Posts
Who runs Russia? Organised crime has long been big business in Russia. But do powerful Mafiosi now enjoy the states protection?
Russians have a strange attitude about their gangsters. What I mean is that in Russia, for a small amount of money, tour guides will actually guide you through Moscow’s Vagankovskoye cemetery, where several Mafiosi are buried. At the cemetery most Mafiosi are buried under life-sized statues or headstones. There is a radio station devoted to folk music that plays about prison life of the gangsters. But nothing demonstrates the veneration of all things gangster more than the untimely demise of a vor v zakone or Russian Mafia boss. It has almost become a ritual when a high level razborka, or execution, leads to the evening news, announcer dwelling lovingly on the details of the murder weapon, the getaway route, the model of Mercedes or the Maybach that the victim was driving. Then comes the grainy CCTV footage or mobile phone photos of the deceased slumped over his steering wheel or prone outside the entrance of a nightclub.
Within 24 hours the television stations have produced computer simulations of the attack and have made CGI style graphics of the attack. The properties of the weapons will be discussed by ballistic experts and they will also be looking into any cool gadgets involved in the operation. Top ranking “thieves in law” now own legitimate thriving businesses in Russia and they have armoured Maybachs to match. They also hang out with lawyers, judges, politicians and they have policemen on their payroll for their protection.
In a Wikileaks cable, a Spanish judge –an expert in Russian Mafia, who has studied the mob for 11 years – told US diplomats that he considers Russia a “mafia state”, where “one cannot differentiate between the activities of the government and the OC (organized crime) groups. For example, take the assassination of opposition journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, those arrested included a professional mafia hitman, an active duty FSB colonel and members of a police special surveillance unit, who are all currently awaiting a second trial. Another high profile crime was the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison in 2009. His fate was seal when he accused the police of tax fraud amounting to $230 million. However, all those involved are still free. Mafia killings of today are fewer in number compare to the early 1990s, but the quality of the killings and the method of the killings has changed. Twenty years ago, killings where carried out using knives because firearms where prohibited in the USSR. However, things changed and the mafia got round to using guns but there was a lot of collateral damage as the use of the fire arms was largely unskilled and the strategies used to carry out the hit was mainly flawed. These days, however, the level of professionalism is unbelievable and chilling. Snipers can make headshots at hundreds of metres or even escape 10 or more security cameras after a hit has been made. This simply means that new people have arrived on the scene and the old mafia groups are gone.
Russians have a strange attitude about their gangsters. What I mean is that in Russia, for a small amount of money, tour guides will actually guide you through Moscow’s Vagankovskoye cemetery, where several Mafiosi are buried. At the cemetery most Mafiosi are buried under life-sized statues or headstones. There is a radio station devoted to folk music that plays about prison life of the gangsters. But nothing demonstrates the veneration of all things gangster more than the untimely demise of a vor v zakone or Russian Mafia boss. It has almost become a ritual when a high level razborka, or execution, leads to the evening news, announcer dwelling lovingly on the details of the murder weapon, the getaway route, the model of Mercedes or the Maybach that the victim was driving. Then comes the grainy CCTV footage or mobile phone photos of the deceased slumped over his steering wheel or prone outside the entrance of a nightclub.
Within 24 hours the television stations have produced computer simulations of the attack and have made CGI style graphics of the attack. The properties of the weapons will be discussed by ballistic experts and they will also be looking into any cool gadgets involved in the operation. Top ranking “thieves in law” now own legitimate thriving businesses in Russia and they have armoured Maybachs to match. They also hang out with lawyers, judges, politicians and they have policemen on their payroll for their protection.
In a Wikileaks cable, a Spanish judge –an expert in Russian Mafia, who has studied the mob for 11 years – told US diplomats that he considers Russia a “mafia state”, where “one cannot differentiate between the activities of the government and the OC (organized crime) groups. For example, take the assassination of opposition journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, those arrested included a professional mafia hitman, an active duty FSB colonel and members of a police special surveillance unit, who are all currently awaiting a second trial. Another high profile crime was the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison in 2009. His fate was seal when he accused the police of tax fraud amounting to $230 million. However, all those involved are still free. Mafia killings of today are fewer in number compare to the early 1990s, but the quality of the killings and the method of the killings has changed. Twenty years ago, killings where carried out using knives because firearms where prohibited in the USSR. However, things changed and the mafia got round to using guns but there was a lot of collateral damage as the use of the fire arms was largely unskilled and the strategies used to carry out the hit was mainly flawed. These days, however, the level of professionalism is unbelievable and chilling. Snipers can make headshots at hundreds of metres or even escape 10 or more security cameras after a hit has been made. This simply means that new people have arrived on the scene and the old mafia groups are gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment