History Main / TheMafiya

* The Bratva is one of the street gangs in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'', depicted as stereotypical, tracksuit-wearing ''gopniki'' (to the point that even their ''[[MookMobile cars]]'' have Adidas stripes running down them). They also have elements of [[KosherNostra Jewish gangsters]], which puts them in conflict with the white supremacist [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Sons of Ragnarok]].

* A ''suka'' or ''ssuchenniy'' (lit. "bitch") is any former member of the Mafiya who tries to reform and aid the law. These are the enemies of any Mafiya members, and that's why you should [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch never ever]] call any Russian criminal a bitch. A variant is the ''avtomatchik'' (lit. "machine-gunner"), who left prison to fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and found themselves back in prison after the war -- even they were considered a kind of ''suka''. This led to a long-standing taboo (since abandoned) of accepting people who once wore a uniform into the Mafiya and led to the bloody "''Suchyi Voyny''" ("Bitch Wars") in TheGulag between the end of WWII in 1945 and the death of Stalin in 1953 (at which point changes in the Gulag led to the separation of the avtomatchiks from the more traditional vory).

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In season 1, Vladimir and Anatoly Ranskahov are capos who relocated to New York City, and traffick women and drugs through Hell's Kitchen. Their outfit serves as one of several to make up Wilson Fisk's crime syndicate, alongside factions of the Triads and the Yakuza. They serve as the first of the criminal gangs in Hell's Kitchen to be targeted by Matt Murdock and the first to openly express discontent with Fisk's leadership. The latter results in a chain of events that end in Fisk brutally murdering Anatoly, then liquidating the rest of the Ranskahov crew for good measure.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In season 1, Vladimir and Anatoly Ranskahov are capos who relocated to New York City, and traffick women and drugs through Hell's Kitchen. Their outfit serves as one of several to make up Wilson Fisk's crime syndicate, alongside factions of the Triads and the Yakuza. They serve as the first of the criminal gangs in Hell's Kitchen to be targeted by Matt Murdock and the first to openly express discontent with Fisk's leadership. The latter results in a chain of circumstances that end in Fisk brutally murdering Anatoly, then liquidating the rest of the Ranskahov crew for good measure.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'' has Vladimir and Anatoly Ranskahov, who operated as capos in Moscow and later relocated to New York City, using a taxi company as their front. There's also their rival Prohaska, who also has a front taxi company until he's killed in an assassination arranged by Wilson Fisk. Vladimir and Anatoly are both the first Hell's Kitchen's organized crime syndicate targeted by Matt Murdock and the first to openly express discontent with Fisk's leadership, which doesn't end well for either of them.

* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', the Mafiya is represented in [[WretchedHive Roanapur]] by Hotel Moscow, a group of [[FromCamouflageToCriminal ex-Airborne Troops]] led by TheBaroness Balalaika. They