Interview · moment 6 of 23
The 1990s Looting and Bulletproof Mercedes
from Russia's Super Mafia · #98
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
3 minGuest
They cover how Gorbachev's failed anti-alcohol campaign fed organized crime, the chaos and violence of 1990s Russia, and how the new generation of Vory moved from street rackets into finance, pyramid schemes, and banking.
- 10:50Post-Soviet oligarchs looted the country while selling more bulletproof Mercedes in Russia than the rest of the world combined.
- 11:35Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign in the 1980s was as poorly thought through as American prohibition, handing a massive market to organized crime.
- 12:17Russian gangsters suddenly had money through the 80s and had to figure out how to launder it and make more from it.
- 12:34When the Soviet system collapsed in 1991, the people with connections, muscle, or money—the gangsters—could define what happened next.
- 12:51The 1990s in Russia made prohibition-era Chicago look tame, with drive-by machine gunnings, rocket-propelled grenades, and car bombings.
- 13:19The smart new generation of criminals wanted to make millions and spend time on the French Riviera rather than labor camps.
- 13:37Real money wasn't made shaking down corner stores but through pyramid schemes and massive stock frauds.
- 13:50In the 1990s, Russian criminals accumulated money and brought it into the legitimate sector, setting up banks and corporations to take over whole industries.
Russian MafiaSoviet UnionMikhail GorbachevRussiaprohibition