Word: mafia
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...Given how entrenched Russia's organized-crime syndicates have become in recent years, some experts question whether the new laws will do any good. According to a report that accompanied Medvedev's proposal, the number of criminal incidents linked to the mafia increased 32% from 2006 to 2008. Last year alone, the number of "grievous or especially grievous" offenses committed by the mob - contract killings and kidnappings - climbed almost 10%. So even if the reigning dons do get locked up, replacements will likely be easy to find and the violence will probably continue, says Yury Fedoseyev, former head of Moscow...
...Ivankov suggests that Russia's mobsters are acting with greater impunity and disregard for the law. The government now faces a major test: it needs to back up its new laws with determined action, or risk losing control of the streets to the ever-more-powerful mafia clans for good...
...Perhaps most significantly, one of the new laws is aimed directly at the powerful heads of Russia's various mafia clans, who rarely get their own hands dirty. Under the statute, leading an underground criminal group is now punishable by life in prison. "As a rule, [the dons] don't directly participate in criminal acts, and so they go unpunished," Oleg Morozov, deputy speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, wrote last month on his party's website. "The president's legislation gives more precise definitions of what can be called a criminal conspiracy and a criminal organization...
...showing up for the meeting. According to local law-enforcement officials who were quoted in the Russia media, the purpose of the gathering was to discuss Oniani's turf war with Aslan Usoyan, leader of a rival clan in Moscow. Weeks later, the reputed godfather of the Russian mafia, 69-year-old Vladislav Ivankov, was shot in the stomach in northern Moscow by a sniper who fired across eight lanes of traffic. Ivankov, who died on Oct. 9 after spending two months in the hospital, had recently sided with Usoyan in a dispute with Oniani over control of lucrative rackets...
...came the hit on Ivankov. Known by the nickname "Yaponchik," or "Little Japanese," because of his Asian appearance, Ivankov was considered by both Russian and Western law enforcement to be one of the most influential figures in the Russian criminal world. According to the FBI, he ran an international mafia syndicate from his apartment in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1990s and served eight years in prison in the U.S. for extortion and conspiracy. When he returned to Moscow following his release in 2004, he was set on retiring. "I met with him a few times...