“
This is why you must love life: one day you're offering up your social security number to the Russian Mafia; two weeks later you're using the word calve as a verb.
”
”
Maria Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette)
“
The only other scenario that could explain everything, up to and including your own bizarre apperance, is a convoluted conspiracy theory involving the Russian Mafia and a crack team of plastic surgeons.
”
”
Eoin Colfer (The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl, #3))
“
We are aware of your association with the Russian mafia, Mr. Linkov. Of course, you do not want this publicized. It would mean the end of your diplomatic career, perhaps imprisonment.
”
”
Karl Braungart (Lost Identity (Remmich/Miller, #1))
“
And we are not pursuing military information on this trip. At least not about the Russian mafia exchanging Russian-Ukrainian tanks and electronics for their benefit in Syria.
”
”
Karl Braungart (Lost Identity (Remmich/Miller, #1))
“
And still she felt more confident at the prospect of taking on the Russian Mafia than she did attending a backyard barbecue.
”
”
Nora Roberts (The Witness)
“
Yellow Mask can only be Nikolai Sokolov. Another Russian mafia prince, Killian and Gareth’s cousin, and the craziest twat who ever walked the earth.
”
”
Rina Kent (God of Fury (Legacy of Gods, #5))
“
Vladimir leaned forward. “Never dilute vodka. Is sin.
”
”
Jennifer Lane (On Best Behavior (Conduct, #3))
“
Both Bratva and thieves in law would like to call themselves nihilists and anarchists because they don’t support the established government, but they govern nonetheless, and you can’t be an anarchist unless you follow its rule. Crime and anarchy are no more synonymous than nihilism and existentialism, or fatalism and determinism; so many isms there was bound to be a schism.
”
”
Tanya Thompson (Red Russia)
“
The Communist Party apparatus was the most gigantic mafia the world has ever known.
”
”
David Remnick (Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire)
“
According to research conducted jointly by experts from the University of California at Berkeley and Swansea University in Wales, no fewer than 150,000 Twitter accounts linked to Russia began to tweet inflammatory and divisive messages about Brexit, Muslims, and immigrants
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
When I was growing up, my mom used to tell my sister and me about a leprechaun with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. But she never mentioned a Russian Neanderthal with a bag of diamonds at the end of a bloody trail in a train station
”
”
James Patterson (Kill Me If You Can)
“
I take a step in Brooklyn's direction. Just thinking her name makes me cringe. Her parents had named her after a city known for housing the Russian mafia and call girls. Not to mention dirty. Dirty, little Brooklyn. It's a nice place to visit, but no one wants to live there. I bet you it says that under her name on her birth certificate.
”
”
Tara Sivec (Hearts and Llamas (Chocolate Lovers, #3.5))
“
Always live the adventure.
”
”
Christopher J. Holcroft (Only The Brave Dare)
“
It’s true, I couldn’t see how you’d fit. But then I found out my life doesn’t fit me anymore. Not without you.
”
”
Renee Rose (The Russian (Master Me, #3))
“
I should spread you across my lap and teach you what happens when you make Yuri jealous.
”
”
Renee Rose (The Russian (Master Me, #3))
“
I smiled brightly and said, “I’m infiltrating the Russian mafia.
”
”
Alexa Land (Way Off Plan (Firsts and Forever, #1))
“
As the jackpot got seriously going, after the first wave of pandemics, without EU membership to buffer anything, England started looking a lot like a competitive control area. Lowbeer did what she knew how to do, which by then was run a CCA. But as she kept building it back up, every time another change driver impacted, she found herself using Russians. They knew how to work a CCA. They’d been there before the jackpot hit the fan.
”
”
William Gibson (Agency (Jackpot #2))
“
But in the end, Mogilevich eluded their grasp and settled in Moscow. The FBI closed down the Budapest outpost from which it had tracked Mogilevich. Meanwhile, the foreboding assortment of murderous gangsters and tattooed thugs known as the Russian Mafia had climbed the ladder of white-collar respectability, insinuated itself in multibillion-dollar global corporations, and taken on the protective coloring provided by K Street lobbyists and white-shoe law firms. They were now hard-wired into some of the most powerful Republican politicians in the country.
