Some history

Between 1992 and 1994 the Russian Mafia wanted the commercial centers of power, seizing control of the nation’s fragile banking system. At first the criminal gangs were content to merely “park” their large cash holdings in legitimate institutions, but soon they realized that the next step was the easiest of all: direct ownership of the bank itself.

Banking executives, reform-minded business leaders, even investigative journalists, were assassinated or kidnapped. In 1993 alone, members of the eight criminal gangs that control the Moscow underworld killed 10 local bankers. Calling themselves “Thieves in Law” (vori v zakone), Russian gangsters have brutally killed ninety-five bankers in the last five years alone.

Then since the mid 90's the russians have been trying to expand their empire into the americas, most likely brining in drugs and illegal weapons

Over the last 5 years the FBI and the Russian Security Service have tried to break down the mafia.