Support us Hands of a prisoner in Russia, 2019. Photo: Jonas Petrovas / Shutterstock via The Conversation Following the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Russia endured a period of violent criminal lawlessness known as the “wild 90s.” Organized crime spiked, with gangs taking control of banks, factories and other lucrative markets. Contract killings, shootings and car bombings became part of urban life. There are now fears that the Ukraine war will give rise to a similar situation as members of Russia’s army, as well as former convicts who were pardoned in exchange for military service, return from the frontlines. A variety of conditions enabled organized crime to flourish in the 1990s. Weak state institutions, economic turmoil and mass privatization following the Soviet Union’s collapse created a governance vacuum in Russia. As criminologist Federico Varese, of the University of Oxford, explains in his work, criminal groups stepped in to provide “private protection” in areas where the state was ineffective or absent. They provided services such as contract enforcement, debt recovery and physical business security.
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