RUSSIAN MAFIA CONTROLS UP TO 40 PERCENT OF ECONOMY, STUDY SAYS

. According to a study published by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Sociology, Russian organized crime, entwined with corrupt officialdom, controls over 40 percent of the national economy, including an estimated two thirds of commercial institutions, some 35,000 businesses, nearly 400 banks, up to 47 stock exchanges, and 150 government-owned enterprises. The study coordinator, Dr. Olga Kryshchanovskaya, also stressed that the Russian mafia controlled anywhere from 35 to 80 percent of the voting shares in various financial institutions with country-wide activities. The mafia spends up to 35 percent of its profits on bribes to state officials. Kryshchanovskaya pointed out that this widespread criminalization of the Russian economy coincides with the fact that up to 50 percent of the chiefs of non- governmental security and detective agencies are former KGB officers. (7)

The data cited by Kryshchanovskaya broadly coincides with information collected in separate investigations by several Russian law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Trade, and the Central Bank of Russia, as well as the FBI and Interpol.

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