The Insane Rise of the Russian Mafia

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia entered one of the strangest economic transitions in modern history. State factories, oil companies and other enormous assets were suddenly being privatized — while organized crime was exploding. This is the story of the Russian mafia in the 1990s: the vory v zakone, protection rackets, privatization vouchers, the rise of the bratki, Russian oligarchs, and how criminals like Vyacheslav Ivankov — Yaponchik — expanded into the United States. Somehow, baseball bats became briefcases, protection money became “consulting fees,” and some gangsters ended up looking suspiciously like respectable businessmen. TeaHead makes animated videos about weird history, strange true stories, bizarre people, and absurd events that actually happened.