Abstract

With the collapse of the Cold War, and the subsequent end of the bipolar international system, new security threats have arisen. One of the most important ones is that presented by transnational organized crime, which has increased both in wealth and power as a result of these geopolitical shifts, and with the intensification of the globalization process. We posit that transnational criminal organizations are the perverse effect of both globalization and of weak of central states. In this study we trace the evolution of the Russian Mafiya, which has become a pivotal actor in this new international society of thieves. Moreover, we attempt to gauge the threat posed by the Mafiya on the nascent Russian state, and its transition to a democratic polity and free market economy. This transition has been hampered by its failure to create new state structures necessary to dislodge a resistant nomenklatura. Consequently, we posit that transitions can only be successful when guided, and protected by strong states. We conclude that the Mafiya does represent a strong threat to the current Russian state for it is plundering the country's natural and cultural wealth, undermining the state's authority and legitimacy through corruption and intimidation, co-opting civil society's institutions, and fuelling the forces of disintegration. As in Italy and Columbia, the Mafiya is grafting itself upon the body politic of newborn Russia.