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
Trump’s pick for secretary of state? Rex Tillerson, a figure known and trusted in Moscow, and recipient of the Order of Friendship. National security adviser? Michael Flynn, Putin’s dinner companion and a beneficiary of undeclared Russian fees. Campaign manager? Paul Manafort, longtime confidant to ex-Soviet oligarchs. Foreign policy adviser? Carter Page, an alleged Moscow asset who gave documents to Putin’s spies. Commerce secretary? Wilbur Ross, an entrepreneur with Russia-connected investments. Personal lawyer? Michael Cohen, who sent emails to Putin’s press secretary. Business partner? Felix Sater, son of a Russian American mafia boss. And other personalities, too. It was almost as if Putin had played a role in naming Trump’s cabinet. The U.S. president, of course, had done the choosing. But the constellation of individuals, and their immaculate alignment with Russian interests, formed a discernible pattern, like stars against a clear night sky. A pattern of collusion.
”
”
Luke Harding (Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win)
“
Are they Russian by way of the Ozarks?
”
”
Alexa Land (Way Off Plan (Firsts and Forever, #1))
“
Her recoil confirmed the disgust Grant felt inside. Who was he kidding, trying to put Vladimir and Andrei behind bars? He was no different from his father. Then he remembered Sophie’s words.
“You’re not like them. You’re my McSailor.”
A soft touch made him smile, thinking of Bonnie, before he realized it was Innochka’s hand stroking his face. The touch of a mobster’s girlfriend. He leaped back, still crouched on his feet.
”
”
Jennifer Lane (On Best Behavior (Conduct, #3))
“
Okay, I’ve got the hidden microphones with GPS here,” Agent Bounter said. “Let’s get one on you.”
“Now, sir?”
“The Russians are on the radar. It’s time.”
As Bounter turned to pick up the tiny button-size microphone, Grant clenched his hands into fists, his anticipation building.
It’s time.
”
”
Jennifer Lane (On Best Behavior (Conduct, #3))
“
one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.” The president smiled. “Well, they’ve had enough time to play this game. I hope my belated reaction will not disappoint them.” “No, sir. Alex must have half expected you to kick him out the door.” “The thought’s occurred to me more than once. His diplomatic charm has always been lost on me. That’s the one thing about the Russians—they remind me so much of the mafia chieftains I used to prosecute. The same smattering of culture and good manners, and the same absence of morality.” The president shook his head. He was talking like a hawk again. “Stay close, Jeff. I have George Farmer coming in here in a few minutes, but I want you around when our friend comes back.” Pelt walked back to his office pondering the president’s remark. It was, he admitted to himself, crudely accurate. The most wounding insult to an educated Russian was to be
”
”
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan #3; Jack Ryan Universe #4))
“
JFK asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to break up organized crime. Nobody high-up in government has tangled the Mafia. J. E. Hoover, the hired hands of FBI and CIA, ran the assassination teams. They have been used since World War II. JFK was attempting to end the oil-tax depletion rip-offs, to get tax money from oil companies. JFK instituted the nuclear test ban treaty, often called “the kiss of death,” to oppose the Pentagon. JFK called off the Invasion of Cuba. He allowed Castro to live, antagonized narcotics and gambling, oil and sugar interests, formerly in Cuba. JFK asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to break up the CIA, the “hidden government behind my back.” Allen Dulles was fired. Dulles, the attorney for international multinationals, was angry. JFK planned to withdraw troops from Vietnam after the 1964 elections. Nov. 24, 1963, two days after JFK’s burial, the Pentagon escalated the Vietnam war … with no known provocations, after JFK was gone. There was no chance Kennedy could survive antagonizing the CIA, oil companies, Pentagon, organized crime. He was not their man. The assassination of JFK employed people from the Texas-Southwest. It was not a Southern plot. Upstarts could not have controlled the northern CIA, FBI, Kennedy family connections. This was a more detailed, sophisticated conspiracy that was to set the pattern for future murders to take place. The murder was funded by Permindex, with headquarters in Montreal and Switzerland. Their stated purpose was to encourage trade between nations in the Western world. Their actual purpose was fourfold: 1) To fund and direct assassinations of European, Mid-East and world leaders considered threats to the western world, and to Petroleum Interests of their backers. 2) Provide couriers, agents for transporting and depositing funds through Swiss Banks for Vegas, Miami and the international gambling syndicate. 3) Coordinate the espionage activities of White Russian Solidarists and Division V of the FBI, headed by William Sullivan. 4) Build, acquire and operate hotels and gambling casinos. See: Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal, by William Torbitt.
