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McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny
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Crime with no boundaries
A Review by Scott McLemee

Twenty years ago, as the Soviet Union began coming undone, a dissident intellectual named Boris Kargalitsky coined a useful expression, "kleptocrats," to describe those officials who were enriching themselves thanks to their power in what remained of the Communist state and economy. "Kleptocracy" means rule by thieves. The term was both useful and farsighted, and it's no accident that Misha Glenny uses it from time to time in McMafia, his guided tour of the world's black and gray markets.

The author, a British journalist who covered Eastern Europe for the BBC during the early 1990s, clearly is referring to the same people as Kargalitsky. The farcical pretense of the Kremlin to manage a "planned" economy had concealed a vast network of middlemen and trimmers whose knack for shady dealing kept the system running. Their skills gave them special advantages during the transition to an open market. Likewise with former Soviet bloc wrestlers. Too old for the Olympics, they could still...
 
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