Organised Crime as a Political Influence Tool of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article attempts to describe the use of organised crime to achieve the political goals of the Russian Federation. This phenomenon escapes unambiguous scientific classifications and has an eminently interdisciplinary character. This is because organised crime is usually analysed in the classical criminological literature as a pathology the state fights. However, it turns out that organised crime structures can be an element of the foreign policy carried out by covert and illegal means. Therefore, the criminological perspective should be supplemented with a viewpoint of political and security sciences. The direct inspiration for this paper came from the analyses carried out by Galeotti, an expert in security and international relations. It refers to the practical manifestations of the activities of Russian special services: SVR, GRU and FSB, in which Russian-speaking criminal networks are used. The author believes it can be analysed in terms of the concept known in the Anglo-Saxon scientific circle as a so-called state crime.