Curious on how the Red Mafia was able to make inroads
To the NYC?
I'm sure the Russian OC just didnt plant themselves without getting some kind of approval from the 5 Families
Did the any of the 5 Families have in any issues or
Problems with the Russian Mafia ?
Are they even a force anymore in the NY area ?

Nice thread

Im curious to see the links between the italian mafia and the russian bratva.

The only things that I know, is that Michael Franzese worked with russians.

And the russians are or were heavy in NYC and Miami

I think the last big operation in the US was three years ago against members of the Kutaisi clan from Georgia. It is regarded as one of the biggest, powerful and influential criminal networks in Europe.

i think some russian oc came into business w/ a few of the families...colombo and franzese,evsei argon/marat balagula w/ genovese....
don't know about ivankov and his short run in nyc.
current russian oc arrests have not shown connection to nyc families.
do not think russian oc asks permission to the "families" to operate anywhere.
and what is the red mafia...???
much like the 'ndrangheta russians r not some hierarchical org.
just because theres a russian,georgian,chechenyan crew busted somewhere doesnt mean they r connected to some overall oc group.

They were small groups in the 50s and 60s, specializing in one form of crime such as narcotics, scams, armed robbery, gambling, ect. Some of then were independent others worked for one of the crime families as associates, Genovese and Lucchese being the ones with the most. They were not that powerful and many of them kicked up to one of the families. By 1970s the US allowed Soviet Jews to immigrant to the states, which many members forged their documents to get in. This led to an influx of members in Brighton Beach, and allowed a few bigger groups to operate and not kick anything up to the Italians. The biggest of these mobsters was Agron who worked with the Sicilians and was building his organization up slowly taking in members from Belarus, Ukrainians, and Georgians who were into different crimes, and by the 1980s he was the most powerful Russian in New York thanks to the backing of the Genovezi family. The Potato Gang, which was a scam crew was big, according to Nayfeld in a wire tap, a couple of the members would join Agron by 1980. Mikhail Markovits who would eventually join Agrons organization. Marat Balagul who would serve as Agrons adviser. Boris Goldberg a major drug dealer, and rival to both Agron and Balagul. Pauol Mirzoyen was also a drug dealer becoming big in the 1980s. The 1980s had even more relaxed immigration from the USSR, that more members were going to New York. Once the Soviet Union fell in 1991, was when the Russian mafia in New York really became a force to reckoned with, and the floodgates were opened. In 1992, the russian mafia sent Vyacheslav Ivankov to the United States and the Russians really became organized throughout America, those that did not fall inline were killed, fled, in a couple of cases held out.

Pretty sure Lansky was a Russian Jew.

Italo–Polish gangster Ricardo Fanchini was released from prison in the US in 2016. 'CEO of organised crime', Fanchini, headed a network which laundered the Russian mafia's black money in Spain. He was close to Boris Nayfeld.

Lansky was an associate to the Genovese crime family, so he kicked up to the Genovese crime family, and grew up in New York as a kid, so he was more American and with the Jews instead of with the Vor and other groups from the USSR. You can find a whole list of Jews, Russian, Ukrainians, and other USSR groups that were associates to one of the Italian families.

Agron was the first to be cut lose and go on his own to form his own group with the blessing of the Genovezi family to back him up and the 5 families agreed. (Paul Castellano, Tony Salerno, and Anthony Corallo at least)

GV do you have anything on Junior Gotti's links to them I read something about casino's abroad, as you know he also has Russian ancestry.

That was through the Cohen family and it was a different Gambino who made the deal. Many of the top Russian mobsters would not do business with Junior, cause they heard stories of him when he was growing up. John Gotti always bailed his son out of a jam. There is truth what John Alite said about Jr running away from his problems, it's one thing when someone is trying to kill you, it is another thing to run away from a fight when it is one on one and you dont have your guys jumping in. This comes from some Avtoritet back then, but they respected his father. There is one incident when John Alite antics in Tampa indirectly interfered with one of the Vory operations in the valet racket, but it was old time from Zappi crew who handled it down in Florida, Junior nor Alite showed up but their was peace and nothing came of it when the Gambinos mad it right, but I am pretty sure this was around the time the Gambinos were thinking of hitting Jr Gotti, which is why he made himself scarce.

From 84-94 the russian mob payed between 600k-800k A MONTH from the gas tax scam to the Genovese,Lucchese and Colombo Families..After 88 the Gambino family was added to this racket

Curious how operable the "Russians" still are in the USA. They're everywhere...NYC, Philly, Chicago, LA...if you believe a few Reddit posts lol.
Yet there isn't exactly a lot of smoke nor fire these days except for a small Georgian crew in NYC or a few Armenians in LA getting indicted.

