Judaism in Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“Putin really loves Israel. The first time he arrived, he was deputy mayor of what was then Leningrad and is now St. Petersburg. He was so impressed that he saw that, upon returning to Russia, he attracted his entire family, as a result of which they went on an introductory tour of Israel, passing the country from Metula to Eilat. (Berl Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, from a speech at a meeting with Israeli journalists in Jerusalem, March 19, 2018).

1. The forefathers

In the photo below - Moscow, November 2009. Anniversary of the leader of the Lyubertsy organized criminal group Mark Milgotin, nicknamed "Marik". Marik and friends greet guests in the lobby of the Ritz Hotel in the center of Moscow.

A pretentious place 300 m from the Kremlin

Where the authoritative hero of the day celebrated his 60th birthday on a grand scale.

For the anniversary, bandits from the Lyubertsy and friendly Podolsk-Izmailovskaya organized criminal group, as well as the Assyrian and Dagestan lads, and other worthy people gathered. Including:

Luchok (the leader of the Podolsk organized criminal group)

Pavlik (the leader of the Izmailovskaya organized criminal group)

Taiwanchik (veteran of the Izmailovskaya organized criminal group).

Kupriyan (Lyubertsy organized criminal group), in the background with flowers

Koshev Hamid Khasanovich. He Koshahe is Tsar … Just a respected person (from the Bauman organized criminal group)

Gabriel Yushvaev (Garik Makhachkala), criminal authority, billionaire, vice-president of the World Congress of Mountain Jews. In Soviet times, he was in prison for robbery, in the 90s - a member of the Bauman organized criminal group. Together with his friends, he seized the Lianozovsky dairy plant, which they later pushed to foreigners (PepsiCo) for $ 4 billion under the name Wimm-Bill-Dann. When buying "Agusha" for your children and "House in the Village", remember Garik from the mountain-Jewish-Bauman lads.

Bedjamo the Younger (Assyrian organized crime group). This is the one who stole 200 billion rubles from Vneshprombank in 2016 and rushed to Monaco.

Bedjamo, by the way, is great. I respect. Son of Alik of Assyria (one of the founders of the Assyrian organized crime group). Participant of the cuts at the Sochi Olympics. Shoigu, Chekists of the "Dresden group" Tokarev ("Transneft") and Belyaminov (head of the RF customs office in 2006-16) kept their money in his bank. Bedjamo threw them all safely.

March 2014 Putin awards Bedjamo with the Order of Honor.

In general, the authority Mark Milgotin and his guests of honor gathered at the "Ritz" on Tverskaya for a festive gathering.

In the course of the evening, Rabbi Berl Lazar took the floor. He turned to the assembled bandits with a heartfelt speech that “Mark Zakharovich” and I (repeatedly convicted repeat offender Marik) are “real friends”, they have known each other for 20 years (Berl Lazar came to Russia from the United States in 1989). That Mark Zakharych is “bright candle ", which shines for all of us in life, like the candles of Hanukkah," Mark Zakhrovich's soul always burns ", etc. etc. Video of B. Lazar's speech is here (from the 16th minute).

Skhodnyak listened to the Rebbe's speech with understanding

The godfather is a candle, our everything, hu * it is not clear here.

Then the floor was taken by Rabbi Alexander Boroda, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR), a well-known Talmudist scholar.

Beard compared Marik with “the patriarch of the Jewish people Isaac” (forefather Isaac from the Old Testament). He carried a beard: "Mark Zakharovich has come a long way over the past 20 years, which very few people have traveled, even from those present here..". For a moment Beard hesitated and added: "The path is in the spiritual plane."

In general, forefather Marik started out as a burglar in Maryina Roshcha. He was very close to the forefather Yaponchik and the forefather Otarik (who knows, he understands), and took off with a particularly bright candle, of course, in the 1990s. (on drugs).

In October 1999, Marik hosted a famous drug party at the Cosmos Hotel with thief in law Slivaya (an Assyrian organized crime group) and other bandits. The fun was interrupted by the visit of the GUBOP. Marik was high, lying in the bathtub of his suite (the hotel belonged to him). He mocked the cops: “We’ll sit for three days, no more. We will soon find out what district is here, what kind of prosecutor …”. Then he got up and demanded the journalists: “I want to make a statement to the press. A flagrant violation of socialist legality has just happened here!"

