Ahhh okay thanks again for the answers that makes sense then. So basically it all changed a lot after the Soviet Union collapsed correct? That was when the OC groups in Russia stepped into the power vacuum and pretty much took over everything right?
Yes, before the collapse of the Soviet Union the situation was different because private economy was non-existent, you couldn't become a banker or president of a big corporation. The gangs at those times extorted money from illegal businessmen who paid also because, their activities being illegal, they couldn't report the extortion to the police. I think I read the first gang that really made extortion their large-scale business was active in the 70s and was headed by one Gennadiy "The Mongol" Korkov. The future thief in law "Little Japanese" Ivankov made career in the same gang. However, whatever there was before the 90s, in terms of economical power they were just angry babies compared to the nowadays' Russian mafia.
