I’ve been critical in the past of the US government’s designation of a Russian/Eurasian organized crime ‘group’ that it calls the Brothers’ Circle, I’ve grumbled that “I’ve never heard serious talk of a Brothers’ Circle” and that I’ve never seen any evidence of its existence as a specific grouping. That said, I’ve never assumed that the Treasury was full of fools and assumed that it was simply a handy generic label to allow the new anti-crime initiative something to hold on to. Let me set the record straight: while I still don’t believe the Circle exists as a specific, formally-structured organization, it’s becoming clearer just what the USG’s strategy is, and I think it’s an imaginative and clever one.
All posts in category Organized Crime – Russia
Another Go Round the ‘Brothers’ Circle’
Posted by Mark Galeotti on June 6, 2012
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/another-go-round-the-brothers-circle/
Still trying to square the ‘Brother’s Circle’
The US Treasury has released the names of a series of Japanese and Eurasian crime kingpins whose assets will now be targeted. The Russian/Eurasian crooks are all linked to what USG calls the “Brothers’ Circle.” (more…)
Posted by Mark Galeotti on February 24, 2012
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/still-trying-to-square-the-brothers-circle/
The “death porn” of Russian mafiya reporting
I just wanted briefly to note a nice piece on Russian organised crime in the latest Financial Times Magazine. Moscow bureau chief Charles Clover writes about the role of gangsters in modern Russia and tries, but regrettably (if perhaps predictably) doesn’t get to dig deep into the case of Aslan Usoyan, ‘Ded Khasan.’ However, he does have some very acute observations about the “death porn” (his words) around Russian reporting of mob hits, part of an interestingly ambiguous and “oddly reverential attitude” they have for their gangsters:
In what has become almost a ritual, a high level razborka, or execution, will invariably lead the evening news. Announcers dwell lovingly on the details of the murder weapon, the getaway route, the model of Mercedes or 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 to a lap-dancing club.
Within 24 hours, television stations will have produced computer simulations of the attack, complete with CGI-style graphics. Ballistics experts will be discussing the properties of the weapons used and any cool gadgets involved in the operation. Footage will follow of balaclava-clad police commandoes kicking in doors and cuffing men with abnormally thick necks and lots of tattoos and scars; mugshots of the enemies of the victim, their mob aliases (“Tomato”, “Pussycat”, “Little Japanese”) and their possible motives.
Of course, I am unashamedly a consumer and sometimes purveyor of such salacious stuff, so I am hardly passing any moral judgement. But Clover has the “the drama, gore, technological geekery, secret service acronyms and luxury branding, which accompany the typical Russian mafia hit” exactly right.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on December 17, 2011
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/the-death-porn-of-russian-mafiya-reporting/
Russian cybercrime: means, motive and opportunity
The Russian hacker is an established trope of pop culture and news analysis alike and thus gets recycled ad nauseam, but it is based on fact, that they are disproportionately active in the world of cybercrime (and, indeed, cyberespionage). My latest Moscow News column, ‘Why are Russians excellent cybercriminals,’ briefly explores some of the reasons. In the future, I also want to look at the MVD’s Department K, its computer crime directorate, as well as the FSB’s Center for Information Security.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on November 22, 2011
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/russian-cybercrime-means-motive-and-opportunity/
Russian discourse on organized crime: why does it prefer to think itself a victim?
There is, it must be said, a great deal of rubbish said and written about Russian organized and transnational crime in the West. Sadly, there’s quite a lot coming from Russia, too. A particularly depressing and, I feel, increasingly common theme emerging in Russian outlets that are often connected with the state uses not so much Western discourse so much as a caricature of Western discourse as a means to attack it, in a technique that is strikingly similar to Soviet-era propaganda.
Consider a recent piece run by Voice of Russia under the rubric Is Russian mafia dangerous? It’s an interesting and telling mix of the accidentally accurate and the (surely?) deliberately propagandistic. (more…)
Posted by Mark Galeotti on November 12, 2011
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/russian-discourse-on-organized-crime-why-does-it-prefer-to-think-itself-a-victim/
Operation Ghost Click: FBI (and friends) take down major Russian and Estonian cybercrime operation
It can sometimes seem like one of the more striking ironies of the modern global underworld is that the criminals are so much more willing to cooperate than states. A case in point would seem to be today’s breaking story about the FBI’s Operation Ghost Click and the unsealing of an indictment against a major cybercriminal venture that had hijacked 4 million computers in a hundred countries. Through front companies such as Esthost and Rove Digital, they made perhaps $14 million, largely through redirecting browsers to pay-per-click ad sites using DNSChanger malware. (Worried that yours was infected? Check here, courtesy of the FBI.)
The criminals were Russian and Estonian nationals. Moscow and Tallinn may be at daggers’ drawn, but it seems that their crooks are still happy to work together when there’s profit to be made.
Well, yes and no. (more…)
Posted by Mark Galeotti on November 9, 2011
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/operation-ghost-click-fbi-and-friends-take-down-major-russian-and-estonian-cybercrime-operation/
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