![Vladimir Putin's wrestling coach, the person who reportedly helped him get admitted to the Leningrad State University using his connections, was one of the city's top criminals, had served 20 years in prison, and died in a gang battle at 57. Putin admiringly wrote about him in his memoirs called "From the First Person" without using the coach's surname or mentioning his criminal links (for obvious reasons). As the engraving on his grave stone states, the coach Leonid Ionovich Usvyatsov composed the epitaphs himself. [Translator: Please note that in the original Russian the epitaphs crudely rhyme, but the translation did not attempt to reproduce rhyming prioritizing accuracy instead.] The epitaph on the front panel says: "A grave and on the grave there is an epitaph: 'I am dead, but mafia is immortal.'" The back panel is engraved with the following epitaphs: "Hooray! I finally died!!! All of my life I worked for broads like a slave. Now I won't spend a kopeck on this liver sausage anymore." "I gave her my two final bangs and then was carried away on a hearse." "Let's drink to us all, because the curtain will soon fall." (Image: openrussia.org)](https://euromaidanpress.demchco-dev.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/4bbcb9a683811.gif)
Fusion of state and criminal world in Russia even more dangerous than absence of democracy, Pastukhov says
Russia has only rarely been a democracy and certainly is not one now, Vladimir Pastukhov says; but the…
Browsing Tag
criminalization of Russian state
62 posts
Russians now fear their own government more than they fear a world war, Schulmann says
The recent coverage of the system of torture and rape in Russian penal institutions has had two important…
The system of torture and rape in Russian prisons was imposed by Moscow, GULAGU.Net activist says
Vladimir Osechkin, head of the Gulagu.net project which has provided video tape confirmation of torture in Russian prisons,…
Prisons central to Putin regime and films of torture in them a major political problem
Prisons and even their reputation for brutality are an important support for the Putin regime because Russians do…
GULAGU.Net exposes systemic torture and rape of prisoners in Russia; regime responds with investigations and denial of service attack on portal
The portal GULAGU.Net (“No to the GULAG” – a volunteer project against corruption and torture in Russia) has…
Russian gas, German elections, and US sanctions
Two high-resonance processes have been simultaneously unfolding in Europe in the last few weeks: the sharp increase in…
Western sanctions regime must be fundamentally revised because Russia is a mafia state, Gessen says
The Russian-American commentator argues that the West’s sanctions regime is based on the false assumption that Moscow will…
Putin’s aggression against Ukraine part of broader effort to destroy international rules of the game and force West to recognize his right to do so, Skobov says
But a consideration of them collectively shows that what Putin is about is not just subordinating Ukraine to…
Putin has two reasons to kill his opponents and the West has to counter both, Shulipa says
Yury Shulipa, author of How Putin Kills Abroad, says that Putin has two reasons for doing away with…
Putin created unit that blew up apartment blocks in 1999 a year ahead of time, Kruglov says
Drawing on his contacts that he had developed with the criminal world during his first years in the…
Conflict over Crimea between two peoples, not just two states, Portnikov says
When the history of the 21st century is written, Vitaly Portnikov says, Russia’s occupation of Crimea “beyond any…
Kirillova: Sochi Games scandal revealed what Putin was like even before Crimea
Five years ago this weekend, the Sochi Olympiad ended with many Russians convinced that it showed Russia had…
Russian businessman: 10 rules for foreigners to keep their integrity and property while working in Russia
Following the arrest of Michael Calvey, the senior partner at Baring Vostok Capital, ever more people are asking…
Putin regime – West’s ‘existential’ enemy and West must stop his aggression in Ukraine by force, Skobov says
The regime Vladimir Putin has created in Russia is an “existential” enemy of the West and an international…
Given rising Russian protests, Putin has three options – and none is good for Ukraine, Portnikov says
The protests in Russia on Sunday were an unusual event, but they were not “the beginning of a…
Moscow attacked Skripal for betraying Russian oligarchs, highlighting mafia nature of Putin regime, Portnikov says
Sergey Skripal’s cooperation with the Spanish authorities in exposing the criminality of the Russian oligarchs rather than the…
Putin’s export of corruption — a key part of his hybrid war against the West, Babchenko says
The post-1945 world order is coming to an end, in no small part because of Vladimir Putin’s successful…
Russian-American relations will fundamentally change on February 2, Piontkovsky says
The August 2, 2017 law to counter Russian aggression requires that the Trump Administration identify in a report…
Putin’s power isn’t legal but has been legitimized by violence and lies, Yakovenko says
Vladimir Putin’s power is “not legal because he was not once chosen in correspondence with the law,” but…
‘Donbas in Gorky Park’ – Moscow’s violence in Ukraine is coming back to haunt Russia
The violence Moscow “exported” to Ukraine and other parts of what the Kremlin claims are parts of “the…