RACKET
The foreign word “racketeering” appeared in the Russian language in the “wild” nineties of the twentieth century and became almost as “native” as “roof” or “common fund”. “Racketeer” is not just “extortion” translated from English, just as “manager” is not just “manager.” Like the feudal lords of the Middle Ages, active racketeers offer their victims protection from other criminals - "lone wolves", and are themselves usually under someone's protection. So racketeers and corrupt officials or other government employees are twin brothers. Moreover, officials often collect tribute themselves, and criminal racketeers reach high positions.
Accordingly, a racketeer is not a private person, but a member of an organized crime group, which has its own criminal code, its own table of ranks and its own state within a state. Like thieves in law, racketeers have their own criminal hierarchy, their own meeting places, “pocket” officials, bribed courts and even lured media.
Racket in the USA
Although the word “racketeering,” like “mafia,” has Italian roots, the golden age of racketeering was the 1930s in the United States. The Great Depression was raging in the country, citizens thirsted for justice, criminals became national heroes, and big business used the mafiosi in their criminal interests. It was then that the most famous American mafia syndicate was created - the “Five Families”, glorified in the epic film saga “The Godfather”.
The descendants of the mafiosi of the 1930s also operated in the 1960s and 70s, protecting highly profitable industries such as the construction business. It was thanks to the “tax” that the racketeers levied that the cost of apartments in New York became the highest in all the States, ahead of other American cities. The omnipotence of racketeers was put to an end by the RICO Act, adopted half a century ago, which made racketeers criminals and allowed them to be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
At the same time, even an extortionist who has long since reached old age can be put behind bars in the United States. By the way, a few years ago in the States, the oldest racketeer was released, who received his last sentence of 93 years and celebrated his centenary in prison. In total, this seasoned “inmate” spent about 40 years in prison.
Golovar (2018)
Roman started doing business back in the dashing 90s, when lawlessness reigned in the country. Over time, he became a respectable entrepreneur, a respectable and wealthy man. When he wins a tender to develop jade deposits, strange things begin to happen around this deal. This Russian film is about the self-defense of the protagonist from gangster lawlessness, when the subject of the tender turns out to be the sphere of interest of people who are ready to commit crime.
Trailer
Actors : Vladimir Banchikov, Svetlana Polyanskaya, Vladimir Bartashevich... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 5.2 Age restrictions : 16+
Racket in Russia and the USSR
Citizens of the USSR learned about racketeering from films about criminal morals in the world of purity and magazines like “Man and the Law.” The first to use this exotic term were the undoubted classics - Ilf and Petrov in One-Storey America. Their own racketeers, who “protected” the “guild workers” and at the same time collected tribute from them, appeared in the USSR already in the Brezhnev era.
This was due to the fact that almost any business that went beyond the activities of single artisans was outlawed. The Lyubertsy and other organized crime groups, which were actively involved in extortion, were well known during the Soviet era. But this word came into wide use after the collapse of the Soviet Union, along with street shootouts of the new “masters of life”, bribery, which they did not hesitate to talk about publicly, and dubious characters who took control of entire industries.
According to expert estimates, by the mid-1990s, almost 90% of the economy of the new Russia was under the control of racketeers. The Moscow region, Tambov and Tver organized crime groups, the harsh Chelyabinsk mafia thundered throughout the country, and the Chechen mafiosi retain extreme influence today.
But competition among racketeers led to the same result as the “showdowns” among pirates, “ordinary” bandits and other “forest orderlies” in human form that have existed from time immemorial. By the end of the decade, most of them destroyed each other, there was less and less space for the survivors, while “wild” capitalism acquired a more decent appearance.
Factory (2018)
Entrepreneur Kalugin did not pay his employees wages for six months, and then completely announced that in a month everyone would be fired. A former special forces soldier, a veteran of the Chechen war, nicknamed Sedoy, persuades his colleagues to take radical measures. They kidnap Kalugin and keep him locked up in the workshop. A group of “specialists” from the entrepreneur’s security comes to the rescue of their boss. A life-and-death confrontation begins.
Trailer
Actors : Denis Shvedov, Andrey Smolyakov, Vladislav Abashin... Country : Russia, France, Armenia Rating : Kinopoisk – 7.2, IMDb – 6.8 Age restrictions : 16+
Racketeering and the Criminal Code
If American racketeers are tried under the RICO Act, then their Russian “colleagues” fall under Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At first glance, it implies mild punishments - up to 4 years in prison plus a fine of up to 40 thousand rubles. But this applies to individual ransomware. Members of criminal syndicates involved in extortion on an especially large scale, that is, racketeers themselves, face more severe penalties - up to 15 years in prison plus a fine of up to a million rubles “per brother.” However, according to experts in the criminal world, the size of the sanctions is not comparable to the real “income” of the racketeers.
