CGA’s Galeotti on Russian organized crime and the ‘Brothers’ Circle’
The US government’s new Executive Order Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations cites amongst other proscribed gangs a hitherto-unknown Russian/Eurasian crime organization, the ‘Brothers’ Circle.’ The very absence of any information about the Brothers’ Circle led to Prof. Mark Galeotti‘s expertise on Russian and post-Soviet crime being much in demand. As he explained on his blog, there actually is no such organization, and it has not been referenced either by Russian or, until now, US law enforcement. However, Russian crime is unusually fluid and not characterized by clearly-defined gangs like the Japanese Yakuza or the Italian Mafia or Camorra and given the absence of any other meaningful specific individual gangs to identify, reference to the Circle represents a convenient catch-all term, a way of making sure that Russian OC is included in the Order.” He developed this perspective in a column in the Moscow News, and was interviewed on the subject for a range of print and broadcast media, including Reuters, UPI, the Medill News Service, and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.