alt Hacker Newsthey were not gangsters during the soviet times, so its hardly an argument about them as persons. But rather a sign of decaying times (the fall of the USSR and the economic hardship).
Remember when the US had a hurricane somewhere in the South (Kathrina?), people just went looting all retail stores, same as what happened during BLM riots, the current riots in Paris, etc etc
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There is a stark difference between organized crime and everything else you listed.
Of course soviet system had crime and violence. And these products of soviet system super blew up right after it fell, ceasing opportunity no matter who or what they harmed.
What I have to say about that since I live where it happened is that it only happened in certain localized places in the city
Of course there were gangsters in soviet times. Vory v zakone[0] in the 20s-30s, tsekhoviki[1] in the 60s-70s, with a brief period during and after WW2 where enough killed each other[2] not to be a major issue for a moment.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsekhovik
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch_Wars