Married to the Ukrainian Mob

Buried in the news of Russia's invasion, and now annexation, of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea was the second most important event to affect the new Ukrainian government last week -- and it happened in Austria. On the evening of March 12, one of the most notorious Ukrainian oligarchs, Dmytro Firtash, whose fortune has been estimated at anywhere from $673 million to the tens of billions, was arrested in Vienna, right outside of one of his offices in the Margareten district. Neither he nor his bodyguards put up a struggle, according to press reports, although Group DF, the massive international holding company Firtash owns, has said in a statement that the whole thing was a "misunderstanding" which would be "resolved in the very near term."

Meet Dmytro Firtash, the shady billionaire at the heart of Russia’s energy stranglehold over Kiev.

"In 2010, Spanish magistrate Jose Grinda Gonzalez, an expert on organized crime, labeled Russia a "virtual mafia state," adding that Belarus, Chechnya, and Ukraine qualified for this dubious distinction as well.

And herein lies the significance of Dmytro Firtash's arrest -- the rush of anxiety and trepidation it has no doubt precipitated across those countries Putin wants to enlist in his protectionist Eurasian Union. Another revolution, one waged in protest of that neo-Soviet project, has just toppled a government in Kiev, of which Firtash was a major beneficiary. Now the oligarch is in the clink in Vienna and may soon be placed aboard a plane to the United States, where prosecutors and judges aren't so easily bought and where tolerance for billionaires with dodgy dealings with the Putin and Yanukovych regimes are at all-time lows. Firtash lost his patrons in Moscow in 2009 and his patrons in Kiev three weeks ago. No wonder the law finally caught up with him."

Who gets his money, the crooked Russians, or the honest Americans?

Putin will pocket the cash. It won't be for himself, as he is kind of an ascetic. It will be bribe money for things he wants done and people he wants to, er, convince.

The Russian mob is so effective throughout most parts of the world that I’ve often wondered if there is a state supported link.

In hindsight, seems like there is...

Putons target? Follow the money
Read recently that 20% of Afganistan poppies ended up in Russians
IMO this entire annex of Crimea if for better drug routes. So Russia can control more. It will serve the same purpose as 0 keeping our southern borders open. Oil and drugs Big money for big economy and big countries

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