Red Mafiya. How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America by Robert s> Friedman (review)

Abstract

390 SEER, 8o, 2, 2002 However, that, too, is not the whole story.A turnaboutto economic growth in 2000 and 200I, almost in spite of the factors listed by the contributors, suggeststhat the largelyprimary-industryexporting economy of Ukraine was just waiting for an upturnin Russian secondaryindustry,which also occurred at this time. As Aslund himself notes, poor Ukrainian economic performance cannot be blamed on Russian exploitation, as many Western commentators and some Ukrainians(mainlyfrom Galician Ukraine)have argued.The path dependency of the old Soviet model has had a largerimpact on Ukraine than, say, Estonia, a much smallereconomy with friendlyneighbours, like Finland and Sweden, willing to invest. Ukraine has little oil or gas to attract risk capital, and the by now infamous collusive, rent-seeking behaviour of Ukrainianoligarchsand theirpoliticalpatronshas created a legal climate that is not conducive to seriousforeigninvestment. Thus, Western alarm over Ukraine's alleged backsliding toward Russia rings a bit hollow in Kyiv and Kharkiv, if not L'viv. President Kuchma has skilfully played Moscow off against NATO and Washington in a style reminiscent ofYugoslavia's Titointhe 1950s, I960s andI97os. Hisheart,too, lay in Moscow, but his pocketbookwas opened in the directionof Washington and Brussels.Eventually, the economic transformationof Ukraine will have to be completed, but the final form of her economy, political system and her relationsbetween East and West will evolve along its own path, regardlessof the recipes and alarumsof Western 'transitologists'.The book is a useful and well writtenone, but likemany of the genre, it failsto keep up with the rapidly changing economic and political situation in the 'transiting'countries. One wonderswhat the contributorswould say about the change to positive growth in the Ukrainianeconomy. An updatewould be welcome. Transformation ofCommunist Systems Project ROBERT F. MILLER Research School ofPacific andAsianStudies TheAustralian NationalUniversity Friedman,Robert. RedMafiya.HowtheRussian MobHas Invaded America. Little, Brown,Boston,NewYorkandLondon,2000. XXi + 296 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Index. $25.00. THERussiansarecoming, it appears,not in tanks,noryet bearingCommunist Manifestos,but on a tide of drugs,dirtymoney and shadydeals. In RedMafiya, Robert Friedman follows in the footsteps of Stephen Handelman's Comrade Criminal (New York, I994), Claire Sterling'sCrime Without Frontiers (New York, I994) and countlessthrillersand excitable media reports.Fromthe title to the lurid duskjacket blurb ('an astonishing expose . . terrifyingimplications... criminal superpower... staggering'), the scene was set for an entertaining romp through the realmsofjournalistic hyperbole. However, RedMafiyaproves to be rather more than this. An early clue is that Friedman had a $ioo,000 contract put on his head by one Russian godfatherand a threateningValentine'sDay cardfromanother.Although the book holds true to many of the traditions of the journalistic study, from the heavy reliance on un-named sourcesto the breathlesseyewitness-stylereports REVIEWS 39I of meetings and killings, it is an outstanding piece of investigation:detailed, far-reaching and full of both fascinating detail and effective insight. Having picked it up fully prepared to scorn and patronize it, I instead found myself learningmuch from the book. Friedmanis at his best when dealing with the human dimension. This is a man who did not just read up on the press clippings or debriefed police investigators. Friedman also met and talked to many from the underworld milieu, whether interviewing 'Brighton Beach goodfella' Marat Balagula in Lewisburgmaximum securityprisonorlisteningto Ludwig'Tarzan'Fainberg, on the eve of deportation from the USA, extolling its virtues: '"I love this country... It's so easy to stealhere"' (p. I69). And he is right. Open societies have proven frighteninglyvulnerable to a generation of gangsterswho cut theirteeth in the Soviet era (whatfearsdoes a Westernprison hold for a veteran of an Arctic Circle gulag?),then made their fortunes in the free-for-allafter I99I. Its Law of Return which allows any able to claim Jewish descent immigration rights has made Israel a haven for any crook able to pay the bribe to a Russian officialto get his documents altered.However, it is, asFriedmandiscusses,the United Stateswhich remains the truepromisedland forpost-Soviet organizedcrime. In part,thisisbecause of the mythology of American wealth and opportunity, but also for very practical reasons. Alliance with the entrenched but also more conservative Cosa Nostrahassuitedthepost-Sovietcriminalswell, andUS lawenforcement was originally hard-pressed to respond. In loving and entertaining detail, Friedmanoutlines some of the scamsrunby...