Armenian Criminals In Russia

[MosJan]

ARMENIAN CRIMINALS IN RUSSIA

 

The daily Azg correspondent in Moscow reports that the “Armenian trace” was one of the main features of press, TV and other mass media reports in the wake of an assassination of the governor of Russian Magadan province. An Arthur Anisimov, allegedly a Yerevan resident, was mentioned among the people who masterminded the governor’s killing. The reports did not specify whether he is an Armenian or Russian. Akhunts and Babikhanian, two his other accomplices, no doubt, with Armenian surnames, were also named. The other five suspects are definitely of Slav descent.

 

Virtually all Russian Armenians say nothing hits them more than the exaggeration of “horrible crimes,” committed by Armenians in Russia by local mass media outlets. The overwhelming topic after such publications is that Caucasians (residents of the Caucasus) import their criminals to Russia and that a significant portion of all reported crimes are committed by the natives of former southern Soviet republics.

 

Even a report that Armenian law-enforcement bodies were instrumental in tracking down Anisimov and extraditing him to Russia did not change the overall moods.

 

It is not a secret that among the so-called “thieves in law”, ringleaders of criminal groupings in Russia there are many Armenians. Many of them were expelled from Armenia in mid-90s who have successfully established in Russia, contributing to “the development” of Russia’s criminal world. What do Armenian law-enforcement bodies do in this respect? This question is not an accusation. One can retaliate that Russia is a different country and let Russians themselves ponder on how to reduce crime rate in their country, however, we believe that relevant Armenian bodies should help their Russian counterparts in this issue, especially that Armenian Police has its representation in Moscow. It would be interesting to learn what is the range of his authorities and whether his work there is efficient. After all, what can one man do if the number of Armenian “thieves in law” in Russia is well beyond dozens? Perhaps, a mobile group composed of local Armenian police officers should be set up?

[Nvard]

Ha!

Fairytales about Armenian mafia in Russia have no base. There are some individulas that are involved in crime. But the whole thing is made up by the Russian Mass Media. As far as I know, there is no Armenian Mafia in Russia, at least in the rigions, I've heard there are small groups in Moscow. There is a Georgian Mafia, a Chechen Mafia, etc. those are huge in Russia.

Come on! Armenians are human! They can be ciminals, you know....lol

 

Can you actually imagine Armenians, working in an organized group together, having a leader, etc. ? Ha, Movses?

[DominO123]

Can you actually imagine Armenians, working in an organized group together, having a leader, etc. ? Ha, Movses?

Lets guess how it would look like.

 

Hmmmm... it would take a leader, lets call him Garo, it would take people to conform the group to work in harmony together and in an organised way, lets give some fictif names... lets call them Azat, Seaphan, vava, Nairi, Nvard, Harut, MosJan.

 

Now, the group shall have a name that would represent it... lets give a fictif name and call it Hyeforum.

 

Reading my above invention, I feel like a Deja-vu.

 

What were you saying again?

[MosJan]

I will be back after i register HyeMafia.com + ORG + Biz ++++\

 

 

and then we will have a Extra long Talk Nvard jan /

 

Feduli PAiZano - I will see you soon Axper

[gamavor]

I have a bad news for you guys. There is an Armenian mafia. Of course they are not well organized and their activities have sporadic nature. Most of the time they operate by assignment. Since we are best at many things, I have to admit that one of the best killers in Eastern Europe are the Armenians. Sad but true.

Nvard is right that people tend to generalize and these peoples' irresponsible attitude causes great damage to the community as a whole. On the other hand if we all have been angels, our plea wouldn't be heard anyway, so enjoy life and have fun......

[Nvard]

Domino, don't you ever try to turn my words your way again

 

I was talking about Armenians in a criminal group , you know

 

Movses, ari mez HyeMafia, irok asenk

Haykakan "cosa Nostra ", Garon el mer Don-e lini

 

 

Guys, what I ment is that Armenian mafia thing is not as HUGE as the Russian Media is trying to say.