Under Putin, forefather Marik lived even better than under Yeltsin. Together with Kupriyan, they promoted Parliament vodka, eventually selling the brand for $ 200 million to Poles. In 2012, Marik and Kupriyan continued their spiritual path: they stole 13 elevators from the OGO group by forging documents. There was a criminal case, Kupriyan was arrested, Marik escaped arrest, t. died suddenly - liver cancer. Long-term addiction to drugs affected.

Kupriyan was acquitted by the court after a couple of years. The witnesses fell into amnesia, and at the place of residence Kupriyan was characterized positively - “he rendered great assistance to the Balashikha district administration in crime prevention”. This is what she is, the Lyubertsy organized criminal group. In 2018, she became, in general, the main one in Russia - her representative, thief in law Shishkan, was chosen as the holder of the all-Russian common fund, after the former holder Shakro Molodoy sat down in the top ten for racketeering.

2. "A very close confidant of Putin."

It's been 10 years since that wonderful evening at the Ritz. Lyubertsy lads, as you already understood, feel great. Marik's business lives on. The tandem Berl Lazar - Beard is still flourishing.

Throughout the years of Putin's rule, these two rabbis have played the role of official representatives of the Jewish community in the Kremlin. The situation is quite unique, since Both Beard and Lazar belong to the Hasidic movement, which does not represent the majority among the believing Jews either in Russia or in the world.

In the USSR, Hasidism was banned. Under Yeltsin, the official leaders of the Jewish community in the Russian Federation were the oligarch Gusinsky and Rabbi Adolf Shaevich, both adherents of traditional Judaism. And only with the coming of Putin in 1999, Boroda and Lazar came to the fore. Never before had the Hasidim held such a high position in Russia.

The reason is simple: the oligarch Gusinsky was against the appointment of Putin as his successor in 1999 (he had other views on this matter). When Yeltsin decided to transfer power to Putin, Gusinsky and the NTV television channel, which he owned at the time, actively opposed. It was vitally important for Putin to destroy NTV (the first thing he did when he came to power) and remove Gusinsky from the political arena. Including remove from the first roles RJK (Russian Jewish Congress), where Gusinsky was president.

And then the Hasidim turned up. Putin made an agreement with Lev Leviev (oligarch, the richest Hasid in the world). On December 8, 1999, FEOR (the pro-Putin Federation of Jewish Communities) was created, which quickly moved Gusinsky's RJC with the support of the authorities. Leviev became the first president of FEOR (later he was replaced by Boroda), and Berl Lazar became their chief rabbi. Soon, Putin, on an expedited basis, gave Berl Lazar Russian citizenship and made him a member of the Presidential Council. Gusinsky's people were taken out of there. The revolution has happened.

Vladimir Gusinsky. Card sharper in Soviet times. As a frequenter of underground katrans, he was recruited by the 5th KGB Directorate ("Struggle against ideological versions"). In the 1990s, with the help of people from the same management (General F. Bobkov), he created the Most Group business empire. He became an oligarch. In the late 1990s, he was at odds with the Yeltsin clan (the so-called "Family") and with Putin as a protege of the same "Family".

Lev Leviev (on right). A native of Uzbekistan, a large trader in diamonds on the world market (including illegal ones). A person with great political connections in different parts of the world. Such a "diamond hand" of the Hasidic community, which opens many doors. In 1999-2000. Leviev successfully helped Putin defeat Gusinsky in the clan struggle. Now you can have a drink with Berl Lazar!

At the same time, Berl Lazar, whose career went up sharply thanks to Leviev, rather quickly outgrew the status of a purely religious figure. He became a participant in Leviev's dubious deals on the world diamond markets (more on that later), and with Putin, he became something of a roving agent.

In April 2016, Prosecutor Mueller's report on Russia's interference in the 2016 elections was released in the United States. An extensive document on how Putin helped Trump's election in 2016. How the mail and servers of Trump's opponents were broken with the help of hellish viruses “X-agent "And" X-tunnel "from the bowels of the GRU (giving full control over the victim's computer). How the army of trolls worked on social networks.

