The first part of the article is based primarily on information obtained from Russian experts and sources, with the aim of identifying the unique features of crime in Russia in its most organized and dangerous forms. In the second part of the article, the author develops the idea that the internationalization of organized crime follows a pattern of the globalization of the economy in general. This model is applied to the Russo-West economic relation. The aim is to show that the forms of organized economic crime developing in Russia, including that which involves international criminal associations, traverse the borders to Western Europe. The author advocates an interdisciplinary analytical approach for finding the key unit of analysis to the problem of organized economic crime connected with the Russian Federation. He notes that a gap was created in Russo-Western economic relations after the fall of the Soviet Union, and it was filled by organized economic crime. Russian high-technology industries were shut out of Western markets. The opening of Western markets and direct foreign investments in these industries would have stabilized the economic situation in Russia, thus creating an environment in which organized economic crime could not have grown so rapidly. The internationalization of organized economic crime should be counterbalanced by a policy that integrates Russian products into the Western markets. 37 references