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| | Good Thieves, Bad Thieves |
 | | In April this year, a list of 266 "thieves-in-law" -- the godfathers of the Russian yakuza, or Japanese mafia -- was published in a newspaper called Who's Who. |
 | | Shortly afterwards, the owner of Who's Who, the parliamentary deputy Andrei Azderdzis, was found shot dead, apparently by contract killers.The Russian "thieves-in-law," as I wrote last week, are the bosses of a criminal system that seems to have originated in Stalin's prisons, but which may date back to pre-revolutionary times. |
 | | The "thief-in-law," who had to be nominated and crowned by at least two other "thieves," traditionally started out as a prison or camp "baron," a man who dispensed justice, organized prison labor and sentenced informers to death. |
| www.themoscowtimes.com /stories/1994/06/11/026.html (248 words) |
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