Moscow, December 23 (Interfax-AVN) - There is no organized Russian criminal community abroad, said Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian National Central Bureau of Interpol.
"The notion of mafia implies connections with political and government structures. I believe there is no Russian mafia abroad in this sense," Lakhonin said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Dec. 22.
"Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad," but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad, Lakhonin said.
"Statistically, this looks like this: for instance, Russians accounted for less than 1% of crimes in Germany, most often not in an organized form," he said.
