Yuri Maltsev, former senior advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev, stated in a May 1996 interview: "Russia has become the criminal capital of the world. In Russia today, the organized Mafia and the government are one and the same thing. They're two hands of the same ruling elite." This state of affairs began with the founding of the Soviet state. In a 1995 interview: Former Lithuanian Vice President Algirdas Katkus stated that although "Westerners believe that the Mafia is the product of post-Communism ... in reality it is organized, staffed, and controlled by the KGB...