Vyacheslav Ivankov
Encyclopedia
Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov (January 2, 1940 - October 9, 2009) was a notorious member of the Russian Mafia
who was believed to have connections with Russian state intelligence organizations and their organized crime partners. He has operated in both the Soviet Union
and the United States
. His nickname, "Yaponchik" (Япончик) translates from Russian as "Little Japanese", due to his faintly Asian facial features.
, when it was part of the Soviet Union
, to ethnically Russian parents, Olga Gostasvits and Bernard Royal-Ivankov. He grew up in Moscow
. Ivankov was an amateur wrestler in his youth and served his first prison time for his participation in a bar fight, in which he claimed he was defending the honor of a woman. After his release, he began to move up in the criminal world, selling goods on the black market. Later Ivankov became involved in gang activity. His gang used forged police documents to enter houses and then burglarize them. In 1974, in Butyrka prison
he was "crowned" i.e. awarded by criminal brotherhood the title of vor v zakone
(thief in law
).
In 1982, authorities had finally caught up with him and he was arrested on firearms, forgery and drug-trafficking charges. Though he was sentenced to fourteen years he was released in 1991, reportedly thanks to the intervention of a powerful politician and a bribed judge of the Russian supreme court
.
.
His reason for arriving in America was not initially clear. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs advised the FBI that Ivankov had come to "manage and control Russian Organized Crime activities in this country", advice that the FBI took on board. However Alexander Grant, editor for newspaper Novoye Russkoye Slovo said in 1994 Ivankov had left Russia because it was too dangerous for him there, since there are "new criminal entrepreneurs who don't respect the likes of Yaponchik" and that he was not criminally active in the United States. However, soon Ivankov did become criminally active in the United States. The actual scope of his activities is unclear, since conflicting sources describe his gang on Brighton Beach
as around 100 members strong and being the "premier Russian crime group in Brooklyn
" to something on the scale Lucky Luciano's
nationwide Mafia Commission
many decades earlier. However there is no evidence to suggest that he systematically used violence or corruption or attempted to establish a monopoly on any criminal enterprise.
Ivankov was arrested by the FBI on June 8, 1995, charged with the extortion
of several million dollars from an investment advisory firm run by two Russian businessmen, and in June the next year was convicted along with two co-defendants. This causes further debate whether he was a big-time crime boss, since usually the criminal masterminds at the top are insulated from direct criminal activity by several layers. Furthermore, it was alleged that a murder of one of the victim's fathers in Moscow was used as part of the threat, yet in tapped phone conversations Ivankov seems to be ignorant of such an event.
During interviews in prison, Ivankov accused the FBI of inventing the myth of the Russian mafia
in order to prove the usefulness of their Russian division. He stated that Russia "is one uninterrupted criminal swamp", the main criminals being the Kremlin
and the FSB and that anybody who thinks he is the leader of the so-called Russian mafia is foolish.
nationals who were shot in a Moscow restaurant following a heated argument in 1992. A third was seriously wounded in the alleged incident. The jury found him not guilty and he was acquitted the same day on July 18, 2005. The witnesses, a police officer among them, claimed to have never have seen him in their lives.
Larisa Kislinskaya, a leading crime journalist with the tabloid Sovershenno Sekretno, thinks Ivankov will remain a relevant figure, if only because of his position as a thief-in-law with the criminal leaders who remain in prison. "Prison life is still run by the thieves-in-law", Kislinskaya said. "They may not have to respect him while they are free, but if they ever land in prison, they had better respect him. As long as there is a prison system, Ivankov will be an authority."
was found abandoned in a nearby parked vehicle.
Having died from his injuries seventy-three days later, on October 9, 2009, Ivankov was buried in Moscow
on October 13, 2009. The funeral was well-publicised, receiving widespread media attention in Russia and worldwide. In attendance were hundreds of gangsters representing criminal syndicates from around the former USSR, each sending their own tributes. One card at the funeral read "From the Dagestan
i Bratva", another "From the Kazakh
Bratva" and one elaborate wreath came from Aslan "Grandpa Hassan" Usoyan
who was not himself in attendance. It is suspected that the murder was carried out as part of an ongoing gang war between Usoyan and Georgian crime boss Tariel Oniani
, where Ivankov took Usoyan's side.
Russian Mafia
The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....
who was believed to have connections with Russian state intelligence organizations and their organized crime partners. He has operated in both the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His nickname, "Yaponchik" (Япончик) translates from Russian as "Little Japanese", due to his faintly Asian facial features.
Early life
Ivankov was born in GeorgiaGeorgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, when it was part of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, to ethnically Russian parents, Olga Gostasvits and Bernard Royal-Ivankov. He grew up in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Ivankov was an amateur wrestler in his youth and served his first prison time for his participation in a bar fight, in which he claimed he was defending the honor of a woman. After his release, he began to move up in the criminal world, selling goods on the black market. Later Ivankov became involved in gang activity. His gang used forged police documents to enter houses and then burglarize them. In 1974, in Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison was the central transit prison in pre-Revolutionary Russia, located in Moscow.The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century. The present prison building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate on the site of a prison-fortress which had been built...
he was "crowned" i.e. awarded by criminal brotherhood the title of vor v zakone
Thief in law
Thief in law is a criminal who is respected, has authority and a high ranking status within the...
