The article looks at the complex ethical dilemmas created by legal ambiguities in business, changing ideological values, and the onslaught of consumerism. All of those phenomena are occurring at a time when Russia's youth face the prospect of unemployment, poverty, and deep social crisis as the country limps toward a controversial and unconventional democratic political system and market economy heavily influenced by criminal syndicates. Organized crime has become a major problem in the former USSR, and increasing numbers of young people are becoming involved in using and selling drugs, robbery, vagrancy and begging, speculation, and prostitution. Organized crime has become inextricably linked in the eyes of tomorrow's entrepreneurs with competitive business and the markets. Young people who want to have successful careers in business cannot fail to notice who appears to be winning the battle between the authorities and organized crime. References, notes