ABSTRACT
Even so, one of the most distinctive things about Russian organised crime is precisely how disorganised it iso It ranges from swaggering Chechen gangsters to seemingly-Iegitimate Russian entrepreneurs whose business empires have been built on the back of money laundering and rigged privatisation auctions. Along with overtly criminal activities such as protection racketeering, drug smuggling and prostitution, most are also involved in much legal business. Indeed, the most important criminal godfathers now work mainly within the legal or largely-Iegal sectors. They may secretly transfer their funds to offshore havens, fiddle their taxes, pay off local officials or establish illegal cartels, but they have long since hived off their protection rackets and narcotics rings to hungry proteges. Further, if one looks as the so-called 'oligarchs' and the business empires currently dominating Russia, few do not have skeletons in their cupboards, and in some cases still sitting in their boardrooms. Although there is a tendency on the part of some of the larger and more settled corporations to begin to adopt Western standards of corporate governance, in the main there is still frighteningly little to distinguish the criminal from his legitimate counterparts. Both te nd to be flexible, able and entrepreneurial. The criminals simply see crime often simply as the quiekest and fastest route to money, power and security, but have no objection to working licitly if the balance of danger against opportunity is right.