 

Cheers

[Lev7]

You guys probably did not live in Moscow or Yerevan to know what's going on there. One of the most famous "thief in law" by the name of "Svoy Raff" in Moscow was Armenian. Also another one was "Professor", whose name if you mentioned in any part of the city, people knew him. I know it is hard for Armenians to work together as a group, but believe it or not Armenian mafia in Russia in huge and has a name. Georgians and Chechens are the "street thief" kind of mafia. The Armenians are more "legit" and try not to be in the spotlight too much.

[Hayeforlife]

the biggest criminals in Russia are no doubt about it the JEWS.

[Nvard]

Nope, you're wrong

The biggest criminals in Russia, have always been, are, and always will be, the Russians

[-=VAHE=-]

I thought it was the South African Tribal Biker Gang. lol

 

Yes there is a Armenian mafia in Russia and sure is a hell lot organized than here in the U.S. where organization is almost non-existant.

[edward demian]

What the "newspapers" and people of the former Soviet Union classify as Mafia would generaly fall under the Category of business men or entrepreneurs in the US. Eighty years of voodoo economics went along with eighty years of brainwashing the population that being a value added merchant was akin to being something slimy and deserving of banishment or worse. In the Communist world the attitude was and is that the small merchant is a blood sucking leech who made a profit without producing anything. Yet we know that in an advanced economy the wholesaler, the middlemann, the financeer, the transport carriers, the customs brocker, the insurance brocker, etc. all play an instrumental part between the manufacturer and ultimate consumer.

Armenian businessmen and other businessmen whose ethnicity does not attract much attention, rely on strong arm thugs and their tactics because of the lack of competent and complete laws to secure the Creditor against the default by the Debtor.

In the US, our laws are mostly written by businessmen. Therefore, the laws protect the creditors efficiently.

In Russia the laws were written by a wise tribunal of Genghis Khan, Rasputin and Michey Mouse. If a merchant sells on credit and the receipient does not pay, the recovery system through court action is too cumbersome, and uncertain. Sending a group of smelly, hungry, unshaven[the darker the better] thugs to collect is, more certain.

The need for products and services attract Armenians and other business people to the market and the infrastructure for credit and payment is not supported in law or in enforcement by the Russian authorities. Beating up on Caucasian refugees and immigrants won't help anything. Perhaps the Russians could improve the welfare system and then they could place all their Caucasian refugees on American Style welfare. There is always something........

[Khazar]

You guys probably did not live in Moscow or Yerevan to know what's going on there. One of the most famous  "thief in law" by the name of "Svoy Raff" in Moscow was Armenian. Also another one was "Professor", whose name if you mentioned in any part of the city, people knew him. I know it is hard for Armenians to work together as a group, but believe it or not Armenian mafia in Russia in huge and has a name. Georgians and Chechens are the "street thief" kind of mafia. The Armenians are more "legit" and try not to be in the spotlight too much.

As far as I know, the Georgians and Chechens in Moscow are more into armed robbery and that sort of thing, while Armenians have cornered the vehicle thievery market. Sounds funny when you put it that way...

 

I was in Echmiadzin in the summer of 2001, when a really well-known Armenian "thief-in-law" originally from Echmiadzin (can't remember his name) was killed in Moscow. Rumor had it that Georgians had done it, and everyone was saying how the Georgians were really going to get it. (Although one friend was positive it was OMON who did it). It was weird, ALL these Armenians had come from Moscow to Armenia for the funeral - most of them I can guarantee, had left Armenia illegally, and normally would have been stopped, but the authorities at Zvartnots apparently knew everything, and looked the other way. Don't know what happened after that, I honestly completely forgot about it until now.

Edited December 28, 2003 by Khazar

[-=VAHE=-]

Im not sure this is a guess but was the guy who was murdered svoy Raffi? Because I heard a story likethat about his funeral.

