al pay that government employees receive is meager at best; the official salary of $100-250 per month leads to many government officials looking to other avenues for richer financial gains (Konanykhine 2). They find the money they need by working for the Russian mafia. After dealing with Communist rule for seventy years, virtually all moral and religious constraints have been destroyed in official workers. Thievery had been an almost daily exercise during Communist times. "The difficulty of starting a legitimate economy in Russia after 70 years of the systematic destruction of morals and economics is evident" (Amiel 7). There is not a considerable number of government officials who are opposed to taking money from the powerful Russian mafia.
             There are three main types of organized criminal groups that dominate Russia. Each of these groups has among their members thugs, officials, and businessmen; each member has their own job to complete in these well run criminal organizations. The first criminal group deals mainly with business activities. In this group thugs, working with officials offer protection to businesses for a share of the profits. The second division of organized criminal activity derive most of their income from traditional mob activities; which include racketeering, prostitution, robbery and assassination. Officials work with these groups to insure immunity from law enforcement agencies, then businessman launder and manage the criminal funds. The final criminal group uses the power of their officials to procure money. Such a group for example, may control the city administration and use it to privatize the city's real estate and factories for a fraction of their true value, skim funds from the city !
             budget or elicit extortion payments from local businesses (Konanykhine 8).
             Col.-Gen. Koleshnikov, a veteran of the Soviet police, now deputy minister of the interior, responded that there were no gangsters in Russi...