Cyprus-Forum.com

[Christie]

Sometime back I was talking to someone and I came to know that the russians are very powerful in cyprus or atleast in limassol.
It seems that they own most of the strip clubs.
They also have some mafias running behind those clubs and they are very influential in government affairs.
Inspite of all this, they always maintain a very low profile.
They seem to pass of as one of the many foreign nationals living in cyprus, but they seem to run a shadown government.

Is this all true?

I don't think it is true. Someone was interested to make you believe that
And I agree with TheCabbie, Cyprus for such people is more the place of recreation and spending

[SpetsnazGRU]

Hehe. Nice read. Thanks. Now let me tell you something.

First of all, what do you mean - "Russian Mafia"? And what do you mean by saying that "russian mafia is powerful in Cyprus"?

As for Russian Mafia in general...
Someone stated that stereotypes are stil alive. And yes, they are alive and will be alive as far as there is such a country -RUSSIAN FEDERATION- on the map. See, there is only one known situation, all over the world, where criminals achieved to legalzie theirselfs as a legal country government. Something that happened in Russia. Many people just dont get it, they believe that Russia is just another poor country. Well this is not right. As a russian myself (lived in cyprus for 9 years now) I may tell you one thing: Dont be such a naive persons. Russian mafia exist and it is a Russian Federal Government. Forget about "Al Capone" and westerns style mafia, the game is played on the other levels.

You guys seem to talk about some lower level gangsta style mafia, known as "TORPEDO'S" in Russia. Guns, stabbing, killing, robbing, abusing, and this kinda stuff is not Mafia. It is just crminal activity. Which thanks God is not so active dont here in Cyprus. But as for more advanced criminal activities - Cyprus is Number one in some Russian Statistics

Cypriot Russian Mafia -Going further...
Before saying anything I would like to make one small intro, like a backround to what I will lead to eventually. After Soviet Union collapsed, there was many opportunities for some people (who had one place in Communist Party or were some kind of managing directors of any shop, factory, cafe and so on) to steal a really big piece of what we used to define a Common Property. As you might know almost all of them achieved it and exported from Russia many billions of $$$.

The Russian "Arhi Ilektrismou" - the government energy providing organization - RAOEES (Rossijskie Energosistemy), which may be translated as "Russian Energy Systems" is a giant holding which belongs (mainly) to the government and the rest percentage of the sharings belong to the individuals or companie (which is more common). Sooo.. one branch of it - "Astrahan Energo", in charge for enrgy in the region of Astrahan when was asked for the statement of the shareholders, the 20% of the sharings belonged to companies which were registered at the Cyprus offshore zone. Now you tell me whats up... This is just one example.

Now as for influence of the Russian Mafia on the island... Well if considering that Russian Mafia may be defined as Federal Government, then the influence is DAMN huge

Dont forget about the Offshore Zone I've mentioned before. Many many investments were made by Russians down here, denying it would be more than stupid. Plus dont forget that most of them were a regular procedure or "money washing" since there were no way someone could make money back in USSR. Wake up.

Clubs, Prostitutes and Rolls Royces...
Now this is the most funny part.. Russians dont own any clubs. They never did. Maybe back to 95 there used to be some but now - none. Russian prostitutes? Very very funny When did you last time went to any cabaret? Ask any chick down there where is she from? Most probably it will be: Moldavia, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria or Romania. The point is that, when chicks from former USSR started arriving to Cyprus as a prostitutes when being asked where were they from they used to answer Russia since not many cypriots (who visit such a clubs) know what is Belarus or Moldova, lol :D And finally Rolls Royce. I know one guy, hes 18 or something like that and he is cruising around in a brand new Phantom (in Limassol). Offcourse its his dad's, but think about it... buying such a car in Cyprus, what would that mean?

Best regards

[macketterry]

I think you'll find that the Russians supply the girls to most of the Cabarets, but the Cabaretss are Cypriot owned.

I don't think all the Russians are making their money in Cyprus, they make too much, I know that one of the first Rolls-Royces purchased in Cyprus was bought by a Russian, he topped up the order with a BMW645 convertable for the Mrs. that's £400,000+... Very serious coin to spend in a morning, just for wheels, that sort of loot isn't being made on the island. God knows what his house must be like!

Cabbie, you're not making generalisations about Russian prostitutes again, are you?

[dms007]

maybe svetlana can throw some light on this issue.... she seems to have the connections in the high places and she is also a russian and also a spy......
svetlana????

[Svetlana]

I find the preoccupation with Russians, on this and the 'Meeting New People' section, strange, given that Russians represent such a small percentage of the population of Cyprus. More and more, if they have not resided here for 5 years or more, Russian nationals are having to leave the island as their Permits expire.

People continue to confuse Russians with citizens of the USSR; even though the latter ceased to exist in December 1991.

Can we not pick on some other minority; what about the 'whinging Brits

Lana

[SpetsnazGRU]

Sometimes cypriots even confuse russian (gerogian, armenian and so on) greeks with russians

Светлана, можно поинтиресоваться, чем вы занимаетесь?
Sorry for offtopic

[TheCabbie]

People continue to confuse Russians with citizens of the USSR; even though the latter ceased to exist in December 1991.

Lana

Lana, if you are indeed a spy, you'll know the cold war never really ended, the Brits (whinging or not ) keep very careful notes on the movements all CD29's and their occupants. ....And I'm sure it works both ways.

[dms007]

what is CD29?

[Svetlana]

Hi Cabbie

We are all friends now even the KGB disppeared in 1991!


Lana

[JustAnAmerican]

I agree Lana we are all friends now, but even as late as 1998 the press sensationalized that a former KGB agent setting on a bench outside the State Department main building with an antenna was receiving signals from a hidden microphone installed in the sheet-rock of a conference room. Now he most likely was not working for the KGB, but he could have been freelancing for someone else.
The news reported that “A Russian spy, was caught…..”, when the headline more than likely should have read, “an unemployed former KGB employee……was trying to get some work...”