Not exactly "former".
The moment they saw Russia is moving towards real social democracy, they realized that they're about to end up unemployed or losing all their privileges in this new happy and just society. This is the moment they decided to turn Russia into a mafia state. The same process took place in Soviet republics. Of course, the entire thing masquaraded as victory of freedom whilst Russian publicistics never witnessed the level of freedom that existed in 1987-93.
You have to realize that in Russia, KGB IS the mafia. The most intriguing part is that they started raising their street gang sturmabteilung all the way back in the 70's, you can read some info on the Kazan phenomenon and, later on, the Lyubertsy gangs.
The only thing that makes me happy is that a shift towards socialism is inevitable after fall of putnism, the hybercapitalist system which essentially represents the goal of any libertarian with an entire country held in private control.