Russian Kurdish mafia boss Aslan Usoyan discharged
from the Moscow hospital, after an unsuccessful
assassination attempt on his life.
September
27, 2010 MOSCOW, Russia,— Alleged underworld
boss Aslan Usoyan was discharged Friday from the Moscow
hospital where he was admitted after an unsuccessful
attempt on his life, Interfax reported, citing an
unidentified hospital employee.
The 73-year-old Usoyan, nicknamed Grandpa Khasan "Ded
Hasan" and considered the most influential mafia
boss on former Soviet territory, was shot in
downtown Moscow by an unidentified attacker Sept.
16. His bodyguard was also injured.
Aslan Usoyan, Kurdish by nationality, was born in
Tbilisi in 1937. As a “Vor v Zakone” (or “thief in
law”) he is banned from Georgia.
Usoyan is to name the people he suspects in the
shooting at a general meeting of crime bosses, which
will be held after he recovers, a law enforcement
source told Interfax on Friday, adding that the
gathering would probably take place in southern
Russia.
Usoyan was shot by a 9mm caliber bullet fired by an
unidentified assailant in central Moscow Sept. 16
when visiting his son. Usoyan arrived to his son’s
apartment house on Moscow’s Tverskaya Street 12/7,
which is located less than a mile from the Kremlin,
accompanied by a bodyguard.
Usoyan's body-guard Arthur Baghramyan, was shot
first at 12/7 Tverskaya Street. Usoyan attempted to
flee but the gunman's bullet struck him in the
abdomen. Usoyan and his bodyguard were hospitalized
immediately after the attack. They were operated and
are in the resuscitation department.
Usoyan is considered to be the godfather of the
mafia, controlling most criminal gangs in Russia and
CIS countries.
Usoyan calls name of his
offender
Underworld leaders met recently. During the meeting
Aslan Usoyan said he will not surrender his
“authority” and called the name of his offender.
He is confident that the only person who could
punish him is Rovshan Janiyev (Rovshan Lenkoranskiy),
the leader of the recently intensified criminal
Azerbaijani grouping in Russia and Moscow.
According to Russian press, this grouping controlled
the Cherkiz market, fruit bases and its leader
Rovshan started to occupy new areas of influence,
invading the zone of interests of Ded Hasan and
Tariel Oniani, two leaders of the main criminal
clans.
Rovshan has recently been arrested in Ukraine for
trespassing and held by the Ukrainian law
enforcement bodies.
The conflict
Usoyan, who is of Kurdish background, was one of the
most influential mafia bosses in the former Soviet
Union. After the death of Yaponchik last year he
became the the sole keeper of the legendary
all-Russian thieves’ common fund.
Aslan Usoyan, better known as "Ded Hasan" “Grandpa
Hasan,” (Granny Khasan).
Assassination attempt was videotaped
Photo: RIA Novosti
RT TV - News video in English. Rt.com
But since 2008 he got into a conflict with rival
mafia chief Tariel Oniani, 58, who also hails from
Georgia, over cash from private investors building
Olympic developments in Sochi, Kommersant reported.
That dispute cost Yaponchik his life when he was
shot in the stomach leaving a Moscow restaurant
where it is believed he was seeking to mediate that
dispute.
Oniani was blamed for the killing in the criminal
fraternity and soon after two of his underworld
allies were killed in Europe.
Moscow’s investigators are sure that September’s
attack is retaliation, as the assassination on
Usoyan and Yaponchik are very similar - both were
shot in the stomach from similar weapons.
Usoyan was aware that he was in danger and had been
hiding in Abkhazia after Yaponchik’s murder. The
investigators think the he was visiting his son in
Moscow at the time of the hit.
However, the investigators are not ruling out the
idea that the assassination was done to open up the
lucrative fund that Usoyan controlled.
New crime war?
The chances of the police solving this crime are
very slim. A code of conduct among the so-called
thieves-in-law (vory v zakone) prohibits the members
of clans to contact the investigation and means that
they should avenge their boss themselves. The guilty
are sentenced at special underworld meetings.
Law-enforcement sources fear that this assassination
attempt may start a new round in the criminal war.
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