[edward demian]

Interesting post. however my opinion still is not challenged. Even if the division / specialization of criminal activity is exact as you say; There is a world of difference between Armed robery anf commerce in contraband. Smuggling and dealing in Stolen cars and car parts cannot succeed by themselves. The go hand in hand with legitimate sales of legal cars and parts. So the Armenian merchants are legitimate merchants who often trade in car pars and parts with questionable papers versus the georgians and the Chechens and the Azeris who do the stealing.

One other important cultural issue: When the facade of the great Communist society fall away, what was there to replace it. The cultural icons of the surviving [winning] culture, which is unfortunately portraied in great motion pictures such as "the Godfather". You have Russian kids and businessmen mimicking gangster styles and behaviour rather than the unglamorous over weight, overworked bespectacled merchant.

These guys are gangsters "wannbe's".

I'm afraid that the provincials from Echmiadzin may not know the difference. I hope so anyway; Otherwise we have struggled for so long just so we can become gangsters in foreign cities.

[Khazar]

The Armenians' organized crime may go hand in hand with legal transactions, but to pretend that makes it legitimate is naive. (Not saying that you do) - they are still stealing cars. But I also don't think the divisions are as exact as I may have implied. I guess it's sort of obvious that when something is stolen, it needs to be sold, someone has to do that, they have to know the right people, go to the right places, the authorities are frequently involved...all in all, it's a complicated process involving different people with differing "expertise", and they are not always strictly members of the group (ethnic or otherwise).

 

As a sidenote, I avoid making moral judgements about the whole thing, rather looking at it as what it is: A combination of social and economic factors starting with the fact that with the fall of the Soviet Union, the black-market was already well-developed - this, coupled with the lack of rule of law, corruption, low wages etc. provides the perfect environment for the development of organized crime. Oh, and of course there are enough people willing to do that sort of thing, especially when you have nationalities that traditionally stick together, in another country...

 

provincials from Echmiadzin

Uh-oh!

 

Vahe, maybe it was Svoy Raff? I'll try and find out. Literally thousands showed up for his funeral, and everyone was talking about it, albeit probably not because they knew him or anything, but out of curiosity.

 

Maybe someone here who has lived in Moscow can tell us more? I lived there 3 months and therefore can't say much...

Edited December 28, 2003 by Khazar

[Lev7]

As far as I know, the Georgians and Chechens in Moscow are more into armed robbery and that sort of thing, while Armenians have cornered the vehicle thievery market. Sounds funny when you put it that way...

 

I was in Echmiadzin in the summer of 2001, when a really well-known Armenian "thief-in-law" originally from Echmiadzin (can't remember his name) was killed in Moscow. Rumor had it that Georgians had done it, and everyone was saying how the Georgians were really going to get it. (Although one friend was positive it was OMON who did it). It was weird, ALL these Armenians had come from Moscow to Armenia for the funeral - most of them I can guarantee, had left Armenia illegally, and normally would have been stopped, but the authorities at Zvartnots apparently knew everything, and looked the other way. Don't know what happened after that, I honestly completely forgot about it until now.

It was Svoy Raff's funeral. I remember it very well. On that day, all of the main roads in Yerevan were renovated. And most of the Yerevan got electiricity for one day during the funeral, so the city would not look dim. People all around the world came to his funeral. It was like a president was put to rest, cause the funeral was unbelievable.

[gurgen]

What about Goga Yerevanski?

Okay, his son is a gambling addict (I know him, though I would rather not), but he used to be pretty big some time ago.

[AraManoogian]

Caucasus Journalists Network

 

South Caucasus Monthly Analytical Magazine

 

Criminals aspire mandates of legislators

Edik Baghdasaryan

 

It is already noticeable that in Armenia there is a group of people, for whom laws do not exist. They are not high ranked officials but they travel throughout the city, accompanied by a cortege of cars with darkened windows. The road police salute them, when they are passing. These cars are not difficult to recognize, because, as a rule, they have similar car plates showing their belonging to a team of this or that oligarch.

