Following The Afghan War (and later on the Chechen Wars) alot of Veterans form Afghan were sent by the USSR to fight for Communist Ideas and returned to a Capitalistic Russia, they found out they have no support from the authorities, soon enough Afghan Veterans found themselves as the foot Soliders of the Russian Mafia and started to work out for the Vory V Zakone (Thieves in Law), they usually been used as hitman but some of them wanted much more power, some Afghan veterans created their own criminal organization, at first they created common communities - Like the Local Afghan Veterans Unions / Charity across different cities of Russia, some were legitimate organizations helping veterans, but in some places (Like in the city of Nizhny Tagil) those Afghan Veterans Unions were in fact front for Criminal Organization.

Here some posts I made covering the Afghan Veterans (like Valery Ivano and Vladimir Malygin) involvement in the Russian Criminal World - The Afghan Massacre 2000 and The Battle of the Ica Palace.