Most entrepreneurs purchase the protection. Then the new company pays unofficial taxes to crime groups. This guarantees that nearly all new businesses will have an affiliation with the mafia. Gustatson estimates that payments can are approximately twenty percent of the profit (105). This is a major form of taxation on top of what the government already commands leading many companies to tax evasion or concealing their exact value. These acts forfeit what little protection the authorities might be able to render.The mafia demands a cut of the earnings but in turn furnish more than adequate security. The mafiosi provides protection from unaffiliated criminals and rival gangs. They ensure that property is not damaged or stolen. If entrepreneurs are visited by another organization, they must only summon their own mafia group. The two gangs will settle the matter themselves (Gustatson 105). This security is an asset that the State seemingly fails to provide. The Russian Mafia has more men and weapons than the Russian law enforcement. The police force is an intently corrupt place as is much of the Russian government. Both army officers and law enforcers are frantic for cash and willing to sell weapons such as guns, grenades, and rocket launchers (Remnick 109). The Russian Mafia is able to easily locate weaponry to carry out its duties as protectorate; while, the authorities lack money and personnel.A few days before the union dissolved the biggest Russian Mafia leaders held a summit meeting at a dacha just outside Moscow with the three main Italian crime organizations from Sicily, Naples, and Calabria. They understood that it would bring turmoil and uncertainty; yet, the Vori v Zakonye or thieves in the law saw possibility in the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The organizational leaders assembled to discuss the selling of nuclear materials, and drug-money laundering (108). The mafiosi would use their influence to access burea...