 

These groups of people-clans- have monopoly in different spheres of economy. They intend to keep on their positions at any price. People, who became rich by illegal means, intersected with the government, including the law enforcement bodies. Some of them during the last Parliamentary elections "conquered" the National Assembly: they managed to buy the required number of votes and obtain the deputy immunity (according to legislation of the Republic of Armenia, deputies of the National Assembly have a right to immunity). Almost all political parties during the last parliamentary elections in their election campaigns mentioned about the necessity to remove this privilege. Today, several months after elections, nobody talks about it. Habits and practice of people spending their time in casinos, restaurants and saunas and whom the public recognizes not by names but nicknames, entered the legislative body. Someone in a conversation called this process "a criminal revolution". In Armenia a new system of values is forming, dictated by those who became rich by illegal means.

 

Sometimes as in Sicily

 

Mafia structures, clans, continuously conduct internal wars, assured that they will not be punished. They kill because it is possible and because it is profitable for their business. The struggle between the clan groupings sometimes becomes furious. This is noticeable in the information provided by the national police.

 

President of the party "National Security" Garnik Isagulyan, in an interview to "Haykakan Zhamanak", commented on the current situation in the country and mentioned that "there are people who through criminal means could become owners of big sums of money and though the same course, obtained power and, finally, obsessed wide economic means. These means they transferred into political arena and now they possess political power too. They don't act alone, they have own clans and with clans' assistance they get even with their opponents-competitors." To understand the situation of the period prior this interview (summer 2003, when another flame of the inter-clan war started), let us cite some information disseminated by informational agencies.

 

Near the Autoservice hotel in Yerevan city, Mushegh Ayvazian (nickname Mushegh Leningadian-E.B.) was killed with a fire gun. He was once an owner of one of wine factories of Armenia and was recognized as "authority".

 

On the territory of the Noubarashen disposal tip, Arkadii Gevorkyan, a nephew of the former deputy of the National Assembly Rouben Gevorkian (Tsaghik Roubo), deputy administrator of the Health Department of the

Ministry of Defense of the RA Arik Haroutyunian and a car driver were assassinated. These killings are just one episode of the adversary resistance, continuing already a year. In the other rival group is the deputy of the National Assembly Samvel Alexanian (Lfik Samo). He possesses huge wealth and controls 98% of sugar import into Armenia, as well as significant amount of import of flour and medicine. The fight between both sides has an economic ground. Dozens people from both sides were arrested. In opinion of some people, this fight will not end until the sides do not ruin each other. As our informant from the National Assembly states, until recent killings, twice attempts of killing of Samvel Alexanian took place. He is perceived as a member of a team of Robert Kocharian. During presidential elections, Samvel Alexanian supported Kocharian's candidacy.

 

In Gyumri a fight between two armed groups took place. Leaders of two sides-Serob Grigoryan, director of Gyumri Trans Llc, a transportation service on the road Yerevan-Gyumri, and Zhirayr Haroutyunian, the former rector of the Gyumri State Pedagogical Institute -were assassinated. About a dozen people were wounded. Among victims are occasional passengers. All this happened 50 meters from the Prosecutor's office. The reasons for the fight are economic interests.

 

On this background the following fact is interesting. In the beginning of June 2003, a group of the most famous on the territory of the former Soviet Union criminals arrived in Yerevan. They came to the anniversary of one of the most reputable criminal of Soviet time "Svoi Raf". Among the criminals was also their "Godfather" Hasan. Recently nowhere in the NIS such a big amount of criminals (31 persons) was not assembled together simultaneously. There was a statement in the Armenian press that the criminals were met by the Chief of Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police of RA at the Yerevan airport. In fact, the criminals' security was provided at the state level.

