BBC NEWS | Special Report | 1998 | 03/98 | russian mafia | Watching the detectives: Crime on Russian TV

@StefLaw

(1/n)

Mikhail #Gorbachev's restrictions on #alcohol sales until 1987(2) seem to have paved the ground for #OrganizedCrime in #Russia, just like #Prohibition in the #US in the 1920's(1):

"Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob"

"Prohibition practically created organized crime in #America. It provided members of small-time street gangs with the 👉greatest opportunity ever 👈— feeding the need of Americans coast to coast to drink beer,..."

(1)
https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-rise-of-organized-crime/the-mob-during-prohibition/

Prohibition Profits Transformed the Mob - Prohibition: An Interactive History

Prohibition was the best thing that ever happened to organized crime. Thanks to the proceeds of providing illegal liquor, small-time street gangs grew into regional crime syndicates.

Prohibition: An Interactive History

@StefLaw

(2/n)

"...hard liquor on the sly. Organized #racketeers dominated the illegal “#bootlegging” industry as well as the urban machine “#bosses” and the vice kings." (1)

The impact of the drug #alcohol by itself on post-#Soviet #Russian society is staggering:

"...estimated that the increase in #alcohol consumption since 1987, the year when then-Soviet leader Mikhail #Gorbachev's restrictions on alcohol sales collapsed, cost ..."

(2) https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/alcohol-blamed-half-90s-russian-deaths-flna1c9450713

Alcohol blamed for half of ’90s Russian deaths

NBC News
@HistoPol that would be an oversimplification, I believe. This report was coauthored with a knowledge Russian criminologist who was a visiting fellow in the US at the end of that decade. This was released June 2001. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/187085.pdf

Thanks for getting back to me, @StefLaw.

Impressive source. :) I will give it a look (might take a bit).

What exactly do you believe to be an oversimplification? That the Shock Therapy gave a boost to organized crime as well?--Because you referenced the page (2/n) which only deals with the impact of alcohol on Russian society and cites the (more current than 2001) statistics.