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the Russian state is not funding terror attacks on American soil.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Buahahahahaha!

Edumakate yourself:

QUOTE:

In time, Louie and Z left the shores of the Atlantic for Zurich, Switzerland - and a far more menacing situation: A meeting with a high-ranking Russian General offering his governmentâ€™s arsenal for sale.

â€œWeâ€™re talking long-range missiles, tanks, submarines, everything,â€ Z said.

The danger was driven home last week with the New York indictment of notorious Russian arms dealer Victor Boot, captured in Thailand in March. He was charged with selling weapons to a terrorist group to be used to kill Americans.

UNQUOTE ( CBS article below)

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The Russian Federation as a Criminal-Syndicalist State

The notion of a criminal-syndicalist state is central and essential to understanding the findings and conclusions of the Russian Organized Crime Task Force. The task force concludes that, in the absence of significant reforms, the Russian Federation itself is likely to become a full-blown criminal-syndicalist state. In many respects, such a criminal syndicalist state already exists in Russia today. In the findings of the task force, such a state is composed of, and characterized by, interactions among the following:

i. corrupt officials at all levels throughout the government bureaucracy, from minister to tax collector to low-level factotum;
ii. successful, full-time “professional” criminals; and

iii. businessmen for whom existing Russian law—and Western norms of commerce—are simply obstacles to be overcome in one way or another.

Even at the lowest level of activity, this dangerous mix of criminality, government, and business—with a strong, shared interest in self-enrichment, survival, and power—precludes normal interaction with those outside it. The most important, and perhaps the most significant and troubling finding of the task force, is that, at the level of state-to-state interaction, it will become impossible for the United States and other states to have traditional satisfactory dealings with an emergent Russian criminal-syndicalist state. As corrupt bureaucracy, organized crime, and “commerce without rules” in Russia blur into one another, how will it be possible for others to conduct normal dealings in matters of diplomacy, military affairs, economic and commercial activities, intelligence and security, and even law enforcement? Under such circumstances, how will the United States government determine whether the Russian government is dealing in what is traditionally regarded as its “national interest” rather than in the interests of individual self-enrichment, survival, and power that are shared by those with whom the United States normally negotiates? How can the United States or other countries hope to build enduring relationships in matters of international cooperation, economics, and security with representatives of a criminal-syndicalist state?

Krysha

One of the most prominent terms of the new Russian criminal jargon is krysha, which literally means “roof.” Throughout the Cold War, Soviet intelligence services used this term to refer to a cover set up for intelligence of officers in a foreign country. In the context of ROC, however, krysha is now used to refer to an umbrella of protection, or “bandit roof.” This protection can come in the form of a criminal overlord protecting members of his organization. It also can come in the form of a criminal group’s declaring that a specific business is paying it extortion money and is therefore under its protection. Finally, a krysha also can include certain forms of corrupt government protection, including the militsiya, tax police, the military, customs, and border guards.

Why has ROC prospered? The lawless criminal climate in Russia today makes it very difficult for business to survive and prosper without being defended and kept safe by some kind of organized security force. This type of force may come from public sector law enforcement agencies or private-sector guard services as well as an organized crime body. In many cases, the business will have to pay from 10 to 60 percent of its pre-tax income for protection regardless of who provides it. These costs to business contribute to the shortfall in tax revenue received by the of official government, corrupt of officials within the government, however, also divert tax receipts for their own illicit purposes, whether as individuals or as part of criminal organizations. If the criminals fund a business particularly attractive, they will demand an ownership share of it.

When a business comes “under the roof’ of a ROC group, it is not always viewed as a clear case of extortion. Often, the krysha offers a range of services. The business can expect to be defended from other racketeers, including corrupt law enforcement; effective technical and guard protection of property; debt collection; assistance with customs clearances; legal and business advice from an adroit “legal staff’; and banking privileges at criminal-controlled banks. Banks are the linchpin of the criminal system: not only is the money kept in banks, but criminals use them to control their clients. Bank accounts, letters of credit, and wire transfers sometimes are the best sources for discovery of new, moneyed clients.

According to recent financial and business reporting from the American embassy that has been shared with the U.S. business community through the BISNIS online service, the krysha model is a key component of a significant postcommunist development in Russia - the integration of the criminal and legal economies. In the days of the Soviet Union, everyone understood and made use of the “parallel market,” the euphemism for black market, that supplied what the state controlled economy could not. Today, the world of criminal enterprises exists side by side—and sometimes overlaps—a legitimate Russian business.

Kryshas: Key Actors in Legitimate and Illegitimate Russian Business

A krysha is a virtual necessity in most organized ventures in which sales, income, and profit are generated. They are a logical outgrowth of the old communist system, which orchestrated a system of unworkable socialism, confiscation, and perpetual shortages. Access to scarce goods could be acquired only through a structured mechanism of corruption. As the Communist Party’s institutions of power collapsed in 1991, the krysha naturally surfaced to fill the organizational void; one variant of corrupt patronage, confiscation, and dispensation merely supplanted another. A krysha generally includes one or more of the following three elements:

-a connection to a financial/credit center or bank;
-a deep penetration into governmental structures (local, republic, or national);

-an armed force, often illegal, sometimes from within the government itself.

