Heavyweight duel: Vladimir Putin facing the Russian mafia – 13/03/2019

A mythical halo surrounds the "godfathers" of the Russian mafia, known for his code of honor, his impressive tattoos and his excessive violence, but now they are in the line of sight of the Kremlim.

The Russian Mafia has been around for a century. He lived his golden age in the 90s, when the USSR collapsed. He ambaded considerable fortunes while marking the collective imagination with his crimes and his murders.

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With the arrival of Vladimir Putin in power in 1999, the "Vory v zakone" ("law thieves" in Russian), they had to change by hook or rogue

"Some are in prison, others have been murdered, the most intelligent have been converted into the business world," says Mikhail Orski. a "retired gangster" at his home in a village in northern Moscow. Now wear a tie.

"Some Russian millionaires are former bosses of the mafia, Control important financial flows, businesses, buy deputies, judges, prosecutorsexplains Mikhail Pashkin, former researcher and president of the Moscow Police Union.

Justice has always encountered a problem in condemning them: the difficulty of directly involving them in the crimes committed by their organization.

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This Tuesday, the deputies adopted in second reading, on proposal of Vladimir Putin, an amendment to the penal code that facilitates their capture.

With this law, "the mere fact of running a criminal organization is enough" to be sentenced, says MP Otari Arshba, the main defender of the text.

specifically a mafia boss incurs up to 15 years in prison if he admits to being a "godfather" or if another denounces him.

"We must put an end to this state in the state and to this Romanesque image that sometimes surrounds the" godfathers ", presented as heroes by Hollywood", believes Arshba, former Soviet KGB agent who fought organized crime in the USSR.

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"The president's initiative provoked an expansive wave in criminal circles. Some think leaving the country", points out in the digital newspaper Lenta.ru, Viktoria Gefter, web editor First crime, specialized in Russian mafia.

In 2005, dozens of mafia leaders have left the former Soviet republic of Georgiain the Caucasus, to settle in Europe after the adoption of a similar law.

Some experts question the reasons for a text likely to threaten the business world and whose real effect is unknown.

The Russian press considers that there is "an unprecedented attack against the Mafia", which gives the image of a strong Vladimir Putin at a time when its popularity index drops.

"The mafia is asking questions," says Mikhail Orski, an unfortunate gangster who led the movement in the 1990s a band of about 50 former sportsmen and veterans of the war in Afghanistan who blackmailed taxi drivers.

The author of two 58-year-old detective novels is convinced that about 400 "godfathers" currently in Russia they will not accept exile or "will not walk to torture". "They will eventually find a solution."

Some conservatives believe that Putin's law is more business-related than active criminal gang leaders.

"From now on, any businessman can end up in prison as a" criminal leader "and the competition will confiscate his business. with the help of corrupt police"criticizes the lawyer Vladimir Jerebenkov.

Jerebenkov counts among his clients with a dozen old mafia bosses from the 1990s, now converted into "ordinary businessmen to whom the new law will allow them to take their business".

AFP Agency.

GML