The Russian Mafia has always exercised an important role in the Russian economy. The contemporary mafiosi are descendents of the seventeenth Century highwaymen and Cossack robbers. These men occasionally murdered families prior to raids preventing them from being captured. The Russia mafiosi made a point to remain aloof from the state. Mob men were actually spurned when returning home from fighting in the Great Patriotic War. The gangs begin to dominate markets such as car sales, spare parts, cigarettes, food distribution, and other markets that the Communist Party failed to provide under the Bolsheviks (Remnick196).

Since the collapse of Communism and the dawn of Capitalism, the Russian people have been troubled with innumerable obstacles. There are more than 3,000 gangs known generally as the Russian Mafia. They have proven to be a significant force in delaying the reform process (Goldman 58). The new Russian Mafia has involved themselves in every imaginable kind of criminal activity from drug trafficking and money laundering to protectionism, which penetrates into every area of society. Under the laws of the Soviet Union, the regulations were strong an

The Puget Sound Business Journal reported "the Russian mafia is the most Western-like negotiating experience you'll have in Russia...unlike the slow-moving and fractured government the Russian mafia is businesslike and helpful" (18). The Russian syndicates seem far more organized than the legitimate government. The gangsters have a systematic method of retrieving "taxes" from their businesses under their protection. They use force. This is how they sustain control. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported an antidote about protectionism. There was a small store in Moscow selling groceries and other items, Vso Dlyah Vas or everything for you. It was one of the many new stores springing up in the new Russia. The store's front windows were smashed; yet, nothing was stolen. A few days later the store was closed; the owners left town (1B). They had failed to pay the appropriate people. This is just one example of mobsters smashing private businesses for failure to comply with their protectionism mandates.

The Russian press reports that fifty-two percent of the country believe that the mafia is running the country. The Majority also believed that Russia's rich got wealthy through stealing, plundering, bribery, or some other form of corruption (Fifty-two Percent Believe 11). Yet the Russian Internal Affairs minister, Sergei Stepashin, stated that the Russian Mafia is but a myth during an address reporting on the Russian criminal world at a European Union meeting. He said, "Fear of the Russian Mafia stems from a lack of understanding the processes that are occurring today in Russia" (Sukhova 20). He also reported that there is a myth of a Russian mafia that should be dispelled. Protectionism is not really occurring..

d external. Now the external regulators have disappeared allowing the Russian Mafia to exceedingly enlarge its strength and influence especially with the accelerated speed of privatization without legal safeguards. The Russian Mafia's effect on the Russian economy through protectionism can be viewed through the different scopes of academia, the United States Press, and the Russian Press.

Academia states that protectionism is having a trenchant effect on the Russian economy. It helps create massive inflation to the already weak economy. The twenty percent of the gross earnings extorted from the business as protection raises the price of the goods and services tremendously for the Russian people monthly. The Russian consumer ultimately pays the protection bill (Goldman 58). It is estimated that in 1996 about eighty percent of all private businesses made regular payments to a mafia organization for protection and a substantial amount of that money ends up in other countries. (Gustatsun 104). Thus the underworld is taking a vast amount of wealth out of Russia. With the Russian Mafia handling so much money, it is little wonder that they were able to buy so many governmental officials.

Democracy in Russian has turned out to be a free-for-all of profiteering. For many, it brought increased poverty and despair. Krisha, in Russian, means protection money. It is surmised

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Approximate Word count = 2107
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)