Why Has Russia Arrested Semyon Mogilevich?
Semyon Mogilevich has been the former Soviet Union's most notorious gangster for a decade and a half. He's on the FBI most-wanted list for his activities in the United States. He's persona non grata in the U.K. But he's traveled without interference in Ukraine and Russia -- until yesterday, when he was arrested in Moscow.The Russians announced today that a 50-man police squad detained the 61-year-old Mogilevich along with a cosmetics company owner named Vladimir Nekrasov on tax evasion charges. Mogilevich was using the pseudonym Sergei Shnaider.
Mogilevich is deserving of a Hollywood script. In a hilarious 1999 interview with BBC's Panorama, here's how he responded when asked why he registered one of his companies in the Channel Islands: "The problem was that I didn't know any other islands. When they taught us geography at
Come on Semyon. We've seen gangster movies, too.
The question remains: Why now? Who did Mogilevich cross to end up detained? Is this a warning? Is Vladimir Putin trying to recover some of his image after his catastrophic handling of the Alexander Litvinenko affair?
Labels: mafiya, mogilevich, organized crime, Putin, Russia
8 Comments:
Good news. I think. The FT reports that the arrest is unrelated to any of the allegations he might face in the US. It seems unlikely that it's related to whatever role he has played in the transmission of gas through Ukraine to W. Europe.
But if it's a domestic tax charge, history would suggest that the real crime involved his "krysha" falling out of favor. I wonder who or what that might be.
Further evidence of conflict at the top?
But don't you just love it that this has landed on the US State Department web site? -
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/jan/99736.htm
Friday night chinovniki say unwinding of Rosukrenergo - or more specifically who gets what in successor / changes.
Source is usually reliable but is probably out of his depth.
That is an interesting thought.
Important if true. And, if true, very possibly connected with Mogilevich's arrest after all.
Does it mean that Gazprom's chairman -- Russia's future president after all -- finally decided that this was something murky he could well do without?
But who now will be trying to collect the $700 M owed by Naftogaz? And, ultimately, to whom is it actually owed?
If you read Russian, please take a look at this and confirm that the grotesque translation an online service gave is correct. It says the man is suspect of having ties to that UkrRusEnergo outfit.
http://www.nr2.ru/kiev/160728.html
If not, what does it say? Thank you.
Last I read Timoshenko and the Gazprom folks were going to abolish the middleman company. Is that still happening?
One more piece. Vedomosti (is that a Western publication? I can see FT and the Wall Street Journal logos on their site) apparently had a related article:
http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml?2006/12/26/118308
Can't get the text on their site but looks like some Russian blogger has posted:
http://tsvetna.livejournal.com/1266037.html
Anyone who explains what it says will be blessed. Maybe in the next life. Thanks!
Newsreader, the first story says that there have been numerous stories in the press identifying Mogilevich as a participant in Rosukrenergo. The other pieces are translations of this story.
From today's Guardian (UK):
Russia's interior ministry told the Guardian: "We have been pursuing him for 15 years. We arrested him as Sergei Schneider in connection with tax evasion. It was only after his arrest that we realised who he was."
Uhuh, sure. He's been living in the open in Moscow for a long time.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home