Anti-organized crime institutions in Russia

Anti-organized crime institutions in Russia are being developed. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, organized crime has taken control of many major sectors of Russia's state economy, society, and government. Most initiatives and institutions developed against organized crime groups have failed. Others, that have managed to remain standing, struggle in having any influence over the groups or cannot stop them, thus sitting idly without the ability to influence any crime. Owing to the Russian government's continuous failure to curb organized crime, other nations such as the United States have tried to intervene and assist it in finding strategies.

Organized crime does not have a set definition that is recognized worldwide because every nation defines organized crime by different terms depending on their perceptions of variables such as culture and policy. In Russia, organized crime is defined by law enforcement authorities as, "... an organized community of criminals ranging in size from 50 to 1,000 persons, which is engaged in systematic criminal business and protects itself from the law with the help of corruption." The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States defines organized crime as "... a self-perpetuating, structured and disciplined association of individuals or groups, combined for the purpose of obtaining monetary or commercial gains or profits, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of graft and corruption." Federico Varese, a Professor in Criminology at the University of Oxford, offers yet another view of organized crime, particularly pertaining to mafia groups, "a mafia group is a particular type of organized crime that specializes in one particular commodity [...] protection".