Don’t think that when we say “the mafia is in power in Russia,” we’re exaggerating. It is, in the literal sense, an organized criminal group bound together by family ties, shared service, and the joint organization of election fraud.
The St. Petersburg branch of ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) decided to show you these connections visually, so you can better understand how—and by whom—the country is being run right now.
We took one of St. Petersburg’s districts—Petrogradsky, where a real corruption hell is unfolding—and simply mapped it out: nepotism, marriages, joint business ventures. Even fake dissertations.
The result is impressive: https://petrograd.fbk.info/
The idea is simple: here is the full list of officials as of August 2014. Then we overlay the network of connections. The result is:
Looking at this chart, we can see that this is no longer about isolated cases of corruption, but about the formation of distinct mafia-like clans holding on to power through election rigging.
A lot of people have been asking why the most recent municipal elections in St. Petersburg were such lawless chaos. For example, look here, on the left it says “registration denied.”
Why “registration denied”? Because they only want to bring in their own people—the mafia’s people. So they pack election commissions with relatives, because that’s more reliable. A core mafia principle.
In short, take a look. Go here and scroll down—it’s beautifully designed and monstrous in substance, elegant diagrams of the country’s degradation.
Many thanks in advance to everyone who helps spread the word.
Many thanks to Sergey Nikolaev for the design.