskaya máfiya [rɐˈsʲijskəjə ˈmafʲɪjə]),[2] otherwise referred to as Bratva (братва́ bratvá [brɐtˈva], lit. 'brotherhood'), is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating in the former Soviet Union (FSU). Any of the mafia's groups may be referred to as an "Organized Criminal Group" (OPG). This is sometimes modified to include a specific name, such as the Orekhovskaya OPG. The "P" in the initialism comes from the Russian word for criminal: prestupnaya. Sometimes, the Russian word is dropped in favour of a full translation, and OCG is used instead of OPG.
Today's Russian organized crime can be traced back to the Russian Empire, but it was not until after the establishment of the Soviet Union that certain vory v zakone (lit. 'thieves-in-law') emerged as the leaders of prison groups throughout forced labour camps with a generally well-defined code of honour. In the aftermath of World War II in 1945, the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, more gangs emerged in a flourishing black market that exploited the unstable governments of the FSU. American attorney Louis Freeh, who headed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) between 1993 and 2001, said that the Russian mafia posed the greatest threat to the United States in the mid-1990s.[3]
In 2012, there were as many as 6,000 groups,[4] with more than 200 of them having a global reach. Criminals of these various groups are either former prison members, corrupt officials and business leaders, people with ethnic ties, or people from the same region with shared criminal experiences and leaders.[clarification needed][5] In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the National Central Bureau of Interpol within Russia, stated "Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad" on the topic of international Russian criminal gangs.[6] In August 2010, Alain Bauer, a criminologist from France, said that the Russian mafia "is one of the best structured criminal organizations in Europe, with a quasi-military operation" in their international activities.[7] Since the 1980s, the Russian mafia has been among the world's most powerful, dangerous, and feared criminal organizations. As of 2022[update], it remains among the world's largest, deadliest, and most powerful crime syndicates. The collective Russian mafia groups have been referred to as a "criminal superpower" by the FBI.
The Russian mafia is similar to the Italian mafia in many ways, in that the groups' organizations and structures follow a similar model. The two groups also share a similar portfolio of criminal activity. The highly publicized Italian mafia is believed to have inspired early criminal groups in Russia to form mafia-like organizations, eventually spawning their own version. The Russian mafia, however, differed from the Italians due to their environment. The level of political corruption and arms sales in post-Soviet Russia allowed for their massive expansion, as well as the incorporation of many government officials into the crime syndicates. Russian mafia groups have also been involved in uranium trading, stolen from the Soviet nuclear program, and human trafficking, among other serious activities.[8]
- ^ The 'Russian Mafia' as an organized crime group started in the late 1980s, as we can see in the creation of the most powerful gangs from the country such as the Solntsevskaya Bratva, Tambovskaya Bratva, Orekhovskaya gang and Uralmash gang
- ^ "В Испании ликвидирована "российская мафия"" (in Russian). Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 16 June 2008. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Freehwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
fas.orgwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
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Lakhoninwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Bauerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Fijnaut, Cyrille (Summer 1990). "Organized crime: a comparison between the United States of America and Western Europe". The British Journal of Criminology. 30 (3): 321–340. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a048024.