Russian+Mafia

__Russian Mafia__
The Russian Mafia is one of the largest orginized crime organizations in the World. The two major branches are the Dolgopruadnanskaya and the Solntsevskaya. Solntsevskaya mainly concentrate themselves on drug and gun smuggling.

__Extortion__
The Russian Mafia practices in routine extortion. A owner of a Russian club called the Hungry Duck paid out over one millions dollars of pay-offs to the police. The Russian Mafia has now taken complete control of the Russian underground, which is a major part of the Russian economy.

__Money Laundering__
Another illegal practice that the Russian Mafia commits is laundering money. Laundering money is the process in which you take money you made through illegal actions. They then take the money and put it through different kinds of industries such as banks to make it legitimate money. Two major bussineses for the Russian Mafia are prostitution and drug smuggling. $25 billion dollars have been laundered out of Russia since the fall of communism. The Russians have also started to pour money into Saudi Arabia. So far they have put $4 billion dollars into the Saudi Arabian economy itself.

__Prostitution__ The Russian Mafia is also heavily involved in the trafficking of prostitutes. Much of the money that is made in the money that is made in the Mafia is through prostitution. The prostitutes pay the Mafia some of their income so they are then working for the Mafia. The Mafia then sends them all over Europe, particularly Paris. This has been attracting a lot of attention towards the Russian Mafia lately.

__Drug Trafficking__
The Russian Mafia also traffic's copious amounts of drugs. Lately they have started spreading a wde variety of drugs across the world. They buy old submarines that are used and use them to traffic huge amounts of drugs across borders without being caught. The Russian Mafia is a huge force within the illegal drug distribution business.

====__Russia's introduction to America__ The Russin Mafia's first outpost in America was in New York City. Vyacheslav Ivankov was the leader of the Russian Mafia sect in New York. He was thrown in jail in 1997 for a 5.9 million dollar extortion case. The Russian Mafia headquarter in America is in Brighton Beach. Russia has brought a huge increase in organized crime in New York City, and recently the FBI has been investigating heavily into the Russian Mafia.====

__Rapid Growth :__
In 1996 there were a reported 8,000 groups within the Russian Mafia. The organized crime rate has risen dramatically in the recent years. 80% of all Russian banks are run by the Russian Mafia. They control 60% of state companies are controlled by the Russian Mafia. 40% of all private business's are controlled by the Russian Mafia. The presence of the Russian Mafia is more than immenent.

__The Beginning__
The Russian Mafia really started to pick up in the Brezshnev period when the economy was very bad. The so called "thieves in law" started supplying the people of Russia with supplies such as vodka, jean cigarettes, and other luxurie items that they could not attain. These new wealthy men, that were apart of the Mafia, were sure to not flaunt their money so that they avoided becoming a part of the. Becoming a part of the Gulags would expose the illegal money that they had made, running a higher risk of their arrest.

__The Fall of Communism and Its Benefits__
The fall of communism left a horrible economy in Russia. It also left open a lot of crippled businesses. This is when the Mafia really stepped it up. The Mafia then came in an filled in the empty economic spaces left within Russia. They started extorting different businesses and made their fortunes in this period of time. The Russian Mafia also provided to jobs for young people who were without work. In the late 80's was when the Russian Mafia spread all over Europe and on to America.

__Russian Mafia Attitude__
The Russian Mafia is known for their violent attitudes. They are infamous for blowing up their enemies through car bombs and other terroristic procedures. They have no problem with killing you. If you pose as a remote threat to the Russian Mafia or get in their way, you will be killed very quickly.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/03/98/russian_mafia/70485.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/03/98/russian_mafia/70095.stm http://media.www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2008/03/05/News/Russian.Mafia.In.Bed.With.Wall.Street.Ceo.Says-3252089.shtml