Operationally, a krysha is an organization or individual that can provide the protection and patronage necessary to the conduct of business (or government activity). Membership in the krysha carries a price; a share of profits and/or some payback of service or favor is owed by the member corporation or individual to the krysha. In return for payment, individuals and corporations receive service in return from the krysha: ensured personal security, defense from attack and shakedown from another krysha, handling of payoffs and deals, intimidation of real or potential enemies and competitors, and advancement of the interests of the recipient for the established price. A krysha mistakenly is thought of as only criminal, that is, a mafia group that intimidates, beats, or murders, but it also can be governmental, able to deploy force from the power ministries for many of the same ends as a criminal krysha. A krysha can manipulate both the law and the bureaucracy in a business’s favor—or against it. The Office of the Prosecutor General frequently institutes legal proceedings on the strength of a single telephone call. The new nomenklatura wins 9 out of 10 cases it initiates against the Russian media.
According to the MVD and the militsiya, as cited in Moskovskaya pravda, 30 percent of all militia operational officers maintain “roofs.’ The commercial structures they protect vary according to rank—precinct officers “maintain” vendors’ stalls, while operations officers protect limited-liability companies and joint-sstock companies and their superiors even oversee banking structures. Before being fired by President Yeltsin in June 1996, General Aleksandr Korzhakov, (now a member of the State Duma) headed the Presidential Security Service and was said by many in Russia to direct one of the biggest kryshas in Russia. Kryshas are found not just In the major cities, but throughout the Russian Federation and in the former Soviet republics, including the Baltic states. The comments of one Moscow crime boss illustrate the pervasiveness of the krysha In Russian business today: “It’s gotten impossible to work: one place the cops are providing roofs; somewhere else it’s the KGB, and yet another place it’s Korzhakov’s boys or the Alfa group. Who can make any sense of it any more?”

Considering the depth and breadth of its presence, the krysha is likely to become a fixed feature of the post-communist Russian scene, and indeed, very well could mature into integrated and local elements of the Russian state, Russian society, and Russian business and Industry. Some observers believe this is happening already.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hockey/mafia/csis.html

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Undercover Look Inside The Russian Mob

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/undercover-look-inside-the-russian-mob/
The Justice Department is launching a bold 21st Century attack to combat what Attorney General Michael Mukasey calls the “growing threat” that international organized crime is posing to “U.S. security and stability.” CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian looks inside one of the most dangerous threats: The Russian Mob.

They were known as Z and Louie, Thick and Thin. Partially disguised, they talked for first time to CBS News about their nearly 10 years as undercover agents for the FBI.

“What were kind of roles you guys played here?” Keteyian asked.

“Well, we portrayed ourselves as not only high rollers but wise guys from Atlantic City,” Z said.

They had big-time U.S. Customs connections, and a bankroll to match.

“The $2,000 dinners. The fancy cars. And, yes, I did fit in them,” Z laughed.

More than 100 nights a year, Z and Louie wined and dined their way around Atlantic City, slowly working their way in, helping to expose the magnitude of the Russian Mafia:
Diamond and arms dealing
Cigarette smuggling
Health care and credit card fraud
Cyber crime
An appetite for violence

“They have no qualms about murdering people,” Z said.

“If they have to kill you, they kill you?” Keteyian asked.

“Absolutely,” Z said.

CBS News has learned that hundreds of FBI agents in New York are now devoted to fighting what one top official called an “explosive” growth in organized crime fueled by the growing influence of Asian, Albanian and Russian mobs.

In the last three years, in New York alone, the FBI has indicted more than 300 “non-traditional” crime figures.

“The public has the perception that organized crime has largely gone away,” said Mark Mershon, the FBI assistant director in charge of New York. “That of course is not at all true.”

Over the last 15 years, the Russian mob, based in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, has grown into an intimidating force - a lucrative international enterprise stretching from Moscow to Israel to Thailand to the United States, blending old-fashioned brutality with high-tech skills.

The Russians’ massive smuggling operations run out of a port in Newark, N.J. One ingenious scam to avoid paying taxes had tanker loads of wood-grain alcohol being shipped back to the Mother Land - vodka with a twist.

“They would dye it blue. They would label it windshield washer fluid, ship it to Russia, un-dye it, and then sell it as vodka,” Z said.

“We’re talking long-range missiles, tanks, submarines, everything,” Z said.

That’s hardly a scene from “The Sopranos.”

Italian organized crime, neighborhood drugs, prostitution, sports betting. Traditional stuff. This is â€¦ this is way up the ladder.

“Exactly,” Z said.

Keteyian asked: “And if they’ll sell that to a couple of mob guys from Jersey, what are they selling to al-Qaeda? Terrorists?”

“It’s all available for the right price. Greed drives everything,” Z said.