The Red Stix: Links and Articles - Appendix 1: GRU and Crimea - Eastern Ukraine Criminal Underworlds
How the Invasion of Ukraine Is Shaking Up the Global Crime Scene | VICE Monday February 16 th , 2015 at 3:55 PM VICE RSS Feed 1 Share little green men They were thinking far too small. Already it has become clear that the conflict in Ukraine is having an impact on not just the regional but the global underworld. As one Interpol analyst told me, "What's happening in Ukraine now matters to criminals from Bogotá to Beijing." Crime, especially organized crime, has been at the heart of the events in Ukraine from the start. Many of the burly and well-armed "self-defense volunteers" who came out on the streets alongside the not-officially-Russian troops turned out to be local gangsters, and the governing elite there have close, long-term relations with organized crime. Likewise, in eastern Ukraine, criminals have been sworn in as members of local militias and even risen to senior ranks, while the police, long known for thei