Taboos as a means of education in the culture of the Mari people. Customs and rituals of Africa - belief in taboos

Brothers' Circle brotherly circle") is an international criminal organization that consists of leaders of several criminal communities in the CIS countries and operates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.

As the US Department of the Treasury clarifies, the tasks of the “Brotherly Circle”, in particular, include resolving disputes between criminal networks.

According to the US Treasury, one of the leaders of the group is Zakhary Kalashov. The media characterize him as “the general of the Russian criminal world”, Kalashov in different time considered the leader of the ““, “” and “Brotherly” organized criminal groups. At the same time, he was involved in the restaurant and hotel business, as well as real estate transactions.

In 2000, Kalashov left Russia and settled in Spain. Local police suspected him of oil smuggling, extortion and kidnapping, as well as involvement in murders. In 2010, he was sentenced by a Spanish court to 7.5 years in prison and a fine of 20 million euros for money laundering. In 2011, the Spanish Supreme Court increased prison term Kalashova up to 9 years old. The amount of the fine that Kalashov must pay was also increased - to 22.5 million euros.

Thief in law Lasha Shushanashvili (Lasha Rustavsky)

Kalashov’s closest associate, according to the US Treasury, is Lasha Shushanashvili (Lasha Rustavsky). In 1993, Shushanashvili moved permanently to Moscow. Then he accepted Ukrainian citizenship. He owned real estate in Russia, the UAE, Greece and Spain. In January 2012, Shushanashvili was detained with a fake passport at a resort near Athens (Greece). He was expected to be extradited to Spain, where he faces charges of leading a criminal gang, money laundering and attempted murder. However, the Greek judicial authorities refused to extradite Shushanashvili to Spain. In July 2013, a court in Thessaloniki sentenced him to 14 years in prison.

Two more key members Brotherly circle, according to the US Treasury Department, Almanbet Anapiyaev and Adilet Kasenov. Former police officer Almanbet Anapiyaev was fired for connections with organized crime. He was accused of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and robbery. Adilet Kasenov, in turn, was accused of violence against a government official, illegal possession and sale firearms and explosives. In July 2012, it became known that Anapiyaev and Kasenov were detained in Abu Dhabi.

In addition, according to a press release from the US Treasury Department, criminal group include Vladislav Leontiev and Vasily Khristoforov, they are “involved in criminal activities, including drug smuggling, and participated in a shootout between regional groups of the Russian organized crime group while trying to take control of one of the local enterprises for the production of precious metals.” According to media reports, a native Nizhny Novgorod Leontyev, who has passports from Venezuela, Ghana and Greece, is wanted Russian authorities for illegal transactions with precious metals and drugs.

At the end of 2012, the US Treasury expanded the sanctions list of representatives of the “Russian mafia”. Zakhary Kalashov, brothers, thieves in law Lasha and Kakhaber Shushanashvili and their “ right hand» Koba Shemazashvilli, thief in law Temuri Mirzoev (Timur Sverdlovsky, nephew of Ded Khasan), thief in law Vladimir Vagin (Vagon), thief in law Vasily Khristoforov (Vasya Voskres), Kamchibek Kolbaev, his henchmen Anapiyaev and Kasenov, Gafur Rakhimov, thief in law Vladislav Leontiev and three of his henchmen - Lazar Shaybazyan, Alexander Manuylov and Alexey Zaitsev.

On October 31, 2013, it became known that singer Grigory Leps, as well as Russians Vadim Lyalin and Igor Shlykov, were included in the sanctions list of the US Treasury Department for their alleged connection with Brothers’ Circle.

The list also includes Israeli Yakov Rybalsky, citizen of Uzbekistan Sergei Moskalenko, Artur Badalyan, whose citizenship and place of residence are not indicated. In addition, four companies were blacklisted - the Russian MS Group Invest OOO and Gurgen House FZCO, the Austrian Meridian Jet Management GmbH and the company Fasten Tourism LLC, which is located in the United Arab Emirates.

According to the American authorities, Lyalin is the liaison of the head of the “Brotherly Circle” Vladislav Leontyev, Leps is allegedly involved in transporting money, and Shlykov is responsible for obtaining the necessary certificates and developing “business” in Africa. Sanctions were imposed on Rybalsky and Moskalenko because of their possible connection with the second person in the “Brotherly Circle” -. According to the US Treasury Department, Badalyan owns Fasten Tourism, through which members of the group allegedly send money and organize trips.
To others cash flow Managed, according to the US Treasury, by Gurgen House, it has representative offices in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the UAE.

November 2nd, 2013 , 08:22 pm

The "Brotherly Circle" group, with which the United States suspects connections Russian singer Grigory Leps, never came to the attention of Russian law enforcement agencies and intelligence services. Sources in Russian law enforcement agencies reported this to ITAR-TASS.

“This group, apparently, simply does not exist. “She never showed up in any databases,” several interlocutors said at once. They suggested that “there is simply the name ‘Brotherly Circle,’ but no one knows any of its specific members and has never detained them.”

The source also noted that the term “Russian mafia” is used in relation to criminal communities and large criminal groups consisting of citizens of the former Soviet Union.

“Criminal groups operating abroad are multinational and may include representatives of any country. Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to characterize them as a “mafia” in connection with any one nationality,” the sources said.

Back in July 2011, the US President signed a decree imposing sanctions against large crime syndicates. Then the list included the Italian Camorra, the Japanese Yakuza, the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas and the Russian Bratva, called the Brotherhood Circle. “But almost all representatives of the “Brotherhood” or “Family of Eleven” group (as thieves in law, headed by the late Vyacheslav Ivankov-Yaponchik, were called in the USA in the 90s) are either already dead or have retired and are engaged in legal business , mainly in the republics former USSR,” other agency sources said.

On October 30, the US Department of the Treasury announced that it had added Arthur Badalyan, Grigory Lepsveridze (Grigory Leps), Vadim Lyalin, Sergei Moskalenko, Yakov Rybalsky and Igor Shlykov to its watch lists on suspicion of belonging to the Eurasian crime syndicate “Brotherly Circle”. Leps himself called the story of his being included in the sanctions lists “delusional,” the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin expects to receive more detailed data on this situation.

Sources in several Russian law enforcement agencies reported that they had not received any requests from the United States regarding the singer Grigory Leps, noting that, like everyone else, they got acquainted with this information via the Internet.

“We cannot understand what the US Treasury Department’s claims against Leps are based on; let it be their business,” said one of the agency’s interlocutors.

The US Treasury Department announced that it has expanded the number of representatives of the “Russian mafia” against whom sanctions are being imposed. Now the “black list” includes Russian lawyer Vadim Lyalin and famous singer Grigory Leps. According to American intelligence services, these people are connected with thief in law Vladislav Leontyev. Lyalin, who was recently in the United States, is surprised that he, a lawyer, is being persecuted for his professional activity. However, he does not express any serious concern about what happened. Leps, who has known Leontyev for almost 20 years, was also not very upset by such sanctions.

On October 30, 2013, the US Department of the Treasury issued a special message on its website about the imposition of sanctions against six people and four legal entities, who are allegedly associated with the mafia group “Brotherly Circle” and two of its alleged leaders - Vladislav Leontyev and Gafur Rakhimov. The sanctions provide for a ban in the United States on conducting financial or commercial transactions with these people and firms, as well as the “freezing” of their assets. The Ministry of Finance explained its actions by the need to “break the illegal financial networks that provide income and support the global criminal activities” of Leontyev and Rakhimov.
Among the people subject to sanctions for their relationship with thief in law Bely are his lawyer Vadim Lyalin and singer Grigory Lepsveridze ( creative pseudonym Grigory Leps). According to the Ministry of Finance, the lawyer “serves as a channel for transmitting messages from Listyev,” and the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation “transports Leontyev’s money.”

Also, for connections with the “criminal general,” sanctions are imposed on businessman Igor Shlykov, who is engaged in air transportation. “Shlykov worked to obtain Leontyev’s identity documents and developed commercial projects in Africa on Leontyev’s behalf,” the US claims. On this basis, measures will be taken against companies controlled by Shlykov (MS group invest limited, Meridian LLC and Jet management gmbh).
According to the US Treasury, the company Gurgen House FZCO, controlled by businessman Lazar Shaybazyan, acts in the interests of Leontyev and has its offices in the UAE, Uzbekistan and Russia.

“I was Vladislav Leontiev’s neighbor in the UAE, and after learning about his problems with the Americans, I began to provide him with legal services, absolutely free of charge,” Vadim Lyalin told Rosbalt. - As a result, I managed to ensure that Leontyev received a passport as a citizen of the Russian Federation, Interpol stopped his international search. This was possible because initially the US claims against Leontyev were far-fetched and did not stand up to any criticism. Now Leontiev moves quietly around the world, he has been to the USA and Thailand. He recently had a baby. He hasn’t come to Russia for ten years.”

According to Lyalin, he himself traveled to the United States in 2013, the American embassy calmly gave him a visa, and there were no problems on the territory of this country. “I was an officer in one of the special forces of the internal troops, took part in operations in the North Caucasus, fought terrorism, including international terrorism, was awarded state awards, and now some sanctions have been imposed on me. These measures are not justified. Why am I being persecuted? For fulfilling my professional duties as a lawyer. This is complete nonsense. The American intelligence services just need to show that they are not receiving billions of dollars from the budget for nothing. This is why the appearance of fighting organized crime is created. I’m sure they didn’t even find out who Lyalin and Leps were and what connected them with Leontyev. To be honest, I didn’t like either the USA or the Americans themselves. That’s why I wasn’t particularly upset about the sanctions.”

As the defense attorney noted to the agency, he periodically communicates with Leontyev, and recently brought a group of journalists from the 24 TV channel to him to interview him. It is noteworthy that it was Lyalin who recently raised the topic with complicated story about a plane with 20 billion euros allegedly parked at Sheremetyevo airport. As if this money belonged to Saddam Hussein and was taken out of Iraq when the United States began the war in this country.
According to Rosbalt, Grigory Leps met Vladislav Leontyev in the early 1990s. Then the singer performed in Sochi restaurants, which Bely also visited. Since then they have maintained friendly relations and sometimes meet abroad. If there are financial relations between the thief in law and the honored artist, then, according to a source familiar with the situation, they are not of a criminal nature. The same Rosbalt source suggested that when Leontyev was in Thailand, his telephone conversations and meetings were recorded. And, as you know, law enforcement agencies of the United States and Thailand maintain close relations. Now the results of this operational work have resulted in sanctions.

“Today I talked with Grigory Leps, he reacted to what was happening with humor,” Vadim Lyalin told the agency. “His position is this: they don’t want to see me in the USA - and there’s no need.”
It is worth noting that the Americans’ claims against the lawyer and singer really look far-fetched. It is difficult to imagine that the US Treasury would impose sanctions on lawyers for the Gotti mafia family simply because they communicate with clients. Or in relation to the singer Jennifer Lopez, who often performs at closed parties in Russia, where guests also include representatives of the criminal world.

As Rosbalt already reported, in July 2011, US President Barack Obama signed a decree imposing sanctions against four transnational criminal groups, including the “Brotherly Circle” or “Family of Eleven” (as this organized crime group is listed in FBI documents).

According to the decision of the US President, the property and accounts of all members of the Brotherhood Circle, as well as businessmen associated with them, must be frozen. All entrepreneurs and firms that decide to provide any assistance to groups and structures associated with them will be considered participants in a “criminal conspiracy.”
For a long time, Russian operatives could not understand which “Family of Eleven” Barack Obama was talking about, until they found an FBI letter sent to Moscow back in the early 1990s. In it, this name is used to designate the inner circle of thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik). Moreover, most of the people named in the letter, including Yaponchik himself, were no longer alive by 2011. However, it turned out that the US authorities are forming a new “Family of Eleven”, and the number of its members will be much greater than the figure indicated in the name of the organized crime group.

According to the US Treasury website, up to today The list of members of the “Brotherly Circle” subject to sanctions is as follows: Zakhary Kalashov, his wife Marina, brothers “thieves in law” Lasha and Kakhaber Shushanashvili and their “right hand” “thief in law” Koba Shemazashvili, “thief in law” Temuri Mirzoev (Timur Sverdlovsky, nephew of Ded Khasan), thief in law Vladimir Vagin (Vagon), thief in law Vasily Khristoforov (Vasya Voskres), Kamchybeka Kolbaev, his henchmen Anapiyaev and Kasenov, Gafur Rakhimov, thief in law Vladislav Leontiev and three of his henchmen - Lazar Shaybazyan, Alexander Manuylov and Alexey Zaitsev.

Alexander Shvarev

When such elements as rights and truth take the complete form of the doctrine of welfare, customs rise to a higher stage in their development. They become a source of creative transformation and constructive influence on people and society as a whole. In this case, we can safely call them morals. Mores are customs that include philosophical and ethical judgments about the well-being of society, which will certainly come if, of course, people consistently observe them. Morals are a way of doing something that currently serves to satisfy human needs in society, coupled with the ideas, beliefs, codes and standards of well-being that are generated in this way and are genetically associated with it. Morals express a specific type of character (ethos) of a society, or historical period. They determine the style of thinking in all areas and return people from the world of abstractions to the world of action. Only after a person has unconsciously submitted to this or that morality does he realize, after some reflection, what exactly happened to him. They do not depend on subjective arbitrariness and desires individual, but at the same time they are not something that resembles the action of natural laws

Taboo.

For the most part, customs include taboos that tell native tribes what they should not do. Taboos partly originate from the mystical fear of spirits who have the power to punish the living for inappropriate actions. But taboos also include other elements: they are formed by their own life experience, reluctance to repeat such actions that caused disapproval of fellow tribesmen, or led to social troubles, for example, caused a war with a neighboring tribe, undermined health, caused the death of a fellow tribesman. Such taboos are literally permeated with elements of philosophy, in contrast to everyday permissive rules of behavior. And this is not surprising, because the taboo contains a reference to reflection and reasonable explanation. Primitive taboos were based on the idea of the world that human life surrounded by all sorts of restrictions and prohibitions. Foraging is limited by avoiding poisonous plants. Physical health was constantly threatened by all sorts of dangers. Taboos were good because they accumulated the wisdom and life ingenuity of entire generations, the ability of ancestors to survive failures, be treated for diseases, and avoid dangers. Another type of taboo concerned what was unacceptable or, conversely, acceptable to the tribe as a whole - these were laws regulating sexual relations, the way of warfare, the treatment of ancestral spirits or property. They included other elements - judgments social philosophy. These were not only mystical, but also pragmatic considerations.

Taboos can be divided into two classes: Preserving and permissive. The goal of the former is to guarantee and secure, the goal of the latter is to eradicate and suppress. There were special taboos for women, directly directed against them, as a source of evil and danger for men. But another group of taboos protected women from everything that was associated with risk and danger to health. Thus, taboos acted selectively, thereby directing the course of development of civilization. Along with taboos, ancient tribes had such a concept as ritual.