Will Podmore: Later, Mikhail Gorbachev’s market reforms further strengthened the private sector. His 1987 Law on Individual Labor Activity legalized co-operatives that were really private enterprises. Another law allowed co-operatives to lease industrial property – a way of privatizing state assets while keeping the fiction of public ownership. In 1988, these crime-infested fake co-operatives employed a million workers, a year later, five million. By 1991, former or active criminals ran 60 percent of the co-operatives. Even before the counter-revolution, crime levels soared, encouraged by Gorbachev’s reforms. As FBI director Jim Moody noted, 'the transition to capitalism provided new opportunities quickly exploited by criminal organizations. wordsmith.social/protestation/…