Erin Powers Memo No. In this memo I consider the spread of violence in Russian business and specific relationships of business protection from an empirical viewpoint. I conducted the surveys with a research team from the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow, which is headed by I. Bunin. According to mass media reports, persuading business partners by means of threats and demonstration of force plays a crucial part in Russian entrepreneurship at present.
Violence is attracted to the sectors that are advertised and, therefore, open to the public.
Our data proves the link between expenditures on advertising and the personal experience of facing threats and violence. About 11,000 security agencies were registered in Russia by the beginning of 1999, employing nearly 160,000 licensed workers, who possessed 71,000 registered guns. Not all these agencies are active, especially after the crisis of August 1998. However, a progressive expansion of the security business has been evident since the early 1990s. Recent trends and the Routinization of Violence Interview data suggests that violence in Russian business is decreasing in comparison with the beginning of the 1990s.