Word: russias
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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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...
...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...
...punishable by up to 20 years in prison. This provision seems to be linked to the incident on Oniani's yacht; under the new statute, the men would have faced charges just for 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...
...With Ivankov's killing, too, the conditions are ripe for an all-out war between the Oniani and Usoyan factions, authorities say. Police say the tensions between the two men date back to 2007, two years after Oniani returned to Russia from Spain when police broke up his racketeering operations there. As Oniani sought to re-establish himself in Moscow, he started encroaching on Usoyan's territory, and Usoyan's top lieutenants began turning up dead. One of them, Alek Minalyan, an Armenian allegedly in charge of extorting money from construction firms working on projects for the 2014 Winter Olympics...
...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, and he told me honestly that all he wanted in Russia was to rest," says Alexander Dobrovinsky, a Moscow attorney and an old friend of Ivankov's who helped prepare the defense for his trial in New York. "He was not a young man anymore...