And there is also about how Putin spent the whole of 2016 trying to establish an unspoken channel of communication with the Trump team in order to reach an agreement. Like, we are digging the earth for you on the Internet, but you also do something (remove the sanctions, bastard!).

So in the Mueller report (p.90 ref. # 475) there is an interesting fragment: how Putin, in desperate attempts to establish a communication channel, sent Berl Lazar to Trump. Trump aide Jason Greenblatt (now the US special envoy for the Middle East) was told through relatives that the rebbe was “a very close confidante of Putin” and would like to talk. He was received at Trump's headquarters. But agent Berl Lazar (sorry, I don’t know what rank he is) failed the mission.

Berl Lazar's Adventures at Trump Headquarters, excerpt from Mueller's report:

Basically, the information is not new. For the first time, the New York Times wrote about Berl Lazar's strange visit to Trump's headquarters back on March 3, 2017. Journalists then asked the Chief Rabbi of Russia for clarification - what was he doing at Trump's headquarters in the summer of 2016 at the height of the election campaign? - Berl Lazar replied that they discussed "anti-Semitism in Russia, Russian society and Russian-speaking Jews in Israel."

The version is not very believable. Why did Berl Lazar suddenly rush to New York to the headquarters of one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States to discuss all these topics with Greenblatt (with whom he was not previously familiar)? After the death of Mahatma Gandhi, there is no one to talk to?

Judging by Mueller's report, the true purpose of the voyage was different: to show Trump's people a “particularly close person of Putin” (here's a communication channel), and at the same time invite Trump to visit Moscow before the elections (while he is a private person). Those. The Rebbe came to help the GRU in Operation Trump is Ours.

3. Bloody diamonds

At the beginning of November 2018, the leading business media of the world spread the news: in Israel, a criminal group of 5 people was arrested in the case of diamond smuggling - the brother and son of the oligarch Lev Leviev and three other accomplices with them. And the main suspect in the case (the leader of the group), the police consider Leviev himself, who is in Russia, from where they will demand his extradition.

Israel, November 5, 2018 Moshe Leviev, brother of Lev Leviev, in the courtroom when considering the issue of a measure of restraint:

The investigation began back in 2017, when a manager of one of Leviev's firms who arrived from Russia from Russia was detained at the Tel Aviv airport with a batch of rough diamonds in his luggage, which he tried to smuggle through the Green Corridor. As it turned out, Leviev's people made such flights with diamonds from Russia to Israel on a regular basis. Sometimes even students of religious schools (yeshivas) were used for this purpose, which aroused less suspicion at airports. At the same time, Russia was a transit country - the stones were first brought to Moscow from third countries, then transported to Israel in order to confuse traces of origin.

In total, the defendants in the case were charged with $ 80 million worth of diamond smuggling and money laundering. The investigation has not yet announced the country of origin of the stones (who and where brought them to Russia for subsequent shipment to Israel). And here the investigation may lead to other, more serious charges.

The fact is that in Israel taxes on the diamond business are not taken from profit, but from turnover (from a carat), so there is no point in transporting stones past customs purely economically - this does not affect taxes in any way, only take unnecessary risks.

There is only one explanation why Leviev's people carried stones in suitcases, not wanting to declare them - these are illegal or "bloody" diamonds. Usually such stones are from Africa, they are mined in semi-handicraft mines belonging to local dictators, all kinds of shadow businessmen with them, or simply field commanders in war zones. The workers (often minors) are kept in the position of slaves. The diamonds mined are not officially recorded and are smuggled out.

Diamond mines in the Congo. A typical picture.

At the same time, with their small dimensions, diamonds cost millions, they are easy to transport, they are popular with the mafia, terrorists as a method of payments, a form of storing common fund. This is much cooler than the 500 euro bills, which are now being withdrawn from circulation in the EU, because turned out to be in demand, mainly among mafiosi, and not ordinary people.

