Russian Mafia
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Russian Mafia
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In
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Territory
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International,
strongholds in former Soviet states and extensive operations in Israel and
the United States
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Ethnicity
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Primarily
Russians,
minorities of Russian Jews, Ukrainians, Abkhazians, Azerbaijanis,
Armenians,
Assyrians,
Belorussians, Chechens, Georgians, Uzbeks, and Latvians
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Criminal
activities
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The Russian Mafia [rʌ'sijskəjə
'mɑːfijə /'rʊskəjə 'mɑːfijə]; (Russian: Рoссийская мафия, Rossiyskaya Mafiya; Русская Мафия, Russkaya
Mafiya) is a name applied to organized
crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the
country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia.
Bratva [[brʌt'vɑː]] (Братва; slang for "brotherhood",
which applies to all gangs, including rivals) is a another name designating a
range of organized crime
syndicates originating in the former Soviet
Union, Russia and the CIS. Since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, these groups have
amassed considerable worldwide power and influence.[1] They are active in virtually every part of Russian society.[2] Russian criminals are internationally active in illegal oil
trade, human trafficking,
drug trafficking,
smuggling of weapons and nuclear material and money
laundering.[2] In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian
National Central Bureau of Interpol, stated: "Certainly, there is crime involving our
former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized
structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad".[3]
History
Organized crime
has existed in Russia
since the days of the Czars
and Imperial Russia
in the form of banditry
and thievery. In the Soviet
period Vory v zakone
or "thieves in law" (understood as "bound by code")
emerged. This class of criminals
had to abide by certain rules in the prison system. One such rule was that
cooperation with the authorities of any kind was forbidden. During World
War II some prisoners made a deal with the
government to join the armed forces in return for a reduced sentence, but upon
their return to prison they were attacked
and killed by inmates who remained loyal to
the rules of the thieves.[4][5] During the era when the Soviet economy took a downhill
turn, the Vory would take control of the black market
with the help of corrupt officials, supplying products such as electronics or
delicatessen during the Brezhnev
era which were hard to reach for the
ordinary Soviet citizen.
Fall
of the Soviet Union
The real breakthrough for criminal organizations began in 1988, when the Soviet Union legalized private
entrepreneurship, allowing free trade. However the new law said nothing about
regulations and security of market economy. Crude markets started forming, the
most notorious being the Rizhsky market where prostitution rings were run next
to the Rizhsky Railway Station in Moscow. As the Soviet
Union headed for its collapse, so too did
the economy and resulted in a social decay. Desperate for money, many former
government workers turned to crime, others joined the former Soviet citizens
who moved overseas, and the Russian Mafia became a natural extension of this
trend. Former KGB agents, sportsmen and veterans of the Afghan and First and Second Chechen Wars,
now finding themselves out-of-work but with experience in areas which could
prove useful in crime, joined the increasing crime wave.[7] Widespread corruption, poverty and distrust of authorities
only contributed to the rise of organized
crime. Contract
killings, bombings and kidnappings reached an all-time high with many gangland murders taking
place, a substantial number remaining unsolved. By the mid-1990s it was
believed that the Jewish
born "Don" Semion
Mogilevich had become the "boss of all
bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world, and described by
the FBI as "one of the most dangerous men in the world".[8][9][10] By 1993 almost all banks in Russia were owned by the mafia,
and 80% of businesses were paying protection
money. In that year, 1400 people were
murdered in Moscow, crime members killed businessmen who would not pay money
to them, also reporters, politicians, bank owners and other opposed to them.
The new criminal class of Russia took on a more Westernized and businesslike
approach to organized crime as the more code-of-honor based Vory faded into extinction.[11]
Lubyanka
Criminal Group Book
Lubyanka Criminal Group (also translated as The Gang from Lubyanka) is a
book by Alexander Litvinenko about the alleged transformation of the Russian
Security Services into a criminal and terrorist
organization.[12][13] Lubyanka
is known as KGB headquarters. In the book, Litvinenko claims that Russian
prime minister Vladimir Putin
and other FSB officers have been involved in organized crime, including
covering up drug traffic
from Afghanistan.[14]
Internationalization
The former Soviet Bloc's opening up
to the world and the internationalization of its economy also gave the Russian
mafia connections to other criminal organizations around the world such as the Chinese Triads or the Sicilian Cosa
Nostra. Connections with Latin
American drug
cartels allowed the Russian mafia to import
cocaine into the country.[15] Vyacheslav
"Yaponchik" Ivankov
was the first major ethnically Russian organized crime figure prosecuted by the U.S. government,
running his extortion
operations out of Brighton Beach
Brooklyn.[16] Russian organized crime has spread to many other countries
as well including Israel,
India,[17] Hungary,
South
Africa, Spain[18], Thailand
[19] and the United
Kingdom.
Connections
to Islamic Fundamentalism
The Chechen independence movement
has gained widespread attention and support in the Islamic
world and throughout the conflict foreign
charity organizations and fighters from many Arab countries have volunteered their services. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, the Putin administration has made several
attempts to link Russian and Chechen insurgents to Al-Qaeda. Allegations of Al-Qaeda and Taliban links to the Russian and Chechen mafia have recently
appeared and well-known Chechen leaders have been at different times referred
to in the media as Islamists, terrorists, and mafia bosses. In a 1995
interview, former president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Dzhokhar
Dudayev gave his opinion of the Russian
media's representation of Russian and Chechen rebels:
The use of narcotics profits to
finance the Russian and Chechen separatist movement and its links to Islamists
groups has been suggested by various intelligence agencies. The Russian mafia
presence in Argentina
has been linked primarily to the use of Argentina as a transit country for Andean cocaine
shipments to Europe in fishing treaters and cargo ships, arms
trafficking to Brazil and Colombia,
and money laundering. In the so-called "tri-border" area between
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay
- which is home to a sizable Arab
Muslim population[citation needed] -
Argentine intelligence sources have detected contacts between Chechen
separatist groups and "Islamic terrorists" and suspect Chechen use of
these networks for arms smuggling purposes.[20] On the other side of the globe, to finance their separatist
movement, Islamist leader Shamil
Basayev and his Chechen followers
transported Afghani heroin
through Abkhazia to the Black
Sea or through Turkey to Cyprus
and then on to Europe.[21]
In 1998 it was reported by Riyad
'Alam-al-Din in Nicosia
and an unidentified Al-Watan al-'Arabi correspondent in Moscow that Osama
bin Ladin dispatched a delegation to the
Chechen Republic made up of his group and representatives of the Taliban.
Secret meetings were held in the outskirts of Grozny with some members of the
Chechen Mafia to put the final touches on "the nuclear warheads
deal." Allegedly the deal cost $30 million in cash from Osama
bin Ladin's treasury and a grant of two tons
of Afghan heroin donated by the Taliban. It was claimed that bin Ladin resorted
to the services of the Chechen Mafia after many of his aides, some specializing
in nuclear physics,
failed in their attempts to acquire nuclear technology and equipment.[22] However, these reports have yet to be confirmed by outside
sources.
Individual
gangs
·
The Solntsevskaya bratva, or Solntsevskaya brotherhood (Russian: Солнцевская братва,
the Solntsevo District gang)
·
The Izmaylovskaya gang (Russian: Измайловская группировка, from Izmaylovo District)
was considered one of the country's most important and oldest Russian Mafia
groups in Moscow and also had a presence in Tel
Aviv, Berlin, Paris,
Toronto, Miami
and New York City.[23] It was founded during the 1980s under the leadership of
Oleg Ivanov (Олег Иванов) and was estimated to consist of about 200 active
members (according to other data of 300–500 people). In principle, the organization
was divided into two separate bodies—Izmailovskaya
and Gol'yanovskaya (Гольяновская),[24]
which utilized quasi-military ranks and strict internal discipline. It was
involved extensively in murder-for-hire, extortions,
and infiltration of legitimate businesses.[25]
·
The Potato
Bag Gang, a manifestation of the Odessa
Mafia,[27] was a gang of con
artists from Odessa that operated in New York City's Soviet emigre community in
the Brighton Beach
area of New York City
in the mid-1970s.[28]
·
The Orekhovskaya
gang (Russian: Oреховскaя группировкa) was a
criminal organization based in Moscow active between the late 80's and early 90's.
In
popular culture
·
In the FX television show Sons
of Anarchy the Russian Mafia is an ally to the
Sons of Anarchy
Motorcycle Club.
·
In the video game Grand Theft Auto IV the main
protagonist is at first allied and later on
against a Russian Mafia gang.
References
1. ^
Glenny, Misha
(2008), McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld; New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, passim.
2. ^
a
b
From Nyet to Da:
Understanding the New Russia by Yale Richmond, Intercultural
Press, 2008, ISBN
978-1-931930-59-8 (page 68)
3. ^
Russian mafia abroad
is a myth – head of Russian Interpol bureau, Interfax-Ukraine
(December 22, 2009)
4. ^
Varlam Shalamov, Essays
on Criminal World, "Bitch War" (Shalamov's
essay online (Russian))
in: Varlam Shalamov (1998) "Complete Works" (Варлам Шаламов. Собрание
сочинений в четырех томах), vol. 2, printed by publishers Vagrius and Khudozhestvennaya Literatura,
ISBN 5-280-03163-1,
ISBN 5-280-03162-3.
5. ^
A. V. Kuchinsky Prison Encyclopedia, (Кучинский А.В. - Тюремная
энциклопедия, a fragment online
(Russian))
6. ^
Glenny, Misha
(2008), McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld; New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, pp
72–73.
8. ^
Glenny, Misha
(2008), McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld; New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, pp
72-73.
10. ^
Angels, Mobsters and Narco-terrorists: The Rising Menace of Global Criminal
Empires, (Wiley 2005) By Antonio Nicaso, Lee Lamothe
20. ^
Professor Bruce M. Bagley, Globalization and Transnational Organized Crime:
The Russian Mafia in Latin America and the Caribbean
23. ^
B. Ohr, Effective Methods to Combat Transnational Organized Crime in
Criminal Justice Processes, U.S. Dept. of Justice.
26. ^
Mark Galeotti, 'Profit and loss: Russian crime network faces business strain', Jane's
Intelligence Review, 27 April 2009
27. ^
Orleck, Annelise; Elizabeth Cooke (1999). The Soviet Jewish
Americans. Greenwood Publishing.
pp. 116. ISBN 9780313300745. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r-5OeuOLjl4C&pg=PA116&dq=%22Potato+Bag+gang%22&num=100&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U2SwtARZM2IfmplwLt4r21J7iPWXA.
Retrieved 2008-09-13.
28. ^
Blumenthal, Ralph (04 June 1989). "Soviet Emigre
Mob Outgrows Brooklyn, and Fear Spreads", The New York Times.
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