BEER - Russian Mobsters

[Mark Kohut]

Once again, via Thomas and Alice, TRP gets his time ( in history) right. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 8, 2014, at 6:59 AM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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> 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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