An investigation in Israel into diamond smuggling by Leviev's people is still ongoing. However, what happened is not surprising. The fact that Leviev is selling illegal diamonds has been reported in the world media for 20 years, but he was not caught - not a thief, the conversations remained mere talk. And now, it seems, the thief is caught by the hand, and in his historical homeland.

Leviev with the presidents of Russia and the United States … He met Trump long before his presidency, in the mid-2000s, when he invested diamond money in American real estate. And with Putin - in 1992 in St. Petersburg, when he opened a Jewish religious school there. An irreplaceable person who knows how to be at the right time in the right place. Trump had to save himself from bankruptcy, and he was ready to accept dubious money in his projects - here's the money. Putin should have removed the Goose - here he is an old acquaintance from Peter, he has FEOR and his rabbi at the ready. Flexibility of approaches depending on the needs of the client!

4. Eldorado in Angola

Lev Leviev is a very remarkable personality. Son of a store manager from Tashkent, who was a prominent figure in the Soviet black market. In 1972, the head of the store bought diamonds with all his savings and left with his family to Israel, smuggling stones across the border. Leviev was then 15 years old. At the age of 20, he successfully married in Israel - the family of his wife (Elizarovs) were diamond merchants and took the young man into business.

Since the late 1980s. Leviev began working in Africa to buy illegal ("bloody") diamonds. Their headquarters was in Johannesburg (South Africa), from there messengers traveled throughout the continent. Often, diamonds were not bought for money, but through barter - in exchange for weapons. So Leviev made new friends - arms dealers from the Soviet and then Russian special services. The closest of them turned out to be this person:

This Arkady Gaidamak, international swindler, arms dealer. His biography largely repeats the story of another similar figure - Shabtai Kalmanovich. Shabtai left the USSR for Israel in 1971, being an agent of the GRU. In Israel, he has achieved impressive success in the field of espionage, as well as in terms of infiltration into international organized crime. He managed to get a job in the secretariat of Prime Minister Golda Meyer, after which he was transferred from the GRU to political intelligence - the PGU KGB (now SVR).

In the 1980s. Shabtai rushed to Africa, where he traded in blood diamonds and other raw materials, corrupting the local kings. At its peak, he ruled the small African country of Sierra Leone, where he installed his protégé as president. He also established ties with America. In the diamond business, he had fellows from Brighton Beach and Italians (Cosa Nostra). However, in 1987 a KGB defector turned him in and Shabtai was arrested in Israel for espionage. Having left early in 1993, he returned to Russia, where he joined the Solntsevo organized criminal group and was a prominent authority there. He died a heroic death in 2009 in a mafia showdown.

So Arkady Gaydamak is such Shabtai No. 2, only in a reduced version. He also left the USSR on the Jewish line as an agent of the GRU in 1972. He served in the Israeli army. He moved to France, where for many years he pretended to be a middle-class businessman - he kept a translation bureau, organized tours of Soviet artists in Paris.

But the time has come, and the Motherland invited Arkady to do big things. In 1991, the USSR collapsed, all aid to the pro-Soviet regimes in Africa was curtailed, and meanwhile there was a civil war in Angola. Former pro-Soviet dictator Jose dos Santos fought desperately against rebels from rival factions. Moreover, the hostilities were essentially carried out in one of the largest diamondiferous regions of the planet (Angola is in the top five in diamond mining in the world). This war has become just a gold mine for the arms and illegal diamond dealers.

Arkady Gaidamak, together with his curator from the GRU, Alexei Chepa (now a prominent figure in the State Duma of the Russian Federation) and with the assistance of the authority of Taiwanchik from the Izmailovo organized criminal group, established in the 1990s. arms supplies to Angola from Eastern Europe and the former USSR.

The regime paid off with whatever it could: with oil, pebbles, Soviet debts. Angola owed the USSR huge sums ($ 5 billion). They were rewritten to Gaidamak, then Jose dos Santos paid some part of the money from the budget of Angola for them. After that, these funds were successfully drank (almost nothing reached Russia). An elegant scam, in which not only Gaydamak, the President of Angola, participated, but also, according to rumors, officials of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation who were in charge of the state debt at that time (a certain Vavilov and Kasyanov).

