Posted on 12/04/2010 8:16:04 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine are already or are swiftly becoming 'mafia states' according to a senior Spanish prosecutor cited in US diplomatic cables.
The appraisal, given by Spanish prosecutor Jose 'Pepe' Grinda Gonzalez to US diplomats in Madrid in February this year, noted: "He considers Belarus, Chechnya and Russia to be virtual 'mafia states' and said that Ukraine is going to be one. For each of those countries, he alleged, one cannot differentiate between the activities of the government and OC [organised crime] groups."
Mr Grinda added that Georgian citizens play key roles in criminal gangs in post-Soviet Europe and "described OC as 'very powerful' in Georgia" with "intertwined ties there between the government and OC" despite attempts by Tbilisi to clean up its act.
The Spanish jurist, who has worked in the sector for over 10 years and who voiced fears over his personal safety, elaborated on the Russia situation: "Grinda said that he believes the FSB [the Russian security services] is 'absorbing' the Russian mafia but they can also 'eliminate' them in two ways: by killing OC leaders who do not do what the security services want them to do or by putting them behind bars to eliminate them as a competitor for influence."
He cited as examples of the destabilising international role played by mafia bosses - known as "vor v zakone" or "thieves in law" - two cases of political protection for arms smugglers.
The first was the Arctic Sea case of 2009, in which a Russian-crewed freighter was intercepted in the Baltic Sea smuggling Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. The second case concerned Georgian-born vor v zakone Zahkar Kalashov who sold guns to Kurds in order "to destabilize Turkey" under the protection of Russian military intelligence.
A separate cable from the US embassy in Moscow in February this year detailed the crime scene in the Russian capital in a portrayal of the recently-ousted Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov.
"The Moscow city government's direct links to criminality have led some to call it 'dysfunctional,' and to assert that the government operates more as a kleptocracy than a government. Criminal elements enjoy a 'krysha' (a term from the criminal/mafia world literally meaning 'roof' or protection) that runs through the police, the Federal Security Service (FSB), Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and the prosecutor's office, as well as throughout the Moscow city government bureaucracy," the cable said.
An unidentified source went on to tell the US mission: "People often witness officials going into the Kremlin with large suitcases and bodyguards, and he speculated that the suitcases are full of money. The governors collect money based on bribes, almost resembling a tax system, throughout their regions."
The cables do not make a direct link to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, even though the US believes him to have amassed a seven-figure personal fortune through the Swiss oil-trading firm Gunvor, or to President Dmitry Medvedev.
But the highly embarrassing revelations come just days before an EU-Russia summit in Brussels in which Moscow will try to make the case for EU help with modernisation of its economy and a future free-trade zone.
Meanwhile, a 2008 cable from the US embassy in Kiev, shows the extent to which the Ukrainian gas business has roots in Russian organised crime and casts in a shady light some key figures in President Viktor Yanukovych's administration.
The cable, based on an interview between the US ambassador and Ukrainian gas and media tycoon Dmitry Firtash, sees Mr Firtash admit that the notorious Russian mobster, Semion Mogilevich, launched his career.
Mr Firtash in January 2002 attended a dinner with gas-sector competitors and Mr Mogilevich "not knowing if he would be beaten up or even killed." Mr Firtash went on to say that in the 1990s: "It was impossible to approach a government official for any reason without also meeting with an organized crime member at the same time." The cable added that "Firtash acknowledged that he needed, and received, permission from Mogilievich when he established various businesses."
The Firtash interview exposes the extent to which Ukrainian oligarchs play a role in politics, with Mr Firtash boasting that he helped to make and break government coalitions in the post-Orange Revolution years and used his TV channel, Inter, to sway public opinion.
The cable also notes that the current Ukrainian energy minister, Yuriy Boyko, in the past helped to cover up the size of Mr Firtash private fortune.
Mr Firtash was ousted from the gas business by his nemesis, former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009, but a Stockholm arbitration tribunal recently gave him back his stake in the gas game, indicating that he will once again become an important intermediary in the Russia-Ukraine-EU gas transit business.
Amid lingering EU fears of another gas crisis based on non-transparent deals between Kiev and Moscow, Gazprom and Ukraine's state-owned gas firm Naftogaz on Wednesday announced two new joint ventures which could pave the way for a full-scale take-over by Russia of the Ukrainian gas transit sector.
and the US isn’t. right.
Governor Christie can tell you about New Jersey ~ he's pulling it out of it's Mafia induced greedball haze.
It's a tough job but it can be done.
Russia was that way from the beginning. The czar, himself an offshoot of a family that controlled Europe (Czar Nicholas, Nicholas’s wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V) and his secret police were replaced by a gang of thugs in leather jackets called the Cheka. Even today Putin is reverently called a Chekist in the Russian media.
They are worse than mafia states. They are states controlled directly by the Kremlin, and a politboro of Russian and former Soviet officials.
Spain is a mafia state.
Spanish prosecutor Jose ‘Pepe’ Grinda Gonzalez is a party enforcer inside the Judiciary.
Who is he kidding?
WikiLeaks cables: Russian government 'using mafia for its dirty work' - Gonzalez has spent 10 years battling the Russian mafia and was responsible for the investigation of Zakhar Kalashov, reportedly the most senior mafia figure to be jailed outside Russia. Spain conducted two major operations – codenamed Avispa (2005-07) and Troika (2008-09) – against mafia networks on its territory, resulting in the arrest of more than 60 suspects. They include four of the alleged leaders outside Russia: Gennady Petrov, Alexander Malyshev (Petrov's deputy), Vitaly Izguilov (a key lieutenant) and Kalashov. Despite this, the networks are said to have swiftly reconstituted.
....Gonzalez – referred to in the cables as Grinda – said he agreed with claims made by Alexander Litvinenko, the whistleblowing Russian spy who was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006. Litvinenko secretly met Spanish security officers in May 2006, six months before his death, the cable reported. Another cable, quoting an investigation by Spain's flagship centre-left daily newspaper El País, said Litvinenko tipped off Spanish security officials on the "locations, roles, and activities of several 'Russian' mafia figures with ties to Spain". According to Litvinenko, Russia's intelligence and security services control the country's organised crime network – with Gonzalez citing the federal security service (FSB), foreign intelligence service (SVR) and military intelligence (GRU). "Grinda stated he believes this thesis [by Litvinenko] to be accurate," the cable said. The Spanish prosecutor said he had evidence that certain political parties in Russia worked hand in hand with mafia groups. Citing information gathered from "intelligence services, witnesses and phone taps" he named the Liberal Democratic party of Russia (LDPR), an ultra-nationalist party in Russia's Duma. One of its deputies is Andrei Lugovoi, the ex-KGB agent accused by Scotland Yard of Litvinenko's murder. Gonzalez claimed the KGB and its SVR successor had deliberately created the LDPR. Some of its ranks were now home to serious criminals who owned large mansions in Spain, he said. He further alleged there were proven ties between the Russian political parties – all of which support the Kremlin – and "organised crime and arms trafficking".
“and the US isn’t. right.”
My sentiments, exactly. Our mafia is run by our banks.
So maybe it’s a good thing that Hillary is Secretary of State, given the mafia-like qualities of the Clinton administration. She should have a better understanding of how those folks operate.
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