”
”
Mae Brussell (The Essential Mae Brussell: Investigations of Fascism in America)
“
I encounter forms of this attitude every day. The producers who work at the Ostankino channels might all be liberals in their private lives, holiday in Tuscany, and be completely European in their tastes. When I ask how they marry their professional and personal lives, they look at me as if I were a fool and answer: “Over the last twenty years we’ve lived through a communism we never believed in, democracy and defaults and mafia state and oligarchy, and we’ve realized they are illusions, that everything is PR.” “Everything is PR” has become the favorite phrase of the new Russia; my Moscow peers are filled with a sense that they are both cynical and enlightened. When I ask them about Soviet-era dissidents, like my parents, who fought against communism, they dismiss them as naïve dreamers and my own Western attachment to such vague notions as “human rights” and “freedom” as a blunder. “Can’t you see your own governments are just as bad as ours?” they ask me. I try to protest—but they just smile and pity me. To believe in something and stand by it in this world is derided, the ability to be a shape-shifter celebrated. Vladimir Nabokov once described a species of butterfly that at an early stage in its development had to learn how to change colors to hide from predators. The butterfly’s predators had long died off, but still it changed its colors from the sheer pleasure of transformation. Something similar has happened to the Russian elites: during the Soviet period they learned to dissimulate in order to survive; now there is no need to constantly change their colors, but they continue to do so out of a sort of dark joy, conformism raised to the level of aesthetic act.
Surkov himself is the ultimate expression of this psychology. As I watch him give his speech to the students and journalists, he seems to change and transform like mercury, from cherubic smile to demonic stare, from a woolly liberal preaching “modernization” to a finger-wagging nationalist, spitting out willfully contradictory ideas: “managed democracy,” “conservative modernization.” Then he steps back, smiling, and says: “We need a new political party, and we should help it happen, no need to wait and make it form by itself.” And when you look closely at the party men in the political reality show Surkov directs, the spitting nationalists and beetroot-faced communists, you notice how they all seem to perform their roles with a little ironic twinkle.
”
”
Peter Pomerantsev (Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia)
“
Oil
“Soviet Russia cannot survive without Baku’s oil,” told comrade Vladimir Lenin.
One of the plans was to drain the Caspian Sea:
“Is it possible? Can you drain the Caspian Sea?” said the powerful Stalin. It was more an order than a question.”
(- Angelika Regossi, “Russian Colonial Food”. Chapter: Azerbaijan - Oil Country).
Mafia
“With his wife Victoria, they reigned here for nineteen years. This period Georgians called ironically the Victorian Era, and his wife got the name Queen Victoria.
Victoria created the system when all was for sale: state documents ten times the price; 5,000 roubles to enter the Communist party; 50,000 for the judge job, … “
(- Angelika Regossi, “Russian Colonial Food”. Chapter: Gruzia - Where Soviet Mafia Was Born).
Smoking
“Smoking breaks in the USSR were long and often—and became an official excuse not to work, causing huge damage to the already failing state economy. But on the other hand, with zero unemployment and prison terms, if you are not on a payroll, the state could not provide enough work for everybody.
People had to show up every day in the workplace. Boredom from nothing-to-do turned into massive laziness and Soviet workers spent long hours in the smoke rooms. For some, it was a place to relax, for others, to provoke a frank conversation—because … Well, let’s talk about it later.”
(- Angelika Regossi, “Russian Colonial Food”. Chapter: Litva - Friends and Rebels).
God
“The bus was driving slowly, just forty km an hour on the slippery winter road. Outside was a spectacular view of the Caucasus mountains. Here and there appeared churches: nearby and far away, but always on the top of the hill:
“Closer to God, as high as possible,” crossed His mind.
