BEER - Russian Mobsters

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Laura Kelber wrote:

 > I do object to Russians (and Russian-Americans) being stereotyped as
 > mobsters, criminals, and sex-traffickers/slaves. It annoyed me that
 > Pynchon used the Russian mobster trope in Bleeding Edge, even if he was
 > only ironically commenting on it. And it's painful to see these
 > stereotypes coloring the discourse on the Ukrainian situation.

I see two reasons for the presence of Russian mobsters in BE.

First there is the story, originally reported by the Washington Post and 
coming to Pynchon probably via Michael Ruppert's "Crossing the Rubicon", 
of Russian mobsters selling PROMIS to Osama Bin Laden. I will just 
reprise a few items from my earlier posting:


Nicholas Windust continues: "'The Russian mob have been selling it to 
the rugriders, (...)'"
(BE 104)

The "rugriders" means Al Qaeda:

Wiki, "Inslaw:"

--In 2001, the Washington Times and Fox News each quoted
federal law enforcement officials familiar with debriefing
former FBI Agent Robert Hanssen as claiming that the
convicted spy had stolen copies of a Promis-derivative for
his Soviet KGB handlers.

They further alleged that the software was used within the
FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies to track internal
intelligence, and was used by intelligence operatives to
track international interbank transactions. These reports
further stated that Osama bin Laden reportedly later
bought copies of the same Promis-derivative on the Russian
black market (blat) for $2 million. It was believed then
that al Qaeda used the software to penetrate database
systems to move funds throughout the banking system, and
to evade detection by U.S. law enforcement.--


Even if Windust's mentioning of PROMIS, Al Quaeda and Russian mobsters 
seems only an aside before he comes to his real topic, Israeli espionage 
on the US, it is obviously anything but.

Russian mobsters have been involved in the messy and far-reaching PROMIS 
scandal. More precisely, there is a direct link between them and Al 
Quaeda via the PROMIS saga -- which amongst many other things touches 
upon topics like money laundering, backdoors in proprietary software 
and, of course, 9/11. These are all very important subjects in BE, as 
they are in the real world.

The Russians are thus part of what I would term the parapolitical (or 
deep-political) background to 9/11. In BE the Mobsters are also linked 
to the Russian secret services and state-sponsored hackers' culture in 
Russia. I suspect that this is one of the reason for their appearance in 
BE.

The second reason that I see is part of the plot: The mobsters contact 
Maxine when they need someone to evaluate Bernie Madoff's business 
practices.

It is a persistent rumour (I have no idea how substantiated it is) that 
Madoff had connections to the Colombian drug cartel (also mentioned in 
BE, also part of the PROMIS saga) and also to the Russian Mafia.

Also, it is Rocky Slaggiatt who introduces Maxine to Igor Dashkov (138).

The most interesting stuff I found on the web regarding these 
allegations, and also malfeasance in the financial world in general, is 
on a site called, yes, "deepcapture".

See, for example:

http://www.deepcapture.com/bernard-madoff-the-mafia-and-naked-short-selling/

(Chapters 7 and 8 of "The Miscreants' Global Bustout" on the deepcapture 
site are fascinating reading. Being a financial illiterate, I understand 
at best half of it, but it certainly sets the head a-spinning. Putin and 
Berezhovsky turn up in chapter 8, too, for those interested.)

How are the Russians (Igor, Misha and Grisha) portrayed? Here are my 
impressions off the top of my head (I feel that I am stepping on thin 
ice here, so spank me if you must): I agree that one of P's angles is 
ironic commentary on the trope of Russian mobsters in popular culture. 
What would be the trope of Russian mobsters in popular culture? That 
they are cold, ruthless, evil drug dealers and killers, I should think. 
Pynchon humanizes them, gives them a backstory, quirks, foibles and 
interests and evokes, or attempts to evoke, Russian contemporary pop 
culture, which seems to be not too different from its Western 
counterpart. How far he succeeds, in terms of existing Russian pop 
culture at the time, I am in no position to know . Generally, they are 
depicted as at least likeable rogues with more than a hint of the deadly 
dangerous. To me this all seemed to fit in nicely in the overall narrative.

And I really like the following bit, told by Igor, which somewhow 
reminded me of Moby-Dick's "Heed it well, ye Pantheists!":

"Falling through the night sky, over mountains, freezing my ass off, I 
begin to meditate--what is it that I really want out of life? Kill more 
Chechens? Find true love and raise family, someplace warm, like Goa 
maybe? Almost forgot to deploy my parachute. Down on ground again, 
everything is clear. totally. Make lots of money." (139)







-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l