Russian Mafia

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Russian Mafia
Founded Unknown
In Unknown
Territory Russia, Kavkaz, Central asia, Ukraine, Belarus, Europe, South America, United States, Canada
Ethnicity Mostly Russian and other ethic minorities
Membership 300,000 estimated worldwide
Criminal activities Arms trafficking, Art theft, Assault, Auto theft, Credit card fraud, Contract killing, Drug trafficking, Extortion, Fraud, Human trafficking, Identity Theft, Mail fraud, Money laundering, Murder, Oil smuggling, pornography, Prostitution, Securities fraud, Tax evasion, Theft, illegal trading of nuclear materials, and Wire fraud
Allies Unknown
Rivals Unknown

The Russian Mafia (Russian: Русская мафия, Russkaya mafiya), Red Mob (Красная мафия, Krasnaya mafiya) or Bratva (Братва; slang for "brotherhood", which applies to all gangs, including rivals) — often transliterated as Mafiya — are names designating a diverse group of organized crime syndicates originating in the former Soviet Union (Russia and the CIS). Since the 1991 fall of the USSR, these groups have amassed considerable worldwide power and influence.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

Organized crime existed in Russia since the days of the Tsars and Imperial Russia in the form of banditry and thievery, known as Vory v zakone or "thieves in law". This class of criminal 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 enlist in 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.[2][3]

During the Leonid Brezhnev 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 which were hard to reach for the ordinary Soviet citizen.

The real breakthrough for criminal organizations occurred during the economic disaster and mass emigration of the 1990s that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Desperate for money, many former government workers turned to crime, others joined the Soviet citizens who moved overseas, and the Mafia became a natural extension of this trend. Former KGB agents, sportsmen and veterans of the Afghan and Chechen Wars, now finding themselves out-of-work but with experience in areas which could prove useful in crime, joined the increasing crime wave.[4] Widespread corruption, poverty and distrust of authorities only contributed to the rise of organized crime. Contract killings reached an all-time high with many gangland murders taking place, a substantial number remaining unsolved. 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.[5]

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.[6]

Widespread emigration in the 1990s allowed Russian criminal organizations to spread themselves further around the world. Prior to the collapse of communism Russian Jews were allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union, and many criminals took advantage of this if they were themselves Jewish, acquiring an Israeli passport to be granted permission to leave. In the United States a key location for Russian organized crime was the Russian-Jewish community of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York. Vyacheslav "Yaponchik" Ivankov was the first major Russian organized crime figure prosecuted by the U.S. government, running his extortion operations out of Brighton Beach.[7] Russian organized crime has spread to many other countries as well including Israel, Hungary, Canada, South Africa and Spain.[8]

[edit] Individual gangs

  • The Solntsevskaya bratva, or Solntsevskaya brotherhood (Russian: Солнцевская братва, the Solntsevo District gang), was one of—if not the—most powerful organized crime group operating in Moscow.[citation needed]
  • Dolgoprudnenskaya (Долгопруденская) was a Russian mafia organization and was considered one of the largest groups of organized crime operating in Moscow. It was really named after Dolgoprudniy, which is a Moscow suburb. It was founded in 1988 and was allegedly very influential.[9]
  • The Obshina (Община, "community" in Russian), or Chechen mafia, was a formidable organized crime and paramilitary group. According to experts, ethnic Chechen criminal gangs once formed the most dominant minority criminal group in Russia. It is believed some gangs may have ties to Chechen militant factions.
  • The Orekhovskaya gang (Ореховская банда, again, from Orekhovo) was a powerful criminal group in between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[edit] Notable Russian mafiosi

[edit] Foreign businessmen and the Russian mafia

An unknown number of foreign businessmen, believed to be in the low thousands, arrived in Russia from all over the world during the early and mid 1990s to seek their fortune and to cash in on the transition from a communist to a free market/capitalist society. This period was referred to by many of the businessmen as the "second great gold rush".

Generally, 1990 to 1998 was a wild and unstable time for most foreign businessmen operating in Russia. Dangerous battles with the Russian Mob occurred, with many being killed or wounded. The Mafia welcomed the foreign businessmen and their expertise in facilitating business and making things happen in a stagnant and new economy. The Mafia considered them as a good source of hard currency, to be extorted under the usual guise of "protection money". Many different Mafia groups would fiercely compete to be able to "protect" a certain businessman; in exchange, the businessman would not have to worry about having more than one group showing up demanding tribute from him. Many foreign businessmen left Russia after these incidents.

[edit] Popular culture references

[edit] Video games

The Russian mafia are present in many video games, mostly as enemies to the player, including Max Payne, Stranglehold and the Grand Theft Auto series. They appear as a possible ally in Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction.

[edit] Movies

Though not as prominent as their Italian-American counterparts, Russian or FSU mobsters have appeared in a number of Hollywood movies usually as villains or antagonists. These include GoldenEye, "Rocknrolla", The Jackal, 25th Hour, Ronin, Be Cool, Jungle 2 Jungle The Italian Job, Training Day, Maximum Risk and Bad Boys II. Recently, the David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises dealt in a fictional manner with the Russian mob in London.

There have of course been many Russian movies on the subject, probably the most well-known of which is Brother (Брат) and Brother 2 (Брат 2). The anti-hero protagonist, Danila, is a Chechen war veteran who becomes a contract killer in St Petersburg. The film and its sequel became wildly popular amongst the Russian youth.

[edit] Comics/anime

[edit] Fiction

[edit] Television

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Glenny, Misha (2008), McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, passim.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ A. V. Kuchinsky Prison Encyclopedia, (Кучинский А.В. - Тюремная энциклопедия, a fragment online (Russian))
  4. ^ BBC News - The Rise and rise of the Russian mafia.
  5. ^ Vory v Zakone has hallowed place in Russian criminal lore.
  6. ^ MSNBC- Russian mob trading arms for cocaine with Colombia rebels.
  7. ^ FBI Official Website - Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov.
  8. ^ BBC News - Spain raids 'major Russian gang'.
  9. ^ Oleg Liakhovich, "A Mob by Any Other Name", The Moscow News.
  10. ^ B. Ohr, Effective Methods to Combat Transnational Organized Crime in Criminal Justice Processes, U.S. Dept. of Justice.
  11. ^ Домашняя библиотека компромата Сергея Горшкова (Home library of Sergei Gorshkov).
  12. ^ US, COMM, PERM, p. 201.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Friedman, Robert I. Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000.
  14. ^ The HUMINT Offensive from Putin's Chekist State Anderson, Julie (2007), International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, 20:2, 258 - 316, p. 309.
  15. ^ http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/13/1071125712163.html Wise guys, tough guys, dead guys] John Silvester, The Age December 14, 2003.
  16. ^ Why gangland's bloody code is hard to crack John Silvester, The Age April 20, 2003.
  17. ^ Kavkaz Center - Georgian Police Seize House of Top Russian Mafiosi.
  18. ^ Jürgen Roth, Die Gangster aus dem Osten, Europa Verlag Publishers.
  19. ^ Bandits, Gangsters and the Mafia (Martin McCauley).
  20. ^ Hughes, James, Chechnya: The Causes of a Protrated Post-Soviet Conflict, 2001.
  21. ^ BBC News- Alleged Russian mafia boss cleared.
  22. ^ Semyon Mogilevich, the 'East European mafia boss', awaiting his trial in Moscow jail.
  23. ^ Glenny (2008), Op. cit., pp. 72-73.
  24. ^ Aleksandr Zhilin, The Shadow of Chechen Crime Over Moscow, The Jamestown Foundation 1999.
  25. ^ Russian mob's Jewish godfatherEldad Beck , ynetnews
  26. ^ BBC article, with information on Alexander Solonik.
  27. ^ BBC News, So Who are the Russian Mafia?, BBC Online Network, April 1, 1998.
  28. ^ CNN:Russian organized crime implicated in skating scandal.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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