The bus stopped with a creaking sound, and He slowly got off:
“For me, Khor Virap Monastery will be the resting place: from the Soviet life … from the communist lies … I shall spend here the rest of my life. And from here … I shall go to eternity …” these were His last thoughts before He entered the monastery gate. He was dead tired from all that happened, walking uphill closer to God.”
(- Angelika Regossi, “Russian Colonial Food”. Chapter: Armenia - Road in the First Christian State).
”
”
Angelika Regossi (Russian Colonial Food: Journey through the dissolved Communist Empire)
“
He said, "You are the russian roulette of my casino."
..and I shot him dead, then and there with my russian roulette.. I am the Goddess of Russian Mafia..
”
”
Himmilicious
“
Strike read how Chiswell the corrupt capitalist had been murdered by the Russian mafia after failing to pay back interest on some seedy, illegal transaction, while Chiswell the defender of solid English values had been dispatched by vengeful Islamists after his attempts to resist the rise of sharia law.
”
”
Robert Galbraith (Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4))
“
cut off the head of the snake
”
”
Flora Ferrari (Dad's Russian Mafia Friend)
“
the Kremlin, its well-resourced spy agencies, and the Russian mafia had merged. In effect, they formed a single criminal entity, a mafia state.
”
”
Luke Harding (Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win)
“
I want to kiss her, but I don’t. Whatever happens next, she has to be the one who initiates it. I might be the king of the Russian mafia now, but my queen will always hold the most power. Only she can make or break me with a single word.
”
”
J.T. Geissinger (Ruthless Creatures (Queens & Monsters, #1))
“
The Russian public wanted to see the oligarchs cut down to size and their political influence reduced. That was a tall order—but the oligarchs as a class were indeed changing. Those who had acquired assets in the 1990s wanted to see those assets defended, so they tended to support efforts to reduce the power of mafias and criminal organizations—groups that use their power to seize others’ businesses.
”
”
Chris Miller (Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia)
“
Home of Roman Petrov (the Russian Bratva’s pakhan), Chicago
”
”
Neva Altaj (Beautiful Beast (Perfectly Imperfect: Mafia Legacy, #1))
“
Vasilisa Romanovna Petrova. She’s Roman Petrov’s daughter.” He swallows, hard. “We kidnapped the Russian Bratva’s princess.
”
”
Neva Altaj (Beautiful Beast (Perfectly Imperfect: Mafia Legacy, #1))
“
Jimmy Fratianno did worry and rightly so, for he suffered for Sinatra’s behaviour being hassled by the Vegas cops – until he had a word that someone might get much more than hassled unless the aggravation against him ceased. The Mob thought Sinatra stupid for his behaviour. It was not the place or time. Nevertheless, in those fledging days at the Desert Inn, with seven different law agencies monitoring operations, Sinatra also spent even more time with Johnny Rosselli, who was the perfect mobster for Las Vegas. He could be anything anybody wanted him to be. He was attractive to women (by now lovers included Betty Hutton, Lana Turner and Donna ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ Reed) and Sinatra found him fun, good company and a generous all-around guy. He was a facilitator. He could arrange the murder of ‘Russian Louis’ Strauss who tried to blackmail his friend Benny Binion the owner of the Horseshoe Casino. He could get a girl a date with Frank Sinatra and vice versa. He met with Howard Hughes, who had a jealousy-inspired (Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner) lifetime hatred for Sinatra, and acted as Hughes’s go-between with Meyer Lansky and Moe Dalitz. They said George Raft was a great dancer, yet Johnny Rosselli could expertly waltz to anybody’s tune.
”
”
Mike Rothmiller (Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders)
“
Law enforcement generally seems a step behind in fighting online crime; if your customers are at risk, evidently you'll need to protect them yourself, and if the Russian mafia targets your company, you're the one who's going to have to defend it.
”
”
Eric M. Jackson (The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth)
“
The first stacked dolls better known as Russian Nesting Dolls, matryoshka dolls or Babushka Dolls, were first made in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin. Much of the artistry is in the painting of the usual 5 dolls, although the world record is 51 dolls. Each doll, which when opened reveals a smaller doll of the same type inside ending with the smallest innermost doll, which is considered the baby doll and is carved from a single piece of wood. Frequently these dolls are of a woman, dressed in a full length traditional Russian peasant dress called a sarafan.
When I served with the Military Intelligence Corps of the U.S.Army, the concept of onion skins was a similar metaphor used to denote that we were always encouraged to look beyond the obvious. That it was essential to delve deeper into a subject, so as to arrive at the essence of the situation or matter.
This is the same principle I employed in writing my award winning book, The Exciting Story of Cuba. Although it can be considered a history book, it is actually a book comprised of many stories or vignettes that when woven together give the reader a view into the inner workings of the Island Nation, just 90 miles south of Key West.
The early 1950’s are an example of this. At that time President Batista was hailed a champion of business interests and considered this a direct endorsement of his régime. Sugar prices remained high during this period and Cuba enjoyed some of its best years agriculturally. For those at the top of the ladder, the Cuban economy flourished! However, it was during this same period that the people lower on the economic ladder struggled. A populist movement was started, resulting in a number of rebel bands to challenge the entrenched regime, including the followers of autocrats such as Fidel and Raul Castro.
Castro’s M 26 7 militia had a reputation of indiscriminately placing bombs, one of which blew a young woman to pieces in the once-grand theater, “Teatro America.” A farmer, who failed to cooperate with Batista’s army, was locked into his home with his wife and his daughter, which was then set on fire killing them all. What had been a corrupt but peaceful government, quickly turned into a war zone. Despite of Batista’s constitutional abuses and his alliance with the Mafia, the years under his régime were still the most prosperous ones in Cuba’s history. Of course most of the money went to those at the top of the economic ladder and on the lower end of the scale a house maid was lucky to make $25 to $30 a month.
”
”
Hank Bracker
“
Carter Page joined Trump’s campaign in March 2016. In July 2016, Page went to Moscow and delivered a series of speeches on establishing a better relationship with Russia. His recommendations included easing of economic sanctions imposed after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. As the Trump campaign talks about ending TPP and other trade deals, the unelected candidate’s spokespeople are out inviting business with Russian partners especially in industries that are known to have crime bosses and Russian mafia ties.
”
”
Malcolm W. Nance (The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election)
“
Fear has also been used to carry out a redistribution of wealth—which is to say back under the control of the state, where Putin is chief among a collection of officials whose roles more closely resemble those of Mafia dons than public servants.
”
”
Gregory Feifer (Russians: The People behind the Power)
“
The Irish Mob, the Italian Mafia, the Polish Braterstwo, the Russian Bratva—they’re all warring for control of Chicago, as they have been for generations.
”
”
Sophie Lark (Stolen Heir (Brutal Birthright, #2))
“
Who can suspect Clinton’s ethical impulses? During his last hours in office, Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a billionaire commodities trader who fled to Switzerland in 1983 before standing trial on an indictment for fifty-one counts of tax evasion, racketeering and violating trade sanctions with Iran. Building a multibillion-dollar business empire from his Swiss redoubt, Rich became a major benefactor of Jewish and Israeli organizations, while simultaneously – and with perfect consistency – cultivating lucrative ties with the Russian mafia.
”
”
Norman G. Finkelstein (The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering)
“
At least Aunt Rai is part of the Russian mafia.
”
”
Rina Kent (God of Malice (Legacy of Gods, #1))
“
You texted Garcia for help?" Jack gritted out. "Garcia? Not me?"
"He has a gun."
"So do I."
"He's steady and reliable," I said. "He doesn't disappear for eight months. He doesn't go on business trips that require burner phones and secret codes. He doesn't refuse to tell me what he does for a living. I texted HELP and I knew he'd come. I wasn't sure about you."
"You don't think I would have come if you'd texted me for help?" Indignation laced Jack's tone.
"For all I knew, you were being tossed out a window in Rio, tortured by the Italian Mafia in Tuscany, or you were in the North Sea trapped in a Russian submarine."
"The Italian Mafia are based in Sicily," he corrected me. "Tuscany doesn't have the port access they need for the drug trade."
I folded my arms and sighed. "You missed the point entirely.
”
”
Sara Desai ('Til Heist Do Us Part (Simi Chopra #2))
“
The creation of the triads goes back to the seven teenth century in China. There were one hundred thirteen monks in the Shaolin monastery, Buddhist monks, Manchu invaders attacked and killed all but five of the monks. Those remaining five monks created the secret societies with the goal of overthrowing the invaders. The triads were born. But over the centuries, they changed. They dropped politics and patriotism and became criminal organizations. Much like the Italian and Russian mafias, they engage in extortion and protection rackets. To honor the ghosts of the slaughtered monks, the extortion amounts are usually a multiple of one hundred eight.
”
”
Michael Connelly (Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch, #14; Harry Bosch Universe, #21))
“
Dear friends, respected colleagues!” Nikonov said. “Three minutes ago Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America and I congratulate you on this.”1 Even though Nikonov did not add what many in the Kremlin already knew, his brief statement was greeted by enthusiastic applause. Donald J. Trump had just become Vladimir Putin’s man in the White House.
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
There would be all sorts turning up to his house at all hours. Russians, Serbians, the Turkish mafia, all coming to this secluded house outside a sleepy village. Hambledon, if you know it? They invented cricket there."
"I'm sorry to hear that." says Elizabeth.
”
”
Richard Osman (The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2))
“
One of the greatest beneficiaries of 9/11 and the “war on terror” that followed was the Russian mafia and its international associates. US and international law enforcement had been cracking down on the Russian mafia as it grew in the 1990s, but in the aftermath of 9/11, those resources were reallocated.
”
”
Sarah Kendzior (Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America)
“
Come sit next to me, Miss Keller. I want to have a look at you.” Oh, no, the king of the Russian mafia knows my name. This is so not good.
”
”
J.T. Geissinger (Savage Hearts (Queens & Monsters, #3))
“
You knew Stavros was in the mafia, didn't you?"
"Sort of? It's not like they make a big production out of it. Nobody's going around wearing lapel pins that say, 'mafioso.' Or whatever the word is in Russian.
”
”
J.T. Geissinger (Ruthless Creatures (Queens & Monsters, #1))
Shandi Boyes (Nikolai: Taking Back What's Mine (Russian Mob Chronicles #2))
“
Foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing to Senate races, but, according to the Dallas Morning News, during the 2015–16 election season, Ukrainian-born oligarch Leonard “Len” Blavatnik, who has British-American dual citizenship, put a small fraction of his $ 20 billion fortune into GOP Senate races. McConnell, who took $ 2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund from two of Blavatnik’s companies, was the leading recipient. Others included political action committees for Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Lindsey Graham, Ohio governor John Kasich, and Arizona senator John McCain.
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
Fear has also been used to carry out a redistribution of wealth—which is to say back under the control of the state, where Putin is chief among a collection of officials whose roles more closely resemble those of Mafia dons than public servants. An American investment banker in Moscow characterizes the newest rich as “thugs” who demand kickbacks of up to 70 percent in all their deals. “We now consider 40 percent average,” he told me under the condition I wouldn’t name him. “Everything’s being sucked out of the economy because they think only about what they can deposit into their offshore bank accounts before they lose their jobs, or worse.” When
”
”
Gregory Feifer (Russians: The People behind the Power)
“
He had told me that saving me was his atonement for living the life he did, but he didn’t seem to realize that it was his love that had saved me, not his guns.
”
”
Odette Stone (Dark Russian Angel (Vancouver Mafia, #1))
“
As to the impact of all the “active measures” undertaken by Russia leading up to the 2016 election, it is difficult to quantify exactly how much they changed the outcome of the presidential race. However, according to the study by the University of California at Berkeley and Swansea University in Wales, automated tweeting alone by thousands of bots added 3.23 percentage points to Trump’s vote in the US presidential race.77
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
For more than three decades, at least thirteen people with known or alleged links to the Russian Mafia held the deeds to, lived in, or ran criminal operations out of Trump Tower in New York or other Trump properties.
