"Dermokratizatsiya" and "Prikhvatizatsiya": The Russian Kleptocracy and Rise of Organized Crime

Demokratizatsiya, Summer 2003 by Granville, Johanna

As he points out, while these groups' core activities remain the same-car theft, drug trafficking, fraud in all its guises, alien smuggling, weapons trafficking, counterfeit production and distribution, murder, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering, and the smuggling and sale of nuclear materials-organized criminals flourish in the global markets of transparent borders and meaningless trade restrictions. Unlike their predecessors, they do not limit themselves to single forms of illegal activity, but deal in anything and everything that can make money for them. Unless jurisdictional barriers can be eliminated to allow law enforcement authorities in those countries to pool information, the situation will only worsen, Robinson warns.

Disraeli may dissuade us from high expectations, but Henry David Thoreau's words also warrant attention: "It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood."22 If we want to curb international organized crime, we must expect that we can. All five books reviewed here take us a step closer to solutions by raising our awareness of Russian organized crime, challenging some widely held assumptions, and suggesting more stringent methods of law enforcement. All would be suitable for courses in Russian politics, sociology, and international relations. Undergraduate students tend to favor the sprightly writing styles of Freeland, Klebnikov, and Friedman. Freeland's book would be especially useful, given its detailed chronology and list of key individuals. For further coverage, readers may also want to consult Russian and Post-Soviet Organized Crime (The International Library of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Penology), edited by Mark Galeotti; The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in a New Market Economy by Federico Varese; Bandits, Gangsters and the Mafia: Russia, the Baltic States and the CIS Since 1991 by Martin McCauley; The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia, by David E. Hoffman; Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism's Wildest Frontier, by Matthew Brzezinski; and for more general background, Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cyber Crime, and Money Laundering: A Handbook for Law Enforcement Officers, Auditors, and Financial Investigators, by James R. Richards.

NOTES

1. P. Lilley, Dirty Dealing: the Untold Truth about Global Money Laundering (London, 2000), 39.

2. Lilley.

3. P. Klebnikov, Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia (New York, 2000), 5.

4. Ibid., 320.

5. Ibid., 319.

6. Lilley, Dirty Dealing, 27.

7. Klebnikov, 3.

8. Ibid., 59.

9. Ibid., 76.

10. Ibid., 319.

11. Ibid., 12

12. Ibid., xi.

13. James O. Finckenauer and Elin J. Waring, Russian Mafia in America: Immigration, Culture, and Crime (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998), xiv.

14. Ibid., 198-99.

15. Ibid., 6.

16. Ibid., 263.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., 121.

19. Robert I. Friedman, Red Mafia: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 2000), xvii.