At the same time, there is no article dedicated to racketeering as such in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, nor is there an unambiguous definition of this concept. According to most professionals, racketeering is extortion carried out by criminal groups and merged with other types of crimes, such as corruption, malfeasance, and so on.
Gas holder. Clubare (2018)
Promoter Arthur is famous for constantly setting people up. One day he decides to open a club called Clubare, which attracts businessman and investor Zuckerberg. Arthur receives a deposit, and then faces a whole bunch of problems. Troubles arise for a reason, but because of the activities of the police, who have long planned to incapacitate the guy. If you like Russian films about crime and bandits, describing the reality of modern Russia, this is what you need.
Trailer
Actors : Basta, Evgeny Stychkin, Ruslan Tarkinsky... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 4.2, IMDb – 2.2 Age restrictions : 18+
Qualifying signs of racketeering
Also, racketeering has its own qualifying characteristics that bring it closer to other types of especially serious crimes. This is the threat of violence or violence itself (including torture and murder), the implementation of racketeering by organized crime groups, the widespread use of racketeering as control over other areas of the criminal world (including drug trafficking, prostitution, and so on). At the same time, both large enterprises and entire sectors of business, as well as micro-businesses represented by shops and stalls, can become the subject of racketeering. There were many such examples in the legal practice of the 1990s, with racketeers exacting tribute from even completely hopeless dying enterprises.
Winter (2018)
The drunken gang attacked Alexander and his father, who were returning home, for fun, deciding to mock them. As a result, the elderly man died at the scene, and Alexander was wounded. After some time, he comes to his senses in the hospital, but the story does not end there. The bandits want to remove Alexander, because he is the only witness to what happened. The guy seeks revenge and begins to pursue the criminals.
Trailer
Actors : Igor Petrenko, Alexander Petrov, Timofey Tribuntsev... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 5.2, IMDb – 4.9 Age restrictions : 16+
Racket and "roof"
Signs of racketeering include the presence of one’s own “roof” both in the bureaucratic bureaucracy and in the police (now the police) and even in the journalistic environment. The capital, St. Petersburg, Tambov, and other groups had such “roofs.” Accusation of “protection” for racketeers is the best way to “drown” an intractable partner or a dangerous competitor. Judging by the accusations of journalists and reports of high-ranking foreign politicians, the largest Russian banks and even the FSB were at one time seen as providing protection for criminal groups.
Robbers (2017)
Phil and Red have been friends since childhood. They steal cars together and are ready to help each other out at any moment. But Phil has one drawback - an addiction to card games. Once he lost a large sum of money to a crime boss, but was unable to repay the debt. Red decides to help out his friend and find money against the law, getting involved in a dangerous adventure. His plan failed and now the bosom friends are faced with real problems.
Trailer
Actors : Red Ray, Maria Mankova, Philip Usov... Country : Russia Age restrictions : 16+
Racket and cinema
But to understand the essence of racketeering, it is not necessary to study thick volumes of criminal cases or even study the Criminal Code. Just look at films about racketeering, starting with the 1951 American film of the same name (not to be confused with the almost forgotten Russian TV series of the early 1990s) and ending with the famous “Brother”, where this theme is also present, and the TV series “Brigada”. Also, the topic of racketeering is perfectly covered in the Kazakh film of the mid-2000s “Racketeer,” which proves that the same processes as in Russia took place in other fragment countries of the USSR.
It is noteworthy that in Russian films the fight against racketeering is usually waged by a lone hero who confronts corrupt officials and other scoundrels. Hollywood also makes such films, and yet in a good half of US films, criminals await well-deserved retribution from a fair law.
Russian raid (2020)
The raiders who decided to seize the plant carefully planned the operation. They studied the layout of the territory, involved hackers in the case, and took advantage of insider information. However, everything went wrong. It turned out that the head of the operation had his own ideas about how to act. He doesn't want to profit, he wants revenge. As a result, the raider takeover became a terrible bloody trap. A new representative in the top Russian films is a crime thriller that is worth watching for all fans of the genre.
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Trailer
Actors : Ivan Kotik, Alexander Krasovsky, Ilya Antonenko... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 6.2, IMDb – 5.5 Age restrictions : 18+
Forced March: Hunt for the “Hunter” (2015)
Alexander Buida is a major, head of an elite special forces unit. The task of the “specialists” is to stop the wave of crime that has filled the country. When the FSB becomes aware of the upcoming meeting of thieves in law in Astrakhan, Buida’s fighters go to the place of the “arrow”. The special forces commander is responsible for the success of the operation. The group was ordered to capture the authorities Usmanov and Rauf. The first is arrested, and the second manages to escape from law enforcement officers.
