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In the 1990s, “Angert’s Gang” in Odesa, Ukraine, was a powerhouse of crime. It diverted fuel sales from the reliably corrupt Odesa Refinery, extorted local businessmen, and even arranged the murders of local enemies and politicians. Then it disappeared, its only visible legacy the political career of Gennadiy Trukhanov, a former member and now Odesa’s mayor. Over time, the gang’s crimes have been forgotten and the money they stole was presumed to be long gone. Until now.
continues @ link above
Strange that you talk about Odesa without once mentioning that it's in Ukraine.
Strangely though, you only mention Russian oligarchs.
Does Russia run Odessa? Or did Kiev hire a wanted Georgian criminal and madman to run Odesa?
What are you on about? Angert (“the Angel”) has been the Don of the Odesa mafiya since the mid-1990's.
Angert, his protege Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, and Russian Oligarch Alexander Zhukov formed the Odesa mafiya troika.
Angert reportedly died of cancer overseas, but few believe it.
Is this your bekated acknowledgement the total inability of Ukraine's regime to tackle a foreign mafia oligarchy?
Did Saakashvili do a bad job or was he frustrated by the unwillingness of the Kiev putsch regime to do anything about corruption?
Is there corruption in the Odesa government? Yes. I've posted of it previously. It's no secret. And ... it's indigenous. Learn that word.
Poroshenko felt that Saakashvili was a political threat that he didn't need. The mafiya in Odesa also wanted him gone.
What nonsense. Corruption exists only where the authorities have no interest in preventing it.
Rogue Valley:
When did the English spelling of Odessa/Odesa change and how does that change the pronunciation in English? Given the new spelling is it now pronounced Oh-dee-sah or Oh-dee-zah? Or does it remain Oh-dess-sah? Revisionism for revision's sake really annoys me.
And what's with the extra "y" in Mafia?
Actually, the spellings changed at independence in 1991. But the West was hardly aware of Ukraine. However, great strides in this have been made since Maidan. The Ukraine government has been asking foreign governments/media (via ambassadors) to change the transliteration of Ukraine place names according to the wishes of the Ukraine government. Kiev is Kyiv. Odessa is Odesa. Lvov is Lviv. Zaporozhye is Zaporizhzhia. etc. Also, it is simply... Ukraine, not the Ukraine. Towards the end of December, Poland switched....
Sorry. It is how mafia is spelled the eastern European neighborhood. Just like Maria is spelled Mariya. Sometimes my languages get a bit commingled.
PS. And the vocalization remains Oh-dess-sah.
Rogue Valley:
Thank you for taking the time and effort on the three points of clarification for me. I appreciate that.
I still suspect it's mostly revision for revision's sake and that Ukrainian ambassadors are ignoring the rules of English pronunciation (one "s" after the "e" means that the "e" is long) to make a political point but in a world of linguistic drift that kind of thing is occuring all the time, I guess.
That causes me to ask the next annoying question. Why do Ukrainian authorities care how foreigners spell their city names in foreign languages? It seems a function of deep-rooted national insecurity (the psychological kind and not the military type) that Ukrainian authorities are lobbying governments and media sources to change the spelling of Odesa/Odessa in foreign languages. I can understand the Lvov/Lviv change, lots of bad blood there between the Poles and the Russians/Ukrainians and I can understand and support the dropping of the definite article before Ukraine, but dropping an "s" from Odessa in a foreign language when that omission changes the pronunciation by the rules of that foreign language seems silly. Should we now call You-Krame by the name Uk-rane and just ignore our own rules of pronunciation again?
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