Winners write the history books.

Real winners write the law books.

Whether that's European colonial settlers, or William of Normandy.

(Not known as "William the Negotiator", or "William the all-around nice guy").

Descendants of the local warlords he installed still own huge (well, by British standards, the entire country isn't much bigger than New York State) tracts of land, a thousand years later.

Are you trying to somehow claim that the well-established fact that the Russian govt is indistinguishable from the Russian Mob, or that North Korea is not counterfeiting currency, running drugs, and hacking networks for currency, all indistinguishable from a criminal gang, and definitely not the purview of legitimate governments?