How Russia buries its Mafia kingpins

Standing over their graveyards full of commoners and clad in black marble, Russian Mafia bosses remind visitors that, even in death, they have status.

Mobster Andrei Golubev was assassinated in his luxury SUV in Sochi, 2009.

Vladimir Oganov guards the Moscow Armenian cemetery

Photos show the final resting places of Russian gangsters and criminals, surrounded by intricate statues and floral arrangements. The Russian Mafia can trace their origins back to the Imperial Russia of the 1700s, where they were regarded as folk heroes for stealing from the rich and establishing a 'code of conduct' among each other. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 helped them rise to unimaginable heights to exploit the Russian economy.

Many of the Russian oligarchs who became rich during this period have critical links to Russian mobsters. Today, factions of the Russian Mafia are involved in drug smuggling, money laundering, prostitution and countless other criminal ventures. They are often regarded as some of the most dangerous organized crime groups in the world.