BEER - Russian Mobsters

[alice malice]

http://www.academia.edu/5597850/The_Russian_Kleptocracy_and_Rise_of_Organized_Crime


On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:

> The turd reason is dat the story is set in nyc during a time when the
> Russian mobsters were, well, the mobsters, for real, and in the media
> world. Kinda obvious reason, sure, but probably the most important. The
> fourth is that the book deals with the rise of post soviet crony capitalism.
>
>
> On Monday, July 7, 2014, Thomas Eckhardt <thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de');>> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>
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