Russian Mafia Expert Rates 10 Russian Mob Scenes In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider

Joe Serio, former CIA agent and Russian mafia investigator, rates Russian mob scenes in movies and TV, such as "John Wick," for realism.

Serio breaks down common tropes about the Russian mafia, such as the role of hitmen in "John Wick" (2014), starring Keanu Reeves; the relationship between the Russian mafia and the Italian Mafia in "The Sopranos" S3E4 + S310 + S3E11 (2001), starring James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli; and the portrayal of other organized crime groups originating from the former Soviet Union, such as the Chechen mafia, in "Barry" S1E1 + S2E1 + S3E5 (2018-2022), starring Bill Hader. He explains the culture of the Russian mafia groups, such their origins from Russian prisons and the importance of tattoos in "Eastern Promises," starring Viggo Mortensen; the presence of Russian mafia groups in the United States in "Lord of War," with Nicolas Cage; and their global reach and influence as depicted in "Our Kind of Traitor," starring Ewan McGregor — where Serio connects real-life mob bosses, such as Semion Mogilevich and Otari Kvantrishvili. He also discusses the criminal activities of Russian mafia groups, such as human trafficking "The Equalizer," starring Denzel Washington; and "The Boys" S3E4 (2022); the concept of a common fund in "Nobody"; and their operations in Russia in "Брат" ("Brother") (1997) and GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan.

Serio lived in the former Soviet Union and present-day Russia for nearly 10 years. He was the only American to work in the Organized Crime Control Department of the Soviet national police. Eventually, he worked as a security consultant, and later as the Director of Operations, for Kroll Associates — a global corporate investigation and business intelligence firm — where he conducted investigations on Russian mafia groups. He was also a CIA agent for five years in Moscow, where he provided information regarding Russian organized crime. Serio wrote two books focusing on the Russian mafia and his life in Moscow, "Investigating the Russian Mafia" and "Vodka, Hookers, and the Russian Mafia: My Life in Moscow."

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You can find his books about the Russian mafia here:

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Russian Mafia Expert Rates 10 Russian Mob Scenes In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider

[paulbonaventura]

Paulie - "he was an interior decorator" Christopher - " his house looked like sh*t"

[Narfwak]

Shame everyone forgets about S2 of The Wire. "Did he have hands? Did he have a face? Yes? Then it wasn't us." Such a crazy line.

[lllKRENDELLLlll]

A comment from a random Russian, which is missing here.
As an ethnic Russian who has born and lived in Russia all his life, I will say this. I have mixed impressions of this video and here's why.

On the one hand, I agree with many of the arguments of this expert, i.e. in general, he is telling the truth. On the other hand, he doesn't finish a significant piece of information, literally basic information. And that's the point.

The fact is that the Russian mafia is an exclusively English-language term that literally summarizes the entire crime of Russia/the USSR, but the truth is that there is no single crime and it is divided into both national criminal groups (Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Ukrainians, Jews, Gypsies, etc.) and ideological groups.

And here's the most interesting part.
The so-called "Russian mafia" is divided into two ideological criminal groups that literally hate each other. The first is the "thieves' community" and the second is the "bandits". That's exactly what they were called in Russia.

The "thieves' community" is based on the name of this group of thieves of various stripes, i.e. thieves: "wet" (killers), homes (burglars), beares (safecracker), the tweezer (pickpockets - an elite of thieves) etc. "The thieves' community" originated in the Russian Empire and its creation is attributed to Stalin, who was an anarchist terrorist in tsarist times. It was he who, just like the Italian mafia, came up with a whole "code of thieves" for thieves, they literally had their own strict hierarchy and principles, violation of which was punishable by death or descent to the level of a doormat.
The main principle of thieves is complete contempt for the authorities, which means that they do not have the right to earn money in an honest way, i.e. to have a business; to work for the country or for people connected with the state; to cooperate with the state. Serve in the army.
They are all thieves and their credo is to steal from the state. Since they are in 100% opposition to the government, they are forced to literally live in isolation from society. For self-identification, they developed a number of tattoos that spoke about them and their merits, and they were responsible for these tattoos with blood, i.e. if someone just tattooed a thief (as thieves' tattoos were called), they were forced to cut out their tattooed skin with a knife. So the thieves had their own language, it was called "fenya", so they could talk about their business in public, and no one but the thieves understood them.
"The thieves had a community", to which each of them contributed his share. The most important thief, the "thief in law", kept the communal apartment. All thieves, like "thieves in law", were forbidden to live in luxury, otherwise they could literally be killed.

The main weapon of all the thieves was a homemade knife "finka" similar to a bayonet, with which they literally stabbed their victims.
Thieves never attacked first. At first, they talked about putting tremendous pressure on the victim, a kind of psychological hypnosis. If the victim didn't respond to the conversation, then they used force.
Prison is a home for a thief. They all felt at home in the prison/"zone" because all prisons and "zones" lived according to thieves' laws and were controlled by thieves.
Russian Russian mafia: As you can see, the hierarchy and principles are very similar to the Italian mafia, which is why Russian thieves began to be called the "Russian mafia".

