Interview · moment 2 of 23
Three Types of Criminal Running Russia
from Russia's Super Mafia · #98
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
1 minGuest
Galeotti explains how post-Soviet Russia settled into a criminal state with three overlapping categories: old-school gangsters, corrupt officials, and the Putin state itself, all blurred together.
- 2:22Russian Mafia hysteria of the 1990s coincided with the country in free fall, when Mercedes sold more bulletproof limos to Russia than everywhere else combined.
- 2:45Since around 2000, the state reasserted control, transforming Russia into a criminal state with three distinct categories of criminals.
- 2:59Tim's breakdown: gangsters who are organized crime figures, corrupt officials ripping off the country, and the state itself under Putin pursuing great power status.
- 3:32All three criminal groups—gangsters, corrupt officials, and the state—have relationships with each other but remain fundamentally separate forces.