ABSTRACT
Power in present-day Russia is highly unstable, with the problem of deviant bureaucracy at the core of the ongoing political struggle. The growth of deviant behavior in Russia since the late 1980s has important implications for the country's future. Crime in Russia is unusual in that the main target of organized crime is not the private citizen but the state. There is a causal relationship between the formation of black holes and the development of the shadow economy and organized crime. The reforms have led to privatization by criminal groups in cooperation with the bureaucracy, and to political instability caused by power struggles without rules. Strong social networks within an ethnic minority, reinforced by the role of these networks in the shadow economy and in the formation of the alternative state, can prevent the development of trust between ethnic groups, thereby further undermining social stability.
