Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 28 – Since the end of
the cold war, Berlin has been the center of Russian organized crime abroad,
with an estimated 10,000 Russians there involved in illicit activities in
Germany and taking in a million or more euros every year. But over the last several
years, Russian criminal “authorities” have shifted to New York, according to a
ZDF film.
Germany was originally the most
attractive place for Russian criminal gangs to work, the film says; but now as
wealthy Russians have decided to try to live in the US rather than in Germany,
the gangs are crossing the Atlantic because they have traditionally served as unacknowledged
partners of wealthy Russians (svpressa.ru/world/article/269384/).
The Russian gangs have made their
money from contraband and the sale of cocaine, prostitution, human trafficking
and arms deals and then have laundered this “dirty money” via construction
projects and property acquisition. The television film says Germany has “the
ideal conditions” for their operations.
The police have not gone after them
consistently, Moscow has not shared with German authorities information about
them, and many German outlets focus on what they call “the Chechen mafia” which
among other things has the effect of distracting attention from the Russian
criminal bands.
But as opportunities for investment
by wealthy Russians have expanded in the United States, Russian organized crime
has crossed the ocean, focusing on New York. One curious feature of its activities
in the US is that, in contrast to Germany, many young Americans interested in a
life of crime have tried to join the Russian mafia.
They are thus helping the Russian
mafia to expand its operations, but experts warn that these Americans are not
going to be admitted to the top ranks of the Russian mob, even if they adopt
Russian language, Russian names and Russian manners. That is a red line that
the Russian mob doesn’t appear willing to allow anyone to cross, the German
film suggests.
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