Where does that info come from? If it comes from the guy who claims he was giving junior $10M a week it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

it should be established if indictments are the best indicator... it shows greater vitality, but not necessarily the level of power, someone could say that chicago is more powerful than ny because members are arrested less and they have friends among politicians and policemen who protect them, of course i tend to believe that in 2020 more indictments are the best indicator of vitality and power of a criminal group, the rest are speculations

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/06/nyregion/13-indicted-in-oil-scheme-laid-to-mob.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/27/nyregion/3-convicted-in-mob-plot-to-cheat-us-of-gas-taxes.html


-Anthony Casso testified to this in 1996 at the senate hearings into russian organized crime
https://books.google.com/books?id=-...enate%20hearings%20testimony&f=false

Casso and Michael Franzese testimony to the Senate Hearings on Russian Organized Crime...Notice the money figures Franzese gives when hes under oath...not lying through his teeth during interviews

Casso in his testimony says it was $500 grand a month split across 3 families which isnt a lot in the grand scheme considering that he then goes onto admit that the russians were a lot more money than that.

Reatino the Saviano book 000 published in 2013 its write that semion mogilev short after Soviet Union decline decided to pass to a white collar level and used Vyacheslav Ivankov a vor e zacogne or thief of law for put a flag in Brighton Beach.
Ivankov was the opposite of Mogilev and during the 1990s (he come in NY in 1992) he killed,e torte and made other crimes in first person and created a Brighton Beach crew of 100 men.
Ivankov accused the FBI to have create the myth of russian mob. He was killed in 2009 in Russia.

Thanks I looked it up the Russians set up casinos in Costa Rica.

There were never big problems between Cosa Nostra and the Russians who came in the 90s to NY after the fall of communism. But Ivankov had already such a big reputation in Moscow as one of the most feared gangsters it was Yaponchik alone who created the image in the western world of the feared red mafya.

Russian Organized Crime Abroad Shifting from Berlin to New York, New ZDF Film Says

Paul Goble

Staunton, June 28 – Since the end of the cold war, Berlin has been the center of Russian organized crime abroad, with an estimated 10,000 Russians there involved in illicit activities in Germany and taking in a million or more euros every year. But over the last several years, Russian criminal “authorities” have shifted to New York, according to a ZDF film.

Germany was originally the most attractive place for Russian criminal gangs to work, the film says; but now as wealthy Russians have decided to try to live in the US rather than in Germany, the gangs are crossing the Atlantic because they have traditionally served as unacknowledged partners of wealthy Russians (svpressa.ru/world/article/269384/).

The Russian gangs have made their money from contraband and the sale of cocaine, prostitution, human trafficking and arms deals and then have laundered this “dirty money” via construction projects and property acquisition. The television film says Germany has “the ideal conditions” for their operations.

The police have not gone after them consistently, Moscow has not shared with German authorities information about them, and many German outlets focus on what they call “the Chechen mafia” which among other things has the effect of distracting attention from the Russian criminal bands.

But as opportunities for investment by wealthy Russians have expanded in the United States, Russian organized crime has crossed the ocean, focusing on New York. One curious feature of its activities in the US is that, in contrast to Germany, many young Americans interested in a life of crime have tried to join the Russian mafia.

They are thus helping the Russian mafia to expand its operations, but experts warn that these Americans are not going to be admitted to the top ranks of the Russian mob, even if they adopt Russian language, Russian names and Russian manners. That is a red line that the Russian mob doesn’t appear willing to allow anyone to cross, the German film suggests.

Agree you can find a large list of Jews, Russians, etc. who were associates of the Italian Families. Disagree with the statement that Lansky was an “associate” of the Genovese family who kicked up.....I would call him a partner and equal.

Anthony Casso testified about them he said the russians were very clever, they were the brains the Italians the muscle.

I wish the Russian mafiya got more of a stronghold like what was predicted in the 90s bc it makes a good story.

Just like the "Sicilians now run Gambinos"

They both make good headlines but I wouldn't say they are true.

Someone on this board said that?

I just read Marat Balagula died from cancer in December.

Yes. Every Soviet citizen had to carry an internal passport that listed their "republic of national origin" (i.e., Ukraine, Azerbaijan, etc.). But Jews carried passports that said "Jew." This went back to Stalin's anti-Semitism--he regarded Jews as "rootless cosmopolitans." Russian OC forged "Jew" passports so they could leave the USSR under the US Jackson/Vanik Act, which linked favorable trade treatment for the USSR in return for USSR letting Jews emigrate. Most of the so-called "Jewish Mafia" in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, were non-Jewish Russian OC members who got in on phony papers.

The biggest laugh was Marat Balagula. "Marat" is not a common Jewish surname. "Balagula" stems from a Hebrew phrase--"B'al Agula" or "master of the wheel," a carter, which was a respectable trade in Biblical times. But, in Eastern European slang it became "balagula"--an uncouth person, specifically a gangster or thug. That's how "Marat the Gangster" got into the US as a "Jewish refugee."

You're right. Lansky was a close friend and sometimes partner of Charlie Luciano, and also partnered with Frank Costello and Joe Adonis. He shared business ventures and rackets with them but didn't "kick up"; nor was he formally or informally an associate of the family per se.

Nice one Turnbull

The Last Jewish Gangster
Murray Wilson, the brutal financial wizard who links the Mafia and the Russian Mob, had prospered in obscurity. Until now.

https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/26/the-last-jewish-gangster/