CGA chair on a rare conviction of a Russian mobster
‘While gangs and networks are autonomous units, there is within the Russian underworld a series of mechanisms whereby serious disputes can be averted or resolved and agreements between kingpins hammered out, usually at a “skhodka,” a criminal summit.’
According to CGA academic chair prof. Mark Galeotti, in a recent article for RFE/RL, the conviction on kidnap charges in Russia of Tariel Oniani, one of the country’s most feared and notorious crime bosses, represents a triumph not just for the courts and police but also for his fellow criminals. As he originally discussed in his blog, Galeotti sees this welcome but unusual conviction as an example of the ways in which state and underworld sometimes have common interests: “A violent and bloody turf war has probably been averted, something that would have embarrassed the government and forced it to take a tougher line with the gangsters [and the] criminal kingpins have seen a troublesome and dangerous man taken out of circulation and can enjoy sharing out parts of his criminal empire among themselves.”