In the 90s, chaos and lawlessness began in Russia. A new team of Russian crime has entered the criminal arena - bandits.
And these are already strong Russian men who were all involved in sports and martial arts. Unlike thieves, bandits did not like to talk and often beat them first, and then, taking advantage of the victim's fright, they demanded what they needed. What the thieves really didn't like was that they were always responsible for their words, whereas bandits could insult just for fun.
Bandits were not thieves, but they were robbers and raiders (although technically they were the same thieves - they robbed and killed.), i.e. they did not take by cunning and skills, but by force and fear. They did not recognize the code of thieves and did not obey the rules of thieves, which is why thieves called them boundless (spitting on the law and acting the way he wants) and killed them for lawlessness in the "thieves' community".
Thus, thieves and bandits literally hated each other, and when bandits began to enter the zone en masse, they began to create their own prison groups to take away some of the thieves' influence. So gangsters and thieves' clusters began to appear in prisons, and often both groups staged pogroms and chaos.
Unlike thieves, bandits earned money by any means, i.e. robbed, killed, extorted, and even engaged in business.
Actually, in all Western films, you all see bandits because of their behavior and methods of crime. Vigo Mortensen's character portrayed a thief, but behaved like a bandit. This is a complete Hollywood fiction crap.

p.s. Another important point. Thieves had a code of honor... They hated rapists of children and women and killed them in prison. They did not rape other prisoners for nothing, but only as punishment for a serious offense.
The bandits did what they wanted. Bandits have a saying: "Look where I am and where the future is, " meaning they lived as if this day was their last day of life.

After my comment, you can conclude how complete the picture you saw and how it fits in with what I said..)

[WTFisTingispingis]

In John Wick's defense, Viggo was _quick_ to try and talk it out with John first when he found out what happened.

[MrMartena]

Thank god 'Eastern Promises' gets as much attention in this video as it deserves. Truly a masterpiece of story telling.

[westnilesnipes]

10/10 breakdown just for Brother alone lol. Love that movie.

[andrewpiltenko]

One thing to point out is that pretty much always the russian language in Hollywood movies is heavily butchered or the accent is pretty much always wrong. With the exception of some background extras portrayed by russian actors.

[XS]

There was interview with some Italian Mafioso where he was asked about Russians, he said: These are the most punctual people I have met. And indeed in Russia it's considered to be rude to be late or to not hold your word. So when they make threats you should know they're real, they're not just trying to scare you, they're bluntly telling you what is going to happen.

[DRUGGED_PARAMILITARY]

Honestly, surprisingly well made video. The guy definitely knows what he's talking about. Rare quality for those sort of videos. Mentions of things like "Brat" or Butyrka prison was really surprising

[raccoons_finest]

fun fact eastern promises. after filming, Viggo left the tattoos on his body and they went to a restaurant. when the people there saw the tattoos, it became dead quiet and several customers left the restaurant. after that he always had the tattoos removed.

[АлександрГлухарев-рф]

As a Russian I just have to like this video for bringing up the "Brother" ("Brat"). I guess a CIA operative would be the best consultant for a movie about bratva or thieves.

[norwegianblue]

I watched a reaction channel from a Russian girl. She didn't have any insights into the Russian mob, but she was truly impressed how many things Eastern Promises got right with the language and culture.

[tommyt]

Viggo and Cronenberg had a few long discussions about the bath house scene, supposedly David wanted Vig to wear his towel the entire time, Vig said if they wanted it to have the proper impact, he had to do it nude. I think it’s the finest thing Cronenberg has shot outside of his horror films.

[BigBear--]

BRAT/BRAT 2, and Бригада (Law of the Lawless), are probably the two best movies and shows about the Russian Mob. There are other good ones, but these are like the gold standard.

[nickscanlon]

Somebody get Paul Giamatti a script of this guy’s career ASAP

[ChairmanMeow]

Eastern Promises is still one of the most brutal movies Ive ever seen in my life. That fight scene in the shower, jesus.

[paranidherc]

I mean, they meant Babaika, not Baba Yaga, it was just an error that has been fixed after the movie was released in the BluRay versions. Which is why he calls him the Boogeyman, not Scary Old Woman.

[ofcatarina]

"I don't like this scene, bathhouse were generally places of safety." That is the of the point of the scene man. They're doing him dirty.

[quiteenough]

The Brother 1997 russian movie by Alexei Balabanov had an enormous budget of $10k or so, actors were paid something by only food and had to bring their own clothes. As a Russian I'm not a fan of this movie for ethnical reasons, but it captures Saint Petersburg, the city I live now and grew up, captures the 1990s and my childhood feeling from the city, and also touches upon the issue of organized crime growth after first Chechen war. The movie misunderstood quite a lot, director actually made Danila an anti-hero, but director's ambiguous style made people think that was Danila sort of a folk hero.

In Brother 2 (2000) director was mocking this idea of Danila being folk hero, making him saying and doing stuff pretty much on the nose quite sarcastically, but people loved Danila (and the movie) even more. The actor Sergei Bodrov Jr. that played in both Brothers tragically lost his life in the Kolka–Karmadon rock ice slide at the end of the second day of shooting of his movie "The messenger" in 2002. He was 30 years old. 125 people died that day in that tragedy. His body was never found, hence the urban legends that he's actually alive and just went for solitary life in Caucasian mountains.

I personally not a fan of Balabanov movies in general, but he made quite a few interesting ones, including "Of Freaks and Men" 1998 (Про уродов и людей), about adult photo makers during last years of imperial Russia.

[genin]

Ah no ways! Lord of War! At 16:29 I'm the blonde guy on the left. That scene was shot in Cape Town South Africa. Was fun to meet Nicholas Cage. Also got to meet Michelle rodriguez at the afterparty. That film got me an imdb rating but also broke my thumb during one of the takes. The idiot on my right wasnt a stunt man and dove with the ak47 right onto my thumb