Glossary

Purpose: Single controlled vocabulary that prevents terminological drift and ensures consistent analytical language across the entire knowledge base.

All core terms used on the site follow the definitions below. New terms are not introduced into public content without a working definition and an entry here. Partisan or emotionally charged labels are avoided unless they appear inside a direct quotation from a named source.

The glossary is organised by thematic clusters. Each term has a dedicated page with expanded context, related entities and source notes where useful.

Core System Descriptors

• Kleptocracy — System of governance in which those in power exploit national resources and public office for personal enrichment, with near-total impunity for the ruling circle.
• Mafia state / Criminocracy — Analytical label for a polity in which the boundaries between state institutions, security services and organised crime are systematically blurred, and criminal methods become tools of governance and foreign policy.
• Uber Krysha — Metaphor for the Kremlin as the ultimate protection racket (“roof”) that licenses and disciplines both oligarchs and criminal networks in exchange for loyalty and service.
• Siloviki — Officials and networks originating from or currently belonging to the security, intelligence and law-enforcement apparatus (FSB, GRU, MVD, National Guard, etc.).
• Kremligarchs — Business figures whose wealth and security are contingent on personal loyalty to the Putin circle; they function as economic agents of the regime rather than independent oligarchs of the 1990s type.
• Vertical of power — Hierarchical system of control in which key appointments, resource allocation and political decisions flow from the top.
• Patronage networks — Informal hierarchical networks of mutual obligation, resource distribution and loyalty that link political, security, business and criminal actors.
• Mobilisation state — Analytical description of the post-2012/2022 shift in which criminal networks, black-cash channels and authoritarian alliances are treated as instruments of regime survival, sanctions circumvention and hybrid warfare.

Organised Crime & Hybrid Tools

• Organised crime group (OCG / OPG)
• Vory-v-zakone
• State–crime symbiosis
• Black cash / Chyornaya kassa
• Sanctions evasion networks
• Hybrid statecraft
• International criminal service-providers

International Black Markets & Routes

• Northern heroin route
• Cocaine corridors (LatAm–Russia–Europe)
• Russian Laundromat
• Illicit financial flows / dark money

International Dimension

• Authoritarian patronage
• Wagner / Africa Corps

Project & Analytical Terms

• Data Beauty
• Citable knowledge unit
• Entity card
• Historical trajectory

Explicitly Avoided or Flagged Terms

• “Occupation” in the literal military sense — the project treats the system as an internal transformation of the Russian state, not a foreign occupation.
• “All world criminalities united” — overstatement; documented collaborations and instrumentalisation exist, but not a single hierarchical global syndicate under one command.
• Partisan labels (“fascist”, “nazi”, etc.) — avoided unless quoting a specific source; the project prefers descriptive analytical terms (kleptocracy, mafia state, authoritarian patronage).

Note: Leaf pages for the highest-priority terms (kleptocracy, mafia-state, uber-krysha, black-cash, siloviki) are published in this batch. Remaining terms receive dedicated pages in subsequent batches or remain defined at hub level until expanded.