 

President Robert Kocharian expressed his concerns on the situation in the country at the grand session devoted to 85th anniversary of the Prosecutor's office of the country. "We should not permit a medieval vendetta and criminal thinking. In Armenia racket and blackmailing, criminal revenges and unclean competition should not take place. Recent fight between criminal groups-shootings and killings- raised many questions, answers to which I have not received yet from the prosecutors and the police. The society waits for quick and adequate reaction from the law enforcement bodies", he said. Many people started to perceive this statement adequately, namely, as a concrete course for the law enforcement bodies to "recreate" in the society the feeling of protection and justice. After the speech of the president, information about the forces and efforts of the law enforcement bodies of the country on criminal investigations was provided to the society more often than usually. The structures, implementing campaign for the force ministries, were given special directives and undergone staff changes.

 

Criminals and the "shadow" of economy.

 

By the time, the criminal structures in Armenia become more organized and professional. It is already obvious that such a criminal situation is not a heritage, as some public officers like to repeat, but a consequence of difficult social situation and atmosphere of impunity in the country.

 

About the pattern of this criminal "evolution" said the first Minister of the Internal Affairs Levon Galstyan in the interview to "Haykakan Zhamanak" newspaper. He stated that he is not surprised by the unlawful atmosphere as persons who, by their positions, are responsible for prevention of homicides and crime in general, are busy with advancing their own businesses. In opinion of L. Galstyan, even the president is not able to "curb" criminal elements, as he was elected to his post due to assistance of these elements.

 

Interests of the criminal structures towards financial sphere are increasing. The criminal lawyer endeavors to enter the power structures. In this term, the strong attention of the law enforcement bodies to economic crimes becomes clear. However, all this cannot bring any results, as representatives of the law enforcement bodies themselves are involved in business structures. Employees of these bodies have their share in joint business with different entrepreneurs. To hide it, they register their wealth on the names of their mother-in-laws, friends and relatives.

 

Powers and supporting parties, especially during election campaigns, promised to struggle against corruption. Today President of the RA has even an advisor on these questions. Nevertheless, all this is fiction, as corruption is legalized with support of these powers. Facts published in the mass media in some cases become matters of investigation by the law enforcement bodies and the Control Service of the President. However, each time, when involvement of a high-ranked officer becomes apparent, the process stops.

 

According to unofficial data, and estimation of different specialists, a "shadow economy" in Armenia makes from 50% to 70%. In which spheres of production more "shadow" is, the powers know the best. The law enforcement bodies, service of the national security have safeguarded all documents about shadow enterprises. Lack of political will or feeling of danger prevents the government to act decisively. In 1999, a plan to combat corruption was developing with support of the Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, and he attempted to take serious measures in this direction. On October 27th of the same year he was assassinated in the Parliament. By the way, before taking the post of the Prime Minister, he was sponsoring significant re-allocations in the economy. Taking over the government of the country, he understood how continuation of this process can turn around. There are political activists who believe this circumstance was the main reason for his liquidation.

 

In general, people, who suffer from corruption in the government and from pushing the economy into the "shadow", i.e. average citizens do not talk about necessity to fight corruption. As always, this becomes a common talk for those who have real opportunities to prevent and punish corruption and crime, i.e. high ranked officials.

 

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http://www.caucasusjournalists.net/

[Guest fackit]

Nope, you're wrong

The biggest criminals in Russia, have always been, are, and always will be, the Russians

Mafias are a bunch of chumps, so are communists and all political leaders.

[-=VAHE=-]

As harmful and as degrading as they are to Armenians Im pretty sure they 're Smarter and Better than you.

[Guest fackit]

As harmful and as degrading as they are to Armenians Im pretty sure they 're Smarter and Better than you.

Yeah considering I have not killed anyone and Ive written scripts for commercials you watch on tv, Im sure they are!!! And I dont wear sunglasses at night either, so that makes me less cool.

[Guest fackit]

Mafias are a bunch of chumps, so are communists and all political leaders.

Why did you get so offended by the way? Are you one of those Armenians who watches mafia movies and thinks the greatest actors in the world are Al Pacino and Robert De Niro? Or are you a communist? Or planning on becoming a political leader?