Thieves by Law

They didn't learn about life in school but in prison, which is where they also selected their future associates. For them, a tattoo is not an adornment, but an expression of their contempt for the authorities and a sign that they belong to a certain prison caste and its hierarchy. They have never worked at a normal job, and yet they are millionaires, which is something they are duly proud of. This describes the protagonists of this disturbing documentary by Alexander Gentelev, who managed to win the trust of several leading representatives of the Russian-speaking underworld. They must follow a special code of unwritten laws, which were created in the Soviet gulags of the 1930s. Their unprecedentedly frank testimony together with archive footage of Russian prisons and examples of "mafia revelries" offer a very complex and comprehensive view of the development of organised crime in Russia, from "perestroika" to the present day. According to a former Russian Interpol agent, these people now have a fundamental influence on economic and political decisions in their country, because they are well aware that they must also have their "own" politician at their disposal (in addition to bodyguards armed to the teeth).