(thief in law
Thief in law
Thief in law is a criminal who is respected, has authority and a high ranking status within the...
).
In 1982, authorities had finally caught up with him and he was arrested on firearms, forgery and drug-trafficking charges. Though he was sentenced to fourteen years he was released in 1991, reportedly thanks to the intervention of a powerful politician and a bribed judge of the Russian supreme court
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....
.
Moving to the United States
Ivankov arrived in the United States in March 1992, despite having served a prison sentence of around ten years and a reputation as one of the fiercest and one of the most brutal criminals in Russia. Unlike the Cosa Nostra, where the boss gives out the orders, Ivankov used to go out and extort himself. He had arrived on a regular business visa stating that he would be working in the film industryFilm industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
.
His reason for arriving in America was not initially clear. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs advised the FBI that Ivankov had come to "manage and control Russian Organized Crime activities in this country", advice that the FBI took on board. However Alexander Grant, editor for newspaper Novoye Russkoye Slovo said in 1994 Ivankov had left Russia because it was too dangerous for him there, since there are "new criminal entrepreneurs who don't respect the likes of Yaponchik" and that he was not criminally active in the United States. However, soon Ivankov did become criminally active in the United States. The actual scope of his activities is unclear, since conflicting sources describe his gang on Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...
as around 100 members strong and being the "premier Russian crime group in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
" to something on the scale Lucky Luciano's
Lucky Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...
nationwide Mafia Commission
The Commission (mafia)
The Commission is the governing body of the American Mafia. Formed in 1931, the Commission replaced the "Boss of all Bosses" title, with a ruling committee, consisting of the New York Five Families bosses and the boss of the Chicago Outfit...
many decades earlier. However there is no evidence to suggest that he systematically used violence or corruption or attempted to establish a monopoly on any criminal enterprise.
Ivankov was arrested by the FBI on June 8, 1995, charged with the extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
of several million dollars from an investment advisory firm run by two Russian businessmen, and in June the next year was convicted along with two co-defendants. This causes further debate whether he was a big-time crime boss, since usually the criminal masterminds at the top are insulated from direct criminal activity by several layers. Furthermore, it was alleged that a murder of one of the victim's fathers in Moscow was used as part of the threat, yet in tapped phone conversations Ivankov seems to be ignorant of such an event.
During interviews in prison, Ivankov accused the FBI of inventing the myth of the Russian mafia
Russian Mafia
The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....
in order to prove the usefulness of their Russian division. He stated that Russia "is one uninterrupted criminal swamp", the main criminals being the Kremlin
Kremlin
A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
and the FSB and that anybody who thinks he is the leader of the so-called Russian mafia is foolish.
Return to Russia
On July 13, 2004 Ivankov was deported to Russia to face murder charges over two TurkishTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
nationals who were shot in a Moscow restaurant following a heated argument in 1992. A third was seriously wounded in the alleged incident. The jury found him not guilty and he was acquitted the same day on July 18, 2005. The witnesses, a police officer among them, claimed to have never have seen him in their lives.
Larisa Kislinskaya, a leading crime journalist with the tabloid Sovershenno Sekretno, thinks Ivankov will remain a relevant figure, if only because of his position as a thief-in-law with the criminal leaders who remain in prison. "Prison life is still run by the thieves-in-law", Kislinskaya said. "They may not have to respect him while they are free, but if they ever land in prison, they had better respect him. As long as there is a prison system, Ivankov will be an authority."
2009 assassination
On July 28, 2009, at around 19:20 Moscow time (1620 GMT), Ivankov was shot while leaving a restaurant on Khoroshevskoye Road in Moscow. A sniper rifleSniper rifle
In military and law enforcement terminology, a sniper rifle is a precision-rifle used to ensure more accurate placement of bullets at longer ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military...
was found abandoned in a nearby parked vehicle.
Having died from his injuries seventy-three days later, on October 9, 2009, Ivankov was buried in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
on October 13, 2009. The funeral was well-publicised, receiving widespread media attention in Russia and worldwide. In attendance were hundreds of gangsters representing criminal syndicates from around the former USSR, each sending their own tributes. One card at the funeral read "From the Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
i Bratva", another "From the Kazakh
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
Bratva" and one elaborate wreath came from Aslan "Grandpa Hassan" Usoyan
Aslan Usoyan
Aslan Usoyan aka Grandpa Hassan is an ethnic Yezidi mobster and thief in law began his career operating in Georgia, continued in Moscow, Ural, Siberia, Uzbekistan, Krasnodar, Sochi, and other parts of ex-USSR.Starting in 2007, Usoyan was embroiled in a gang war with Georgian mobster Tariel...
who was not himself in attendance. It is suspected that the murder was carried out as part of an ongoing gang war between Usoyan and Georgian crime boss Tariel Oniani
Tariel Oniani
Tariel Oniani is an ethnic Georgian mobster and 'thief in law'. He is reportedly a member of the "Kutaisi" criminal gang.- Background and activity in Spain :...
, where Ivankov took Usoyan's side.