Abstract

In Russia, the openly opportunistic political orientation of Putinism emphasizes the rule of law and tight control of the media and popular culture while condoning myriad forms of systemic illegality. Within Mexico, the drug cartels represent a virtual form of a second or even surrogate government in several regions, a potent (and at times romanticized) voice of local power lubricated by the liquid capital of drug money. Certainly the Sinaloan cartels and the Russian “Brothers Within the Law” (vory v zakone) have facilitated the flow of illegal workers and commodities across immediate borders, with traceable ripples elsewhere within the global marketplace. I will examine the striking ways in which state patrimonialism mirrors the distinctive configuration of organized crime within both countries, as reflected in autobiographical writing and pop music genres that claim to express the perspective of organized crime workers.