The Russian Mafia - Part 3 of 3 Russian Mafia "Russkaya Mafiya" (Russian: Русская мафия) particularly applies to the mafia of Russia. The mafia in other countries takes the name of that country, as in the Ukrainian mafia. Bratva (Братва; slang for "brotherhood", which applies to all gangs, including rivals) — often are names designating a range of organized crime syndicates originating in the former Soviet Union, Russia and the CIS. Since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, these groups have amassed considerable worldwide power and influence. They are active in virtually every part of Russian society. Russian criminals are internationally active in illegal oil trade, smuggling of weapons and nuclear material and money laundering. By the mid-1990s it was believed that "Don" Semion Mogilevich had become the "boss of all bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world. In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian National Central Bureau of Interpol, stated: "Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad" Organized crime has existed in Russia since the days of the Czars and Imperial Russia in the form of banditry, pornography, and thievery. In the Soviet period Vory v zakone or "thieves in law" (understood as "bound by code") emerged. This class of criminals had to abide by certain rules in the prison system. One such ...