Russian Mafia

Chris Doss chrisd at russiajournal.com
Sat Feb 2 07:00:15 PST 2002


With respect to this section, there is no doubt that the FSB is taking over the mob's operations. This is common knowledge. The FSB is a clan like all the other clans (they're better than the people around Yeltsin, because they're interested in stability, but they're still a clan).

Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------

Ian wrote:

RUSSIA'S ORGANIZED CRIME: A TYPOLOGY PART II: The Effects of the New Chechen War A EurasiaNet Commentary by Roustam Kaliyev

Part II of a two-part series. Read Part I.

Vladimir Putin, who established his credentials in the security services, cemented his hold on power on promises of establishing order and crushing Chechen separatism. Using the pretext of the war in Chechnya, the security services have been able to evade social and legislative oversight.

As was discussed in Part One, Russian organized criminal groups can be grouped into three main categories: classic, governmental, and national. From the start of the present Chechen war, government agencies have exerted increasing influence over business activity. Many entrepreneurs reportedly sought to obtain protection (or "krysha," in Russian) from the MVD (Interior Ministry), FSB and other security services.

The war in Chechnya thus had a very negative impact on those Chechens who made providing krysha their main business activity, pitting them against Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov. At the same time, unlike ordinary Chechens in Russia, leading Chechen businesses have not been severely effected by the ongoing fighting. Indeed, big businessmen are said to have worked closely with structures like the MVD, FSB, and Federal Tax Collection Service (FSNP).

Criminologists say that by the end of 1999, national criminal groups ceded up to 40 percent of the businesses they influenced to the security services. For their part, Chechen businessmen attempted to prevent ethnic Chechen Mafias from expanding their sphere of activities. In return, the security services supposedly promised immunity to the businessmen, and promised not to diminish the influence of Chechen groups in the capital and other major cities.

As a result, the classic criminal groups became virtually extinct and now only two strong categories remain, the "governmental" and the "national." The governmental groups compete against each other and try to squeeze out the national Mafias. Sometimes, representatives of the "government" Mafias bought out entire neighborhoods in cash. In 1995 the Yuzhnoportovyi neighborhood of Moscow was bought out from a "national" type Mafia by influential people connected to the capital's anti-organized crime unit of the MVD (GUBOP). The sum named was in eight digits in dollars.

In an August 2001 article published by Novaya Gazeta, titled "FSB Blows up Russia," former FSB and MVD officer Alexander Litvinenko described in detail how the FSB protected certain Mafias and thwarted efforts by the GUBOP to apprehend suspects. Litvinenko started his career in the FSB, but later switched to the MVD in 1998. The Novaya Gazeta article, along with Litvinenko's forthcoming book, focuses the spotlight on FSB criminal activities. Of course, the GUBOP - which was formed during the late Soviet era - was itself a notorious competitor in racketeering activities. Recently, the GUBOP was officially disbanded due to its "krysha" activities. However, neither the nature of its activities nor the scope of its power has changed much. As it turned out, it was impossible to "disband" this unit. The members of the unit simply continued their racketeering activities under other rubrics. [snip]



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