”
”
Craig Unger (American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery)
“
I remembered my promise to myself to get Olivia out of this world. Tonight she had wrapped herself further around my heart, like a twist of rope. I was supposed to save her, not ruin her. But I didn’t know how I would ever resist her again
”
”
Odette Stone (Dark Russian Angel (Vancouver Mafia, #1))
“
Given the strength of the civil-liberties community in the West and the KGB’s comprehensive surveillance of the Internet, one might assume that Russia would represent an implacably hostile environment for cyber criminals. Yet the Russian Federation has become one of the great centres of global cybercrime. The strike rate of the police is lamentable, while the number of those convicted barely reaches double figures. The reason, while unspoken, is widely understood. Russian cyber criminals are free to clone as many credit cards, hack as many bank accounts and distribute as much spam as they wish, provided the targets of these attacks are located in Western Europe and the United States. A Russian hacker who started ripping off Russians would be bundled into the back of an unmarked vehicle before you could say KGB.
”
”
Misha Glenny (DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia)
“
It wasn’t enough that William S. Sessions had taken on Mogilevich, the most feared mobster in the world, as a client. Sessions’s successor as FBI director, Louis Freeh, was also working for the Russians.
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
Similarly, in 2014, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-MS) and former senator John Breaux (D-LA) became the main lobbyists for Gazprombank, a subsidiary of Russia’s largest supplier of natural gas. More recently, in 2016, millions of dollars in Russian money was funneled to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell3 and other high-profile Republicans to finance GOP senatorial candidates.
”
”
Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
“
According to the New York State attorney general’s office, the upshot of the deal was that the Russian Mafia had just laundered money through Donald Trump’s real estate.
”
”
Craig Unger (American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery)
“
The threat of a terrorist attack in Moscow is real enough - a constant beneath the surface. But another, more palpable form of intimidation stalks the city's streets. It targets those from the Caucasus - no longer perpetrators but victims - as well as anyone of non-Slavic descent. This spectre is Russian nationalism, furiously asserting itself.
”
”
Luke Harding (Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia)
“
Russia is the biggest mafia state in the world, the super power of crime that is devouring the state from top to bottom.
”
”
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
“
Jack’s current boss. They had worked together for a year and a half on the Russian Mafia killings in New York and had become good friends, but Jack would always call him sir. “Sorry to ruin your weekend, but this one came addressed to us. Seems our shooter left a note with your name on it. I told you fame had its drawbacks.” He was right. The press had a field day following Jack during the Mafia trials. They had plastered his name and face on every rag
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Randall Wood (Closure (Jack Randall, #1))
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About the new/old government…
If one party is pro-Russian and the other populist, then the third is certainly mafia! But otherwise they all have a Euro-Atlantic slant...
A monkey eats a banana on a branch
Bat Roscoe P0etЪ
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Росен Марков
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For Donald Trump, the fact that the entire city was on the verge of bankruptcy was good news indeed, because prices could not go much lower.
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Craig Unger (House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia)
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Instead of seeking to strengthen institutions in order to erase the abuses of the past, Putin’s allies simply took them over, giving themselves the monopoly on abusing power. They were assisted by the fact that many Russian laws were full of loopholes, making it easy for anyone to be accused of transgressing them. In such an environment, laws were open to interpretation, and meant far less than a system of mafia-type ‘understandings’, or agreements between friends, under which you had to stay on the right side of the Kremlin if you wanted to survive.
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Catherine Belton (Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West)
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Hanging out in the Village in the early sixties meant a mix of bars and coffee shops. There were far fewer gay bars than in later years, and those that did exist were run by the Mafia and subject to frequent police raids. Jim, Bob Heide and their friends frequented (as did Yvonne Flowers) Lenny’s Hideaway, a cellar bar on Tenth Street off Seventh Avenue South, as well as the popular gay dancing bar (about the only one in existence at the time) that adjoined the Cherry Lane Theatre on Commerce Street. Sometimes, too, they would go to the Old Colony, Mary’s, and the gay and straight artists’ hangout, San Remo, on MacDougal Street, which specialized more in drama than in sex (Jim Spicer’s habit of draining black Russians and throwing the glass on the floor barely raised an eyebrow).
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Martin Duberman (Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America)