McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers, by Misha Glenny“In one shoot-out, the KGB found themselves up against men from the interior ministry, as the security services were effectively privatised, each arm guarding a different client.”

Toby Clements reviews McMafia: Crime without Frontiers by Misha Glenny –

By the Mafia, Misha Glenny means any group of organised criminals, not just those with their roots in Sicily. Balkan cigarette smugglers, Nigerian internet phishers, Russian oligarchs, Chinese snakehead people-traffickers, South African drug lords, Bombay extortion-racketeers, Israeli money-launderers and Brazilian cyber-thieves are among the many who play their part in a complex network of links that the author estimates makes up nearly 20 per cent of global trade.

… Where did all this money come from? In a word, Russia.

… Stark differences in wealth is one thing that typically excites criminal activity, but as … traders grew luridly wealthy, the state institutions collapsed around them, and services such as the KGB found themselves without prestige, money or purpose.

A supply of bored young men with guns is the other stimulus to crime, and soon the oligarchs needed bodyguards. In one shoot-out, the KGB found themselves up against men from the interior ministry, as the security services were effectively privatised, each arm guarding a different client.

Toby Clements @ The Telegraph : Link.

Via The Day They Tried to Kill Me: Link.

McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers, by Misha Glenny: Amazon: Link.