The term "vory v zakone," or "thieves in law," was a Soviet one. All of those rules were in play back in the Soviet days. When the Soviet Union collapsed, they went out the window. Vory just means thieves. In the 1990s, by the time of the collapse, the bandits as they were called were mostly trained athletes. Boxers, wrestlers, and many other such athletes. I don't think any of the oligarchs were vory. Someone like Prigozhian would not have to have been a criminal but he would have been required to pay them, to work with them, and to know how to talk to them. He had to know the behavioral traits which he did or else he would have long ago been killed. It was a delicate balance and this is one of the reasons Putin is so afraid of him...Putin was a punk who got lucky in many ways; Prigozhin had the creds and he is a survivalist. Shitheads like Shoigu and Medvedev probably make Prigozhin's skin crawl because they would be weaklings without their positions. At least Shoigu keeps his mouth shut; Medvedev would have long ago been crushed had he not lucked into being Putin's lap dog. The real "vory v zakone" from the Soviet days are probably all dead by now either from violence or old age.