A
The collapse of the Soviet Union destroyed much of the systems and infrastructures that provided social security and a minimal standard of living for the population and law and order across the country broke down resulting in outbreak of crime. Putin's methods to conquer it and then transform it have worked over time and the crime rate in Russia rapidly decreased and the homicide rate dropped by a threefold decrease.
You got your number of 300,000 from Wikipedia which referenced a Moscow Times article in which no source or citation was given to support that number and a CBS article that said they are operating in 50 countries but gave no source or citation either.
Now even if these uncited and unsourced Wikipedia assertions are true, which has certainly not been shown to be so, that's 6,000 members per country. Just for fun 7,095,914,250 world population/198 countries=35,837,950 average number of people per country divided into 6,000 mobsters=0.00016742029 percentage of the population are Russian mafia members for each country they are in. We have more gangsters and associates than that here in Los Angeles... lol.
But you're completely ignoring my main point which is they have been transformed by Putin who has replaced the uber-violent old Russian mafia dons with government white collar bureaucrats. Putin continues to consolidate and then weed the garden. Now pay attention.
Putin fought white collar corruption and reeled in the Russian mafia materially decreasing crime in the process and making Russia safer by Russian standards. He enacted strict economic reform and tax codes stabilizing a plummeting economy. And by nationalizing the Russian oil industry, Putin oversaw massive amounts of money flow back into the Russian government coffers (though oil is low now it was high for years). He reduced Russian poverty by half and Russia has virtually no foreign debt anymore plus they stashed billions into their banking system for future generations. And he did it all while fostering moderate overall economic growth. As a result, his approval ratings among Russians have never sunk below 65%, and often went as high as 85%.
Pussy Riots are much much much lower (except outside Russia in the liberal press). I hope that's not what this is all about. You don't like Putin because Pussy Riot can't take over a church and scream blasphemies at shocked congregations and Russia isn't legalizing the induction of children into homosexual acts.
You got your number of 300,000 from Wikipedia which referenced a Moscow Times article in which no source or citation was given to support that number and a CBS article that said they are operating in 50 countries but gave no source or citation either.
Now even if these uncited and unsourced Wikipedia assertions are true, which has certainly not been shown to be so, that's 6,000 members per country. Just for fun 7,095,914,250 world population/198 countries=35,837,950 average number of people per country divided into 6,000 mobsters=0.00016742029 percentage of the population are Russian mafia members for each country they are in. We have more gangsters and associates than that here in Los Angeles... lol.
But you're completely ignoring my main point which is they have been transformed by Putin who has replaced the uber-violent old Russian mafia dons with government white collar bureaucrats. Putin continues to consolidate and then weed the garden. Now pay attention.
Putin fought white collar corruption and reeled in the Russian mafia materially decreasing crime in the process and making Russia safer by Russian standards. He enacted strict economic reform and tax codes stabilizing a plummeting economy. And by nationalizing the Russian oil industry, Putin oversaw massive amounts of money flow back into the Russian government coffers (though oil is low now it was high for years). He reduced Russian poverty by half and Russia has virtually no foreign debt anymore plus they stashed billions into their banking system for future generations. And he did it all while fostering moderate overall economic growth. As a result, his approval ratings among Russians have never sunk below 65%, and often went as high as 85%.
Pussy Riots are much much much lower (except outside Russia in the liberal press). I hope that's not what this is all about. You don't like Putin because Pussy Riot can't take over a church and scream blasphemies at shocked congregations and Russia isn't legalizing the induction of children into homosexual acts.
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