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The Russian Mafia appears to be organised in similar ways to the legendary Italian mafia. However it is believed to be a very loose organisation with internal feuds and murders, which are often brutal, being commonplace.
The groups came about during the economic disaster of the 1990s that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Desperate for money, many turned to crime and the Mafia was a natural extention of this trend. According to official estimates, some 100,000 Russians are hard-core mobsters, with a large, but unknown number engaging in these criminal practices on and off.
Many of the bosses and main members of the Russian mafia are believed to be ex- Red Army and ex- KGB officers who lost their posts in the reduction of forces that began in 1993 after the end of the Cold War. It is also believed that many of the groups' enforcers are ex-Russian Spetsnaz special forces, an organisation renowned for its brutality. Russian mob recruited a lot of sportsmen - boxers and other martial artists, and weightlifters, as funding for sports had decreased sharply, and they could offer decent income to strong men.
Since the mid-90s the Russians have been trying to expand into America, most often via the trafficking of drugs and illegal weapons. This has led to some brutal wars with the organisations already present, including the Italian Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza. The group is believed to have links to Colombian drugs smugglers and many smaller gangs as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union. Some also believe they are at the heart of gangs smuggling illegal workers west to the European UnionFor other uses, see EU (disambiguation). The European Union or EU is a supranational organisation of 25 European states. It was established with that name by the Treaty on European Union (commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 but many aspects o and often BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly, though no proof has been offered for this at the time.
Over the last few years, the FBI and Russian security services have cracked down hard on the Mafia, though the impact of this has yet to be measured. Many mafioso have become rich in America and have begun to imitate the Italian Mafia in lifestyle. This has lead to the apparent softening of the mafia, though in reality they may well be as dangerous as ever.
The term Russian Mafia is considered offensive by many ethnic Russians, since a large percentage (some estimates claim this number to be close to 90%) of the alleged "Russian" mafiosi, especially in the United States, claim to be ethnic Jews from the former Soviet Union, and due to strong anti-semitic feelings in parts of Russia, many Russians do not feel that Jews are authentically Russian. The predominance of Jewish-identifying Russian mobsters can be explained by the fact that many immigrants from the former Soviet Union were ethnic Jews. However, it should also be noted that many Russian gangsters claim Jewish descent in order to get an Israeli passport, as the activities of the Russian mafia are particularly concentrated there - by one 19981998 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Ocean''. Events January January 1998 A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting estimate, the Russian mafia had put some $4 billion into the Israeli economy. The former Soviet Republics of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Moldova have their own mafias. There are also large numbers of individuals belonging to various ethnic groups from Caucausus, such as Chechens, Georgians, Armenians, Azeris, and others. The so called "Russian Mafia" appears to be no more "Russian", per se, than Cosa Nostra is "English" or "American" Mafia, as far as much of the Russian public is concerned. The term "Russian-speaking" or "Soviet" Mafia may better describe the situation.