In the past decade, from Brighton Beach to Moscow, Toronto to Hong Kong, the Russian mob has become the world's fastest-growing criminal superpower. Trafficking in prostitutes, heroin, and missiles, the mafiya poses an enormous threat to global stability and safety. Today, the mafiya controls over 80 percent of Russia's banks and has siphoned off billions of dollars in Western loans and aid, almost certainly derailing the chance for a stable democracy there. But that is just the beginning, for the mafiya is now in every corner of the United States and has infiltrated some of the banks and brokerage firms that handle your money. And American law enforcement is just waking up to this staggering problem. No journalist in the world knows more about the mafiya than Friedman, who has covered the Russian mob for Details, Vanity Fair, and New York. At great peril to himself, Friedman interviewed many of the top mobsters, who were stunningly candid about their activities. In their depravity, ruthlessness, and brutality, Russian gangsters make the traditional Mafia look like choirboys. Red Mafiya will appeal to anyone interested in the Mob.

Om den russiske mafia, som ikke kun er bander og organiseret krig, men også et voldeligt udtryk for den revolutionære klassekamp

The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western readers can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment. The vory--as the Russian mafia is also known--was born early in the twentieth century, largely in the Gulags and criminal camps, where they developed their unique culture. Identified by their signature tattoos, members abided by the thieves' code, a strict system that forbade all paid employment and cooperation with law enforcement and the state. Based on two decades of on-the-ground research, Galeotti's captivating study details the vory's journey to power from their early days to their adaptation to modern-day Russia's free-wheeling oligarchy and global opportunities beyond.

The peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization gives us hope for the future of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but no one expects the transition to be easy. Who are the Jewish zealots who care so deeply about retaining that land for their own? Robert I. Friedman, a prize-winning journalist, takes a hard, close look at the legacy of the controversial policy of building settlements in the Occupied Territories.

As part of an undercover operation, Gaubatz and his team revealed a well-funded conspiracy to destroy American society and promote radical Islam.

Don't let the gruesome murders of a man and a woman in the basement of a former government building just off Capitol Hill in Washington, DC lull you into thinking this is just another mystery novel. It will take careful reading of this compelling and different kind of novel tounderstand the O. Henry-type ending. Page after page, and chapter after chapter, will bring together a series of intrigues. For example, the heads of the Italian mafia and the Russian mafiya work out a historic cooperative scheme to assassinate a high U.S. government official. This is to take place in late October 2007 during the 100th anniversary of Union Station on Capitol Hill, and the 78th anniversary of the 1929 Stock Market crash. (These two events truly are historically correct.) Once youdiscover that asecret Middle East terrorist organization is involved, the two events will make sense, because thatorganizationhas learned of the mafia and mafiya alliance's plan and will take advantage of them to execute its own event that will make a mockery of Capitol Hill's security procedures. The organization uses a small bank in a Caribbean nation to lauder the money needed to carry out its mission. The organization calls its effort OPERATION RED HERRING. The term stems from animal rights activists in England whoconfusehunt dogs bydragging bags of that dead fish across the trail so the fox is not killed. To the organization, the term means deception. A curmudgeon private detective and his Capitol Police niece not only solve the two murders, but they help unravel the Union Station plot. The murders take place in what used to be, for the novel's purpose, the former Government Printing Office. The GPO now houses an innovative semi-government agency, but few of the current and former occupants know the existence of a underground tunnel between the building and Union Station. (It actually exists.) The assassination attempt will make use of that tunnel to avoid discovery. Many clues are scattered throughout the novel. You may have to reread sections of the novel to discover them. Even the murder weapons are unusual. And, at least one character will turn out to be someonewho really is not what you think.

To read an excerpt from this book, click here. To learn even more about Investigating the Russian Mafia and the author, click here. In a unique, new book, Joseph Serio discusses the attitudes and practices of the criminal world, business, and policing, exposing the realities of the Russian Mafia. He convincingly demonstrates that many of the forces at work in the 1990s did not originate in the Communist era or arise because of the collapse of the USSR. Crime groups whose members came from every walk of life - underworld, police, KGB, Communist Party - have been part and parcel of the Russian experience for centuries. Discover why these elements take on a particularly ominous shape in the post-Soviet world and represent a long-term challenge to law enforcement, businesses, and democracy itself for both the Russian Federation and the rest of the world. Investigating the Russian Mafia is ideal for students, law enforcement, practitioners, and business people operating in the former Soviet Union, as well as the general reader. Serio was the only American to work in the Organized Crime Control Department of the Soviet police. He later served as director of the Moscow office of a global investigation firm. "Serio offers us privileged insights from his extraordinary vantage point. Serio''s analysis of Russian organized crime is multi-faceted and interdisciplinary--providing criminological, historical, economic, political, sociological and psychological perspectives on the subject." -- Dorothy McClellan, Texas A&M University "This book should be required reading for anyone spending any time in Russia--certainly journalists and business people posted there, and students as well. Aside from the well-documented account of the lawless 1990s, it offers a rich history of Russian criminal life, from the times of Ivan the Terrible through to the Vory v zakone." -- Paul E. Richardson, Russian Life "Clear, precise, accessible... I read it with great pleasure." -- Andre Bossard, Secretary General (ret.), Interpol "Serio provides a road map to the Russian criminal mind set. Required reading for ALL law enforcement!" -- Detective Douglas Fell, Vancouver B.C. Police Department, Co-Founder Western Association of Eastern European Organized Crime Investigators "At a time when so many accounts in the West portray a one-sided and narrow view of the country, this book is a must-read to see a broader picture of the complexity inherent in Russia''s transition from authoritarianism to democracy and from a planned to a market economy." -- Joel H. Samuels, Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina School of Law "New analysis of the development and character of organized crime in Russia. A superb book! It will be instructive for law enforcement practitioners and theorists concerned with countering or understanding regional and global organized crime." -- Graham H. Turbiville, Jr., Senior Fellow and Consultant, Department of Defense military and intelligence programs, Editor of Global Dimensions of High Intensity Crime and Low Intensity Conflict "This is an important book, not only because it tells us something about the state of affairs in Russia, but also because it gives insight into things popular history is content to pass over... A comprehensive book that is very readable." -- John Lehman, BookReview.com "In sum, the originality and appeal of this book comes from the fact that it manages to be at once well documented and argued without being laboriously academic, while at the same time being accessibly written without engaging in over-simplification or losing its critical edge. It is thus a very accessible introductory text on its subject and deserves to be read widely and not only by those with a specific interest in .mafias.''" -- Gavin Slade, University of Oxford Centre for Criminology (DPhil candidate) "This well-written, very readable work is extremely well documented, including copious footnotes." -- L.L. Vucic, CHOICE Magazine, formerly, Chatham College