[DBtoo]

It's been said these guys make the Sicilian mafia look like a bunch of girl scouts. I wonder how Putin deals with them. I suspect either he's against them or he works with them. Since we don't hear much about that issue, I suspect he works with them, but I would very much like to hear otherwise.

[monday]

"Since we don't hear much about that issue, I suspect he works with them, but I would very much like to hear otherwise."

He works with the more successful mafia. They are called oligarchs. (semi respectable mafia) Putin shut down Yeltsins Oligarchs' when he took over and his supporters moved into their places. Now they control most of the Russian economy.

[SauronOfMordor]

It's been said these guys make the Sicilian mafia look like a bunch of girl scouts. I wonder how Putin deals with them.

Ever wonder what the "Russian Mafia" (a bunch of people whose specialty was violence and intimidation) did for a living in the old USSR before Communism imploded? How it is that we only started hearing about them after the "fall" of Communism?

Ever wonder where all the laid-off KGB agents went, after there wasn't enough money to keep so many on the payroll

I wonder about what kind of relationship Putin maintains with the Russian Mafia too

[LarryLied]

LUDWIG 'TARZAN' FAINBERG tried to buy a Russian submarine to smuggle drugs into South Florida. Extortion and humiliating women were his favorite activities (he chased a stripper down the street, beat her up and made her eat stones.). Fainberg ratted out some friends and got off with a slap on the wrist and deportation.