Epress.am News from Armenia
Ukrainian Movement Against Illegal Immigration Director Yaroslav Dunayev urged the authorities to toughen the fight against “ethnic organized crime.” He blames the country’s law enforcement bodies in keeping their eyes closed to organized crime.
In particular, pointing to “Armenian groups,” Dunayev said that they were never on top of the crime wave, but have always been within the “range.”
“For example, in the mid-90s, local Armenian businessman, bright representative of the Armenian community, [and] member of the Party of Pensioners [of Ukraine] Samvel Khandamiryan settled in Kharkov.He maintained close relations with another crime boss Vladimir Bodaprosto, nicknamed the Spaniard, who recently died in a car accident,” he said.
According to Dunayev, since the country’s Minister of Internal Affairs has lost control over the development of ethnic Armenian crime, it raised its head, mainly in Zaporozhye region.
“We’re talking about Rafael and Eduard Sargsyans’ organized crime syndicates. In addition, according to some estimates, some areas of the Kirovograd region are controlled by Armenian gangs,” he said.
“Until 2009, ‘vor’ [“thief by law”] Armen Kanevsky oversaw Armenian organized crime groups. In 2008, he tried to ‘crown’ his younger brother Artyom in Yalta, which didn’t happen. He was arrested in early 2009 in Russia. An additional nine thieves were arrested on March 11, in the Ukraine hotel restaurant, including Lera Sumsko and Armen’s nephew, Artur Harutyunyan. However, it’s too early to say that Armenian organized crime groups won’t remind us about them [i.e. the case is far from being closed],” said Dunayev, according to Russian-language news source Evening News.