Police raided a restaurant near Moscow and arrested four alleged crime bosses and 19 others as they met to plan strategy after the killing of a criminal godfather known as Grandpa Hassan, the Russian Ministry of the Interior said on Saturday.
The police swooped on the Family Elite-Club restaurant in the town of Nikolina Gora after learning that suspects from Russia and Belarus would meet there to discuss “a series of questions of a criminal character,” a ministry statement said.
“During the secret meeting, held under the cover of a celebration of the birthday of a senior so-called ‘criminal authority,’ the plan was to discuss next steps after the recent assassination of the head of the Aslan Usoyan ‘clan,’” it said.
Usoyan was the real name of Grandpa Hassan, 75, considered one of the most influential kingpins of organized crime in the former Soviet Union. He was shot dead on a Moscow street on Jan. 16 in what authorities said was a contract killing.
Giving only nicknames, the ministry said those arrested included two senior crime figures from Russia — Timokha and Kostyl, which can mean crutch, nail or spike — and two Belarussians known as Medvezhonok (Bear Cub) and Pashtet (Pate).
It said the participants had planned to “coordinate the work of organized groups subordinate to the criminal ‘clan’ of Tariel Oniani,” whom Russian media have identified as a rival of Usoyan. Both were born in Georgia.
During the chaos which accompanied the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, killings across Russia were commonplace as criminal gangs battled to gain control of lucrative businesses and carve up territory. According to Russian media reports, Usoyan established a network involved in illegal gambling, drugs and weapons sales, and natural resources extraction, with stakes in former Soviet republics and beyond.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed credit for bringing order since he rose to power in 2000, but Kremlin critics say corruption has worsened and accuse government authorities of ties to organized crime.
Russian news agency Interfax identified the four main suspects arrested in the restaurant as Alexander Bor, Konstantin Borisov, Alexander Medvedev and Pavel Alexiyevich. It said they were celebrating Bor’s birthday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese