hey guys in this video we're going to
talk about an interesting phenomenon
that was in Russia in
the late 1980s and all throughout the
1990s. The Russian mafia. So the
government was in turmoil at
that time and the police were losing
their grip and a large part of
population were just starving and so
boys from the neighborhood just like in
America started forming gangs and most of them were athletes so
they wanted to apply their athletic
skills to something bigger to build some
kind of career. This was a career! You
know gangsters were glorified at the
time. It was cool to be a gangster it was
cool to be fearless it was cool to
be tough. You know but these guys were
very different from American street
gangs you know I always found it amusing
that American street gangs always remain
street gangs you know.  they never turned
into something bigger they never go into
the government you know never becoming
the Mafia. Well these Russian dudes were
on a whole another level because many of
them had higher education. They were
smarter they had a more strategic
mindset and they were planning bigger
things. They knew that if they could
survive a few years then they might
control a major part of Russia. Like
nobody knew what was going to happen in
the future but they knew they had
to survive and fight for their
place under the Sun.Although this was
going on all over the country I'm just
gonna focus on the local scene in
Yekaterinburg but trust me this thing
was happening all over the country in
every single city I'm gonna be showing
you modern-day footage of Yekaterinburg
just to keep you entertained and I hope
you stay with me. At the end of the video
I'm gonna show you some cool places some
cool mafia places that are still around
today. Allright so let's continue the
story! At the beginning of the 1990s
there were three major criminal
organizations in my city Uralmash was
the biggest. It got its name from the
part of town with the same name - Uralmash and the part of town got its name
from the biggest factory they had. The
name was Ural Machinery plant so Uralmash
for short.
Most of those boys were athletes who
found it hard to make ends meet and they
were looking for ways to apply their
athletic skills to build some form of
career. The idea of being a member of the
Mafia was promising at the time. Even pop
singers had songs 'like mom I fell in
love with a gangster' you know. That
glorified gangsters another gang was
the central gang. They got this name because
they were based in the central part of
the city. They were controlling some local
businesses and they started the first
casino in the city.
The third gang was the traditional
criminal organization of thieves in law
or the blue guys. Blue because they had
prison tattoos. It's a well structured
organization that's still around today.
In the 1990s they had to step back a
little because these new guys were too
ambitious, too trigger-happy and they had
nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Uralmash, the first one, was the biggest
of the three. There were two guys in
charge of their organization, two
brothers. And as the two gangs(Central and Uralmash) were
bumping heads constantly and settling 
disputes with one another from time to
time the central gang decided to make a
hit on one of the brothers, killing him
and his bodyguards right in the center
of the city. That was a fatal mistake
this launched an all-out war between the
two gangs. Uralmash was more
powerful and they had more soldiers and
by 1993 most leaders of the central gang
were assassinated and the Uralmash 
dominated the region and way beyond.
Their most blatant act of power showcase
was that same year when they launched
an RPG rocket into the regional
government building as a way of
intimidation and showing who's the real
boss in the city. Just to give you the
scope of their operations: one of the
rival leaders was killed in Budapest,
Hungary. In 1995 they were best buddies
with the governor and even were
registering a political party. One of
the last members of the central gang was
assassinated in
2000.I remember I was at a gym and our
boxing coach walked in cursing and
screaming they killed Klementiev.
he was a very influential figure indeed
he had friends like Dolph Lundgren, the
actor. He was driving his G-wagon at the
time and they killed him with a machine
gun firing an endless number of bullets.
Just so you can feel the atmosphere of
the 1990s
let's walk into the Central Hotel where
they used to be a casino and it was the
headquarters of the central gang. Let's
go!
As these organizations were evolving
they went from street crime, direct
violence to something like legal
business, buying companies, taking
companies over and at one point that had
so much money they had more money than
the whole region. So they had to become
legal in some way. They they formed a
political party and they became members
of the local Parliament. While without a
doubt there were bad guys they were
starting to change their communities for
the better by trying to stop drug sales
and they started building sport centers
for the youth. Trying to promote sports
lifestyle and living drug-free
This might sound contradictory but it
was something like you know the
Godfather when he was against bringing
drugs into New York. At one point the
Uralmash members came to this part of
town where most drug sales were taking
place. It was a gipsy neighborhood and
they brought something like 500
gangsters with them in black leather
jackets and stood there for 30 minutes.
It was a sign. It was a warning. That if
we have to come here again you're gonna
regret it. Of course all these gang wars
left a lot of people dead and now we
have mafia cemeteries this is one. These are not your regular tombs these
are like real monuments. Looks really
impressive.
What happened next? In 2004 Uralmash 
members challenged the traditional
thieves-in-law in Moscow because they
had commercial plans in Yekaterinburg.
And the leader of Uralmash Alexander
Khabarov was arrested and found dead in
his jail cell
a few days later. This crime hasn't been
solved. Ever since then the organization
went undercover. Some of its leaders were
later arrested abroad and brought to
Russia... Okay I hope you guys enjoyed the
story and if you have some questions
feel free to ask me. Thanks for watching
and stay tuned! bye
