Vadim Volkov

An interesting account of the rise of organized crime in Russia in the 1990s. It's a fairly theoretical book which analyzes the economic and sociological aspects of organized crime without reveling in the violence. In the beginning of the book the author focuses on the internal workings and business logic of Russian organized crime, which I thought was the most interesting part. The second half of the book brings in the Russian state and how it has curtailed and sometimes colluded with criminal organizations to achieve specific objects. This latter part of the book gets bogged down with state terminology and the analysis is in my opinion a bit too detailed. Nevertheless I recommend this book to people interested in the sociology of organized crime.… (más)