Someone please help: Russian Mafia info needed

[ElektroDragon]

Originally Posted by Hamza

Niko, my cousin! Want to go bowling?

Sure Roman that sounds like fun! I'll pick you up in an hour.

Greetings fellow violent gamer!

[Huckleberry3911948]

posting on a public forum would not be a good way or safe way to get information on russian mafia.

[toughguy]

Looks like the Hondurans have started taking over:

Local News | Police bust Honduran crack-cocaine ring in Belltown | Seattle Times Newspaper

"Seattle police descended on Belltown en masse Saturday, rounding up members of what they described as a tightly organized Honduran drug dealing operation that had apparently taken over the area's crack cocaine market."

[Hamza]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

Greetings fellow violent gamer!

lawlz!

[garfield206]

i know there is a russian mob in lake city and federal way but im not sure about tacoma.

[yukiko11]

I am an American of partial Russian descent. When I was young, I studied the Russian culture out of curiosity and this is what I found out. In the last several generations the Soviet elite hoarded everything for themselves. The peolpe had very little to choose from after that, so they learned to beat the system. They siphoned gas out of government cars, they carried briefcases with them to fill up on goods or food items if they came across them, etc. There was no free market in Russia. If you worked in a rug factory and people wanted a rug they would line up once a year and place an order. That is how many rugs would be produced, no more. Workers were all paid the same no matter how they performed, so why work so hard. Therefore goods were not great and items from other countries were coveted. So the basic economy for the average person became the black market. Not big time, but just from family to family, friend to friend or neighbor to neighbor. I remember when American students would travel to Russia and wear 6 pairs of Jeans one on top of the other because they knew they could get a huge price from young Russians for them and if they put them in their luggage they were confiscated. Again, the black market. This was, and to some extent still is the culture and mind-set. This is what they know. Just like the freedom of America is what you know.
Now to the present. I live in North Snohomish County. I worked in a manufacturing facility that employed about 200 Russian and Ukranian people. A lot of them were husbands, wifes, brothers and other relatives. Generally, they were the best workers we had however they held on very hard to their culture. They didn't use their English and pretended they didn't understand so we hired a full time translator, whenever there was a free lunch everyone of them would take enough food to feed 5 people. Their tools went missing and they claimed someone broke into their locker. Many of what you call Russians in this area are actually from the Ukraine. Many of them had lived in rural areas without plumbing. You may laugh, but one of the problems we had was that these people refused to flush their toilet paper. They just threw it on the floor. We even bought special disposal containers to accommodate their "cultural diversity" to no avail. The point only got accross when we put not just them but all the plant employees in teams and made them inspect and clean the restrooms every half hour. They never socialized with other employees and only spoke their own language. As a culture, they were very closed. Now that their kids are in school, the kids are becoming Americans, but when we had open houses, they were always translating for the parents and when families would sit together they never used English. The kids were very greedy. If we had crafts or games with prizes, or candy, they would try to sneak behind you to pocket anything they could grab. Again, the black market culture. In the same company, was a married American couple who were members of the society bringing Ukranian people to Washington. The society would raise funds to get them here, sign them up on welfare and every other dole they could, get them jobs and special deals to buy or rent houses etc. They were doing better then most of us.

Is there a Russian Mafia? Based on this little cultural summary, what do you think? Are they going to shoot you on the street? Probably not, remember their culture is Black Market, they are more likely to go after their own who try to cheat them.
By the way, if you are interested in what makes Russians tick read a book called The Russians. It was written by an American who lived in Russia for several years. It was published about 30 yrs ago. It's about 3 inches thick in paperback but a very interesting read. I would love to see an updated version today to see how things have changed.

[Kalki93]

Originally Posted by yukiko11

I am an American of partial Russian descent. When I was young, I studied the Russian culture out of curiosity and this is what I found out. In the last several generations the Soviet elite hoarded everything for themselves. The peolpe had very little to choose from after that, so they learned to beat the system. They siphoned gas out of government cars, they carried briefcases with them to fill up on goods or food items if they came across them, etc. There was no free market in Russia. If you worked in a rug factory and people wanted a rug they would line up once a year and place an order. That is how many rugs would be produced, no more. Workers were all paid the same no matter how they performed, so why work so hard. Therefore goods were not great and items from other countries were coveted. So the basic economy for the average person became the black market. Not big time, but just from family to family, friend to friend or neighbor to neighbor. I remember when American students would travel to Russia and wear 6 pairs of Jeans one on top of the other because they knew they could get a huge price from young Russians for them and if they put them in their luggage they were confiscated. Again, the black market. This was, and to some extent still is the culture and mind-set. This is what they know. Just like the freedom of America is what you know.
Now to the present. I live in North Snohomish County. I worked in a manufacturing facility that employed about 200 Russian and Ukranian people. A lot of them were husbands, wifes, brothers and other relatives. Generally, they were the best workers we had however they held on very hard to their culture. They didn't use their English and pretended they didn't understand so we hired a full time translator, whenever there was a free lunch everyone of them would take enough food to feed 5 people. Their tools went missing and they claimed someone broke into their locker. Many of what you call Russians in this area are actually from the Ukraine. Many of them had lived in rural areas without plumbing. You may laugh, but one of the problems we had was that these people refused to flush their toilet paper. They just threw it on the floor. We even bought special disposal containers to accommodate their "cultural diversity" to no avail. The point only got accross when we put not just them but all the plant employees in teams and made them inspect and clean the restrooms every half hour. They never socialized with other employees and only spoke their own language. As a culture, they were very closed. Now that their kids are in school, the kids are becoming Americans, but when we had open houses, they were always translating for the parents and when families would sit together they never used English. The kids were very greedy. If we had crafts or games with prizes, or candy, they would try to sneak behind you to pocket anything they could grab. Again, the black market culture. In the same company, was a married American couple who were members of the society bringing Ukranian people to Washington. The society would raise funds to get them here, sign them up on welfare and every other dole they could, get them jobs and special deals to buy or rent houses etc. They were doing better then most of us.

Is there a Russian Mafia? Based on this little cultural summary, what do you think? Are they going to shoot you on the street? Probably not, remember their culture is Black Market, they are more likely to go after their own who try to cheat them.
By the way, if you are interested in what makes Russians tick read a book called The Russians. It was written by an American who lived in Russia for several years. It was published about 30 yrs ago. It's about 3 inches thick in paperback but a very interesting read. I would love to see an updated version today to see how things have changed.

Wow, extremely informative post. I went to a party for my friend's daughter's Quinceañera, and many of her family members from rural Mexico just threw their used tp on the bathroom floor behind the toilet. I thought it may have to do with the plumbing situations in their home land and this definitely cleared it up for me. Thank you very much!

[thedaneurysm]

There is plenty of organized crime in the Puget Sound area (though nothing like Chicago, NYC, etc though) and Russians are no exception, but unless you're looking for it, you'll probably never see it. Organized crime is most present in the drug trade and adult entertainment scene here, so unless you buy large quantities of cocaine or hang out at strip clubs, it will go unnoticed.