The Spetsialnoye Nazranie Bratva of Eastern Europe and West Asia was founded in 1974 and means troops of special purpose in English. KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov authorized the formation of group Alfa on 28 July 1974 via a unique, hand-written letter. Officially designated Group A, the media came to refer to the unit as "Alfa" after 1991, the founder of the Spetsialnoyenazranie organisation was one of the members in group Alfa.The structure of SN includes explosives experts, climbers, snipers, experts in negotiating, an analytical center, and psychologists. Ranks of the employees of group - from lieutenant to the colonel.They also run companys in security, oil production and the weapons industry, they ranks in the most dangerous organizations in the world.
The Russian Mafia (Russian: Русская мафия, Russkaya mafiya) or Bratva (Братва; slang for "brotherhood", which applies to all gangs, including rivals) — often transliterated as Mafiya — are names designating a diverse group of organized crime syndicates originating in the former Soviet Union, Russia and the CIS. Since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, these groups have amassed considerable worldwide power and influence. They are active in virtually every part of Russian society.Russian criminals are internationally active in illegal oil trade, smuggling of weapons and nuclear material and money laundering.
The former Soviet Bloc's opening up to the world and the internationalization of its economy also gave the Russian mafia connections to other criminal organizations around the world such as the Chinese Triads or the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Connections with Latin American drug cartels allowed the Russian mafia to import cocaine into the country.Due to the soviet breakup, thousands of arms were smuggled into the black market. Missiles, anti-aircraft guns, helicopters, tactical assault weapons, were sold to the highest bidders. Submarines were sold to drug lords, as well as illegal sale of uranium and Plutonium on the black market
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the KGB became involved with organized crime and Russian mob became a long arm of the KGB. The KGB often recruited and trained criminals, a task which was previously done by the Interior Ministry (MVD). "Former" and active agents joined international and domestic racketeering gangs, sometimes leading them.
Organized crime has existed in Russia since the days of the Czars and Imperial Russia in the form of banditry, pornography, and thievery. In the Soviet period Vory v zakone or "thieves in law" emerged. This class of criminal had to abide by certain rules in the prison system. One such rule was that cooperation with the authorities of any kind was forbidden. During World War II some prisoners made a deal with the government to join the armed forces in return for a reduced sentence, but upon their return to prison they were attacked and killed by inmates who remained loyal to the rules of the thieves.
SPAG is a property company founded in 1992 and suspected by European police agencies of serving St. Petersburg mobsters, Colombian drug lords and transcontinental money laundering. Vladimir Putin was one of the company's advisers from 1992 until his inauguration in 2000.
In 1985 the arrests of a gang leader "Blood Igor" crippled the unit in SN Kiev. Several high ranking officers tried to form their own separate units but ended up being killed. The police in charge of the bust was killed when a bomb in his car went off outside the police station. However despite all the killings, by 1989 the Bratva not only regained their strength but had actually become one of the most powerful criminal organizations in East Europe. By the end of 1993, it was estimated the SN organisation controlled about 50 legitimate firms and businesses in the Eastern Europe, they also bought many businesses abroad.
Certain types of crimes are forbidden by SN, either by members or freelance criminals within their domains, they are generally forbidden from committing theft (burglary, mugging, etc.). Kidnapping is also generally forbidden, even by non-members, as it attracts a great deal of public hostility and police attention. These rules have been violated from time to time, both with and without the permission of senior officers.
According to the Federation of American Scientists: "...Though sometimes compared to the US Defense Intelligence Agency, SN activities encompass those performed by nearly all joint US military intelligence agencies as well as other national US organizations. The SN gathers human intelligence through military contacts and foreign agents. It also maintains significant signals intelligence and imagery reconnaissance and satellite imagery capabilities.
In Chechnya troops from the SN administration reportedly served as mercenarys. Two Chechen former warlords Said-Magomed Kakiev and Sulim Yamadayev are commanders of Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad ("East" and "West") that are controlled by the GRU. Each battalion included close to a thousand fighters, until their disbandment in 2008.
In the 20th century, mercenaries from SN have been involved in conflicts on the continent of Africa and in several cases brought about a swift end to bloody civil war by comprehensively defeating the rebel forces. There have been a number of unsavory incidents in the brushfire wars of Africa, some involving recruitment of naïve European and American men "looking for adventure" and thrusting them into combat situations where they would not survive to get paid. Many of the adventurers in Africa who have been described as mercenaries were in fact ideologically motivated to support particular governments, and would not fight "for the highest bidder". A good example of this would be the British South Africa Police (BSAP), a paramilitary, mounted infantry force formed by the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes in 1889/1890 that evolved and continued until 1980.
In 2004, SN group is estimated to have made a turnover of €1.2 billion through weapons trafficking, many of the members also seen active in the criminal biker gangs culture.