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Trailer
Actors : Evgeny Ermakov, Igor Filippov, Ilya Sokolovsky... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 6.1 Age restrictions : 16+
Translator (2015)
Lev Korablev does translations from Chinese, and he has absolutely no time for his child. One day he takes the boy on a business trip at a time when the leader of the local mafia decides to start a showdown. As a result, the boy suffered and also became an involuntary witness. The child's condition is serious and an expensive operation is needed. Lev does not know where to get the required amount and decides to go to the mafia. He agrees to give money in exchange for the fulfillment of three wishes.
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Trailer
Actors : Leonid Yarmolnik, Alexander Ilyin Jr., Maria Andreeva... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 4.4, IMDb – 3.9 Age restrictions : 16+
Sliding (2013)
A police operative nicknamed “Ashes” combines service to the people with crime. It consists of a group of employees - “werewolves in uniform.” Recently, corrupt cops began to notice that there was a “rat” on their team, informing the FSB. Ashes are suspected of betrayal by those who betrayed their oath. They decide to destroy their accomplice in order to avoid exposing the entire group. A top-rated Russian film about cops mired in crime and turned into bandits.
Trailer
Actors : Vladislav Abashin, Alexey Ignatov, Mikhail Solodko... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 6.2, IMDb – 6.1 Age restrictions : 18+
Gang Wars
Despite the widespread belief that the bandits of the 90s, racketeering, and rampant violence appeared solely thanks to the criminal world, this cannot be said with certainty.
Gang wars began in 1993, which coincided with the peak of political struggle within the ruling Russian elite. At the same time, the first armed clashes began in Chechnya, which escalated into a real war a year later. All events began almost simultaneously and continued in parallel. This makes us think that all three phenomena have the same source. And not criminals at all, but a special caste living according to its own laws, different from others, that ruled the roost then.
We will never know the exact number of crimes committed by bandits in those days. In Moscow alone, during the time that the investigation was ongoing, about fifty murders were solved, weapons and explosives were confiscated by the hundredweight.
In 1994, the largest number of gangster bosses were killed in the capital. In this war it was impossible to understand where the friend was, where the enemy was, who was fighting with whom. And now it will forever remain unknown who killed whom.
In the post-perestroika period, many gangs created their own security structures and were officially legalized, and the term “racketeering” fell out of use. Many of the former authorities went into business or politics.
Gang wars, gangs, racketeering - all this remained in the last century and has already become the pages of history. It's time to draw conclusions to avoid repetition.
About football (2013)
The heroes of one of the best Russian crime films with an exciting plot are participants in the Russian football fan movement. A well-organized group of football hooligans can easily become very dangerous and aggressive. It’s difficult to get into this team, but once you get there, there’s no turning back. The film is about guys who don't just go to football games to wave scarves with the logo of their favorite team. For them, the stadium is a battlefield where they engage in brutal combat with fans of the other team.
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Trailer
Actors : Alexander Ratnikov, Ivan Fominov, Grigory Ivanets... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 6.6, IMDb – 6.6 Age restrictions : 16+
My last name is Shilov (2013)
Operator Roman Shilov finally decides to give up the hateful service: the dismissal report has been agreed upon, the bypass sheet has been signed, all that remains is to take a vacation. The lieutenant colonel gets into the car and goes to another city to visit the woman he loves to talk, make peace and dot the i’s. On the way, the wife of informant Mikhail Krasnov calls him and reports that her husband was kidnapped by bandits. Shilov, without hesitation, rushes to help.
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Trailer
Actors : Alexander Ustyugov, Konstantin Strelnikov, Vsevolod Tsurilo... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 7.0, IMDb – 5.8 Age restrictions : 16+
Superbad (2016)
A character from a Russian crime movie, Dmitry, loses money belonging to a tough boss in a casino. The bandits not only demand repayment of the debt, in order to pay off, Dima must smuggle drugs. He is also informed that his beloved has been taken hostage and is being held in a Vietnamese brothel. The guy understands that he must act quickly and involves his friends in the matter. The squad is ready to fight, but will everyone be able to survive?
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Trailer
Actors : Danila Yakushev, Anna Chipovskaya, Alexander Sokolovsky... Country : Russia Rating : Kinopoisk – 3.7, IMDb – 4.2 Age restrictions : 18+
