Tag Archives: Top Russian

Top Russian mafia boss gunned down in Moscow

Police say one of the leaders of organized crime in Russia has been gunned down in Moscow.

Aslan Usoyan, also known as Grandpa Khasan, came from a caste of professional criminals who sport elaborate tattoos, follow unwritten prison laws codified in Stalinist-era Gulags and have been romanticized in countless popular songs.

The 75-year-old ethnic Kurd was born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Police say for the past two decades he headed one of the region’s most powerful criminal groups, which trafficked in drugs and weapons and controlled underground casinos and legal businesses.

Police said an unidentified gunman fired a single shot Tuesday at Usoyan near a restaurant in central Moscow.

Since 2006, Usoyan had been at war with a criminal group headed by another Georgian, Tariel Oniani.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Police: Top Russian mafia boss killed in Moscow

Police say one of the leaders of organized crime in Russia has been gunned down in Moscow.

Aslan Usoyan, also known as Grandpa Khasan, came from a caste of professional criminals who sport elaborate tattoos, follow unwritten prison laws codified in Stalinist-era Gulags and have been romanticized in countless popular songs.

The 75-year-old ethnic Kurd was born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Police say for the past two decades he headed one of the region’s most powerful criminal groups, which trafficked in drugs and weapons and controlled underground casinos and legal businesses.

Police said an unidentified gunman fired a single shot Tuesday at Usoyan near a restaurant in central Moscow.

Since 2006, Usoyan had been at war with a criminal group headed by another Georgian, Tariel Oniani.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Syria envoy to meet Russian, US deputy ministers

The Interfax news agency is reporting that the U.N. envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will meet Friday with top diplomats from Russia and the United States.

The agency quotes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying he will meet Brahimi and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in Geneva.

The meeting will take place less than a week after Syrian President Bashar Assad struck a defiant tone in a speech, ignoring international demands to step down and saying he would talk only with those “who have not betrayed Syria.”

Russia has blocked several U.N. resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad, but Moscow says it is not propping up his regime. Top Russian officials in recent weeks have given signals they are resigned to Assad eventually losing power.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News