That's the mythical view of the Soviet criminals. Sadly enough it is, for the most part, fictious. There may be some former KGB agents that slipped into criminal activity and did business with criminal bosses and gangs, but that does not mean half the Russian mob consists of former KGB agents. On the contrary, most current Russian criminals with membership to one of the more notorious crime syndicates (Solntsevskaya, Tambov,...) do not differ much from Italian, Albanian, Mexican, Black,...gangsters that grow up in poverty (but even that's not necessary) and willingly choose a criminal lifestyle. Mikhailov -one of the most powerful Russian criminals- for instance was a waiter before turning to crime. That does not diminish the power he currently has -especially in Russia itself- but he does not fit the description of the mythical 'ex-special forces turned crime lord'.

From what I have gathered, the traditional "Vor" is more or less a thing of the past. Now there are still former prisoners with a "Vor" status running around, having a significant amount of power in the underworld. This is especially true for Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani gangsters. But the large ethnic Russian crime syndicates, as well as Jewish groups that are sometimes counted within the "Russian mafia", often have far less influence from the tradional "Thieves in Law". Ivankov for instance was a gangster most closely associated with the ethnic Russian groups (being an ethnic Russian himself) and he indeed was a Vor. But there are far more examples of powerful Russian mobsters within gangs like the Solntsevskaya, Tambov,...that are not -or at least not true- Vors. Chechen gangs also generally have nothing to do with "Thieves in Law".