Misha Glenny - Special Report TV - Panorama TV -
95,432. Half Ukrainian and half-Georgian, Georgi Gongadze had begun to prise open the lid of Kuchma’s maggot-infested administration with his probing articles. Slowly it was becoming apparent the the Ukrainian Government had commandeered the judiciary, the police, the military, the Security Forces and industry – in short, the central mechanisms of state – as vital assistants in the amassing of wealth and power by a federation of regionally based cliques. Of course, just like any other cabal of ‘families’, there were frequent fallings out, and indeed the system eventually came crashing down in December 2004 when former allies of Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshekno, led the Orange Revolution that sought to replace venality with popular legitimacy as the guiding philosophy of the state. (Ukraine & Assassinations & Gangs: Ukraine) Misha Glenny, McMafia
95,437. Organised crime is deeply entrenched in Ukraine and, away from Kiev, where the spotlight of domestic and international scrutiny shines brightly, powerful criminal interests continue to dominate. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
95,438. No mobsters controlled a post-Soviet city (Odessa) with as much popular support as Karabas did: ‘Karabas allowed the dealers to operate inside Palermo, but he blocked them from playing their trade anywhere else in the city. He was determined to hold down drugs consumption in the city.’ (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
95,439. Every imaginable contraband passed through the city (Odessa). As a port, it was a hub of human trafficking. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
95,440. It was perhaps oil that caused Karabas’s downfall ... The gunning down of Viktor Kulivar ‘Karabas’ in April 1997 triggered a series of bloody political murders over the next year, and a sustained period of gang warfare as various mafia outfits fought over the huge territory that Karabas had controlled. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
95,441. During his ten years in power, Leonid Kuchma presided over the total criminalisation of the Ukrainian Government and civil service. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
95,442. In Odessa a battle over oil exports broke the city in two. Karabas’s death showed that not even the mafia can compete when the full weight of the state becomes involved in trans-national corruption and criminality. (Ukraine & Oil & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
95,443. The trade in illegal weapons, however, began under a different president. At the end of 1991, Ukraine’s then President, Leonid Kravchuk, decreed the establishment of a commercial department at the Defence Ministry, whose main aim was to turn the vast store of Soviet weapons inherited by Ukraine into cash. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine & Weapon & Gun) ibid.
95,444. It was states and groups from Africa who sent the greatest number of envoys to Ukraine to broker arms shipments from Odessa. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine & Weapon & Gun) ibid.
40,424. Ukrainian police admit that there are nearly 1,500 active football hooligans in the country ... inspired by neo-Nazi politics. (Football & Gangs: Ukraine) Special Report: Ukraine’s Football Hooliganism, Sky Sports
117,883. ‘Corruption is huge; it’s the number one problem in Ukraine.’ (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) Panorama: Gangsters’ Dirty Money Exposed, BBC 2018
117,884. ‘It’s very easy to get dirty money into the UK if you have the right connections.’ (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
117,885. This is the story of how gangsters’ dirty money ends up in Britain. But it starts in Ukraine at the home of the former president … The most expensive log cabin in the world. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
117,886. The corrupt elite who are exploiting the country. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.
117,887. Most of the stolen money disappears overseas. (Ukraine & Gangs: Ukraine) ibid.