"Ukrops" wars in Ukraine: myth or reality

On October 24, 2017, the head of the Garadagh District Court of Baku, Sadreddin Hajiyev, decided to satisfy the motion regarding the Georgian citizen Nadir Salifov and released him from serving the remainder of his sentence.

Thus, after 22 years of imprisonment, not only did the well-known Azerbaijani thief-in-law Nadir Salifov (Lotu Guli) get released from the high-security Gobustan prison, but also one of the most influential criminal authorities in the post-Soviet region, capable of overturning the criminal world of the CIS countries and Ukraine, among others.

dqxikeidqxitkant

"Thief-in-law" Nadir Salifov — Lotu Guli

A little information that gives an idea about the main "hero" of our article.

So, the 45-year-old "thief-in-law" Nadir Salifov, also known as Guli, was crowned while he was behind bars in 2000. He was crowned in absentia - by Georgian Raul Rustavsky (Kiriya) and Yazidi Dzheyran Rustavsky (Aslanov).

Lotu Guli was arrested in 1995 in Baku. In 2005, to the initial considerable term for extortion, kidnapping, and illegal possession of firearms, was added the organization of extortion of large sums of money from businessmen. Elite Baku restaurants "Inter-Grand," "Andalu," and "Three Palms" paid tribute to the lawmaker. In total, Lotu Guli was supposed to serve 27 years.

However, fate (and the higher leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan) decided otherwise, and the hardened gangster, having gained freedom, soon arrived in Turkey, where after surviving an attempt on his life, he settled comfortably in one of the suburbs of Istanbul.

While still in detention, Guli began to implement his strategic plan — to create his own thief clan, the most powerful in the post-Soviet space, not forgetting Ukraine; appointing his "watchers" in several large cities of the southern regions of the country.

In the summer of 2016, implementing his plan, Lotu Guli managed to merge his "thief family" with representatives of the clan Vagif Suleymanov (Vagif Madat oglu Suleymanov, born in 1965, crowned in 1999, with two convictions).

"Thief-in-law" — Vagif Bakinsky

The formation of the new mafia conglomerate turned out to be mutually beneficial for its participants. Suleymanov and the associated lawman Rashad Ismailov (also known as Rashad Ganjinsky) had wide connections and influence on businessmen, natives of Azerbaijan, who owned shopping centers and wholesale markets in various regions of Russia, including Moscow.

But there were more than enough people willing to get a "small share" from the profits of selling, primarily green products (dill, parsley, etc.), including among the "thieves-in-law" from other families; thus the "concessionaires" could convert their influence into hard currency only by relying on the powerful "army" of fighters controlled by Lotu Guli.

Real "battles" unfolded over control of the wholesale markets, which were later referred to in the media of the neighboring state as the "dill war." And while control over the wholesale green markets in the Urals and the southern regions of Russia was established fairly quickly and without significant losses, the battle for control over the markets and wholesale bases in the Moscow region was brutal. The main opponents of the new thief clan were representatives of the Abkhaz "thief" family, as well as lawmen Javid Mamedov (Dato Aghjabedinsky) and Rafik Eyvazov (Rafik Masallynsky).

The outcome of the "military actions" of the opposing sides resulted not only in gang fights but also in numerous beatings and kidnappings of businessmen of Azerbaijani nationality. The winner has not yet been finally determined, but the advantage is clearly on the side of Lotu Guli and his companions.

But why should we care about the conflicts of the international Azerbaijani mafia? - asks a reader experienced in the "thief" theme. I answer: soon, it will be very direct. The matter is that Lotu Guli is not only creating a new Azerbaijani criminal clan; he is forming a transnational criminal society capable of ensuring economic (and later, criminal) expansion into new territories. Therefore, Lotu Guli’s inner circle includes not only his fellow countrymen but also the Russian Roma Stavropolsky (Roman Dmitriev), the Belarusian Sasha Kushner (Alexander Kushnerov). The Ukrainian side in the "criminal international" is represented by the thief "in law" Prince (Paata Chkhartishvili), who pledged allegiance to the "Bakuans" and announced it publicly.

Among Lotu Guli’s undeniable strategic successes should also be noted the establishment of strong business relations with the leaders of Turkish mafia structures and their undisputed leader Sedat Peker.

One of the famous leaders of the Turkish mafia, Sedat Peker.

In the conditions of the harsh semi-military ruling style of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, many members of Turkish OCGs, in order to avoid repression and conscription, have relocated to hospitable Ukraine, where they invested illegally obtained earnings into market trade, restaurants, and real estate. This segment of the legal Ukrainian economy will be extremely interesting for emissaries from Lotu Guli’s OCG as a cover for criminal business (smuggling, drug trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, etc.).

Are we threatened by domestic "dill" wars? - asks a concerned reader. I hasten to reassure: "no, because this is a myth" due to the absence of real opponents of the new international mafia on the territory of Ukraine. Currently, the appointee of the Moscow headquarters of the "daddies’" thieves,— thief "in law" Andriy Lvivsky (Andriy Nedyelkov) is engaged in solving personal problems.

In the summer of this year, according to a Europol warrant, he was handed over to the Hungarian law enforcement agencies on charges of using a forged passport of this country. However, the arguments presented to the high court of Budapest by the defense of Lvivsky turned out to be so convincing that on July 27 of this year, a not-guilty verdict was issued to the "thief-in-law". After being released, Lvivsky did not return to Ukraine because of the real risk of losing his thief crown due to a conflict with the Greek headquarters of the "common" thieves. Having settled in Europe, Lvivsky delegated "thief" powers to two "watchers" who are clearly not ready for a tough confrontation.

Other domestic lawmakers - Lera Sumsky (Serhiy Lysenko) and Umka Dnipropetrovskyi (Serhiy Oliynyk) - are also mainly outside the country, and the rest (Antik, Sharyk, Poltava) are no longer showing the former activity.

Thus, the reality of the day is the penetration into Ukraine’s territory of a new transnational criminal conglomerate capable of significantly complicating the life of domestic law enforcement agencies. And now we have the arrival in several areas of the country of "tanned caps" "experts" numbering over two dozen, representing Guli and whose task is to conduct a criminal audit of the domestic business to localize its most profitable directions.

The above is confirmed not only by information received from competent sources but also by police statistics of the first detentions of emissaries — Guli auditors in several Ukrainian cities, particularly in Vinnytsia.

Andriy Arestov, specially for «ORD»