Naturally, Leviev did not stay away from this holiday of life. It was on the Angolan theme that they agreed with Gaydamak. And when the war ended in the late 1990s, a prize awaited them: Jose dos Santos gave them the broadest opportunity to pump out the bowels of Angola. What did they actively do, until they quarreled. Because of the money, of course.

5. Keeper of envelopes

September 8, 2014 Africa. The Luminas Diamond Mine in northern Angola. Belong to Leviev. A video from a mobile phone, which went around the world media: a security guard, a hefty black man with a machete, bludgeoning a hard-working digger. Beats the back (blunt) side of the machete on the feet and toes. He screams wildly, dodges on the ground, tries to escape, the guard catches up with him and continues to beat him.

The video was published in 2014. renowned Angolan journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marquez. He did not disclose the source of the video, indicating only the reasons for the beating. The Luminas diamond-bearing area was concessioned to Leviev's firm by the Angolan government (dictator Jose dos Santos).

The area is guarded by a private security company of local thugs trained by former Mossad employees. They control workers and drive outside diggers away from the concession. Those who do not understand well are brought up with the help of a machete. Sometimes - to death. Human life in these places is inexpensive.

Leviev has his own deposits in Angola and, in addition, acts as an intermediary in the sale of Angolan diamonds from state storage facilities. He works in about the same way in Russia: he has a couple of his own cutting factories, mines in the Urals, plus an intimate relationship with Gokhran and Alrosa selling their diamonds on the world market. But why is Russia worse than Angola?

One of the largest Levievsky firms in Angola is called Ascorp, a large dealer for the purchase and export of local stones. Ascorp was created in 2000 as a joint venture: 51% from the Angolan government, 49% from Leviev. As is customary in Africa, the state's stake in Ascorp was nothing more than a feeding trough for the country's rulers, in this case José dos Santos and his family.

Dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years, from 1979 to 2017. In 2017, at the age of 75, he handed over power to his successor, but his family retained their capital. The dictator's daughter from her first marriage, Isabel dos Santos, is the richest woman in Africa with a fortune of $ 3.5 billion.

The daughter, by the way, is half Russian - her dad studied in the USSR in the 1960s, and along with the diploma brought home his wife, Tanya Kukanova from Penza. Tanya and her daughter are denominations in numerous offshores of the former ruler of Angola, where kickbacks from oil, diamonds and other raw materials have flocked for years.

Tanya Kukanova from Penza (now lives in London), dictator Jose dos Santos, and daughter - the richest woman in Africa.

Leviev and the Santos-Kukanov family have had an excellent relationship for many years. Together they rob a country rich in raw materials, but completely impoverished. But with "Ascorp" Leviev had problems.

In 2012, he was sued in London. The well-known Russian-Israeli arms dealer Arkady Gaidamak said that 49% of Leviev in Ascorp was fiction. In fact, half of that 49% is his. The share belongs to him on the basis of a secret trust agreement, which he signed with Leviev in 2001, signed, sealed in an envelope and deposited with the Chief Rabbi of Russia. And this rabbi was Berl Lazar.

According to Gaidamak, it was he who played a decisive role in the victory of Jose dos Santos in the civil war and it was he who was offered privileges in the export of local diamonds. He attracted Leviev as a specialist in this industry. He brought the President of Angola to the inner circle, brought him to the public, but he himself decided not to appear in the Ascorp project (Gaidamak had problems with the French police at that time, so the actions were recorded on Leviev).

However, Leviev threw his benefactor. According to Gaydamak, Leviev had exported $ 6 billion worth of diamonds from Angola over 12 years (2001-12) and did not share them with him. Moreover, Gaidamak was thrown not only by Leviev, but also by Rabbi Berl Lazar. When Gaydamak asked him to give him an envelope with a contract, the rabbi said that he had lost it. The court summoned Berl Lazar to London to testify, but he refused to come.

And without the envelope, which he “lost”, Gaidamak lost the court. In desperation, Gaydamak filed a complaint against Berl Lazar with the rabbinical court, but he did not appear there either. In general, Leviev and Berl Lazar divorced the hardened swindler Gaidamak as a sucker.