Concepts
Concepts & Comparative Frameworks
Comparative and definitional frameworks that clarify analytical vocabulary: kleptocracy versus oligarchy, models of the mafia state, and the continuum of state–crime relations.
Kleptocracy vs Oligarchy
Comparative framework: classic 1990s oligarchy implied relative autonomy from the political centre; post-2000 kremligarch kleptocracy implies dependence on and service to the vertical of power.
Mafia-State Models
How secondary literature uses ‘mafia state’ and ‘criminocracy’: blurred boundaries between state, security services and organised crime; criminal methods as tools of governance — and explicit limits of the claim.
State–Crime Continuum
Conceptual continuum from pure institutional separation to full fusion of state and organised crime. Where the documented Russian pattern sits and why ‘symbiosis’ is the preferred term.