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Speaking on Russian organized crime at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, October 17
Just to let people know, I’ll be holding forth on Organized Crime in Russia and its Global Impact at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas next month: you’ll find details (and how to get tickets) on their site...
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Russian Gangsters and Las Vegas: an opportunity and an example
I was recently privileged to be invited to speak on the rise of Russian organized crime at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas (I would add that this is an excellent museum, which manages to pull off that...
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Ded Dead: the assassination of Russian crime boss Aslan Usoyan (‘Ded Khasan’)
This time, Ded is dead News is just breaking that Russian (actually Kurdish Yezidi from Georgia) crime boss Aslan Usoyan (‘Ded Hasan’ or ‘Ded Khasan’ — ‘Grandfather Hassan’) was shot and killed last...
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Has a new Russian Mob War started in Abkhazia?
Hasta la vista, Hasan Could the murder of a no-more-than-moderately infamous local gangster in Abkhazia, Astamur Gulia, ‘Astik Sukhumski,’ mark the start of a wider gang war following the murder of...
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Rovshan Janiev’s arrest in Baku: efforts to avert a mob war?
Rovshan behind bars again Dmitry Chanturia (‘Miron’ or ‘Miron Yaroslavsky’), the new head of Aslan Usoyan’s criminal network, seems to believe that the Azeri gangster Rovshan Janiev (‘Rovshan...
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They whack him here, they whack him there… The Azeri Pimpernel
I think it fair to say that Rovshan Janiev is less dashing It is as much as anything else a sign of the pressures in the Russian underworld and the lack of clarity in what will follow the murder of...
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Talking about Russian organized crime in Prague, March 19
With post-Soviet (Armenian) organized crime boss Andranik Soghoyan being convicted in absentia to 22 years in prison in Prague Municipal Court, and with the commercial rivalry over the Temelin nuclear...
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‘Zap’ Soghoyan, Post-Soviet Gangsters in the Czech Republic, and the new...
He doesn’t look worried. Sadly, he probably had good reason… The conviction in absentia of Andranik Soghoyan in Prague Municipal Court in many ways exemplifies the place and role of Eurasian organized...
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Prague, Moscow, and the value of speaking firmly, clearly and with one voice
A cliché, yes, but a cool one It is, of course, a hackneyed cliché to talk about the “Russian bear.” Nonetheless, it is fair to say that prodding either with a stick is equally ill-advised. However,...
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Europe-wide arrests of Georgian gangsters, with senior Kutaisi vor seized in...
I’ve noted, both on this blog and elsewhere, that “Russian organized crime” in Europe often is actually Armenian or Georgian–even if today’s Georgian godfathers are frequently based in Russia. It’s a...
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Georgian Organized Crime Blitz in Europe
(Some further thoughts to complement my initial, snap response, ‘Europe-wide arrests of Georgian gangsters, with senior Kutaisi vor seized in Prague’) On 18 June, police in six European countries...
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Wikistrat exercise: “Winning Mexico’s Drug War”
Following my involvement in Wikistrat‘s When Putin Falls simulation, I was also fortunate enough to be asked to lead their policy-oriented Winning Mexico’s Drug War crowd-sourced exercise. Over a week,...
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Who were the Georgian gangsters arrested in Europe?
I’ll complete this list as more identities become available, but to date, these are the names of the various figures arrested in the June 18 swoop on the Georgian Kutaisi gang across Europe: Hungary...
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‘Operation Skhodka’: the Italian-led operation against Georgian gangsters in...
I am indebted to Antonio de Bonis, a senior analyst at the Italian Carabinieri’s ROS Special Operational Detachment, for this short and authoritative summary of Operation Skhodka, the recent and...
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Latest on Treasury’s Campaign against Russian/Eurasian Organized Crime
Under the terms of Executive Order 13581, the US Treasury has been seeking to locate and freeze assets associated with key organized crime kingpins, a range of Japanese, Latin American, Italian and...
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The Other Greek Tragedy: Georgian and Russian/Eurasian organized crime
With news of the arrest in Thessaloniki of Georgian vor v zakone David Mazanashvili (“Dato Rustavsky”), a member of the same Kutaisi “clan” targeted in this summer’s Europe-wide raids under Operation...
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The risk of a gangster “Transdnestrianisation” of the Crimea
Now, does he look like a gangster to you? Just a quick note to the effect that over at Russia! magazine I have a piece looking at the allegations that de facto Crimean premier Sergei Aksenov was in the...
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Poor Dmytro (Firtash)?
Firtash may be caught by the throat, but most other oligarchs are feeding merrily still Can one feel sorry for a multi-millionaire ($673M according to some, $2.3B according to alternative accounts, and...
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Breaking up the Khinkalnaya sitdown: Georgians being warned off trying for a...
Rys’ SOBR of the kind deployed to break up the skhodka On 24 May, Moscow police including Rys’ SOBR commandos broke up a skhodka–sit down–of mainly Georgian gangsters reportedly at the Khinkalnaya...
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Gangster, upstart, folk hero: Rovshan Janiev (Lenkoransky) finally put to rest
Azeri-born gangster Rovshan Janiev, also know as Rovshan Lenkoransky, was killed in an ambush on 17 August in Istanbul, while returning from a trip to Dubai (which, incidentally, seems to have become...
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