ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the history and transition of the Soviet security forces since the introduction of perestroika reforms in the mid-1980s. It traces the common roots of the Committee for State Securityand the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the chekist culture of the early days of the Soviet regime and provides evidence on how this culture has infiltrated civil state administration in the post-Soviet period. The chapter argues that the roots of organized crime and corruption in Russia lie in these unreformed structures. Rule of law depends on the effective and universal enforcement of laws in independent courts. Despite the West’s assistance in legal reforms, virtually nothing has been devoted to transcending the Soviet legacy of the police and secret police, and their corrosive effect on civil authority. Law enforcement can be selective and subject to manipulation for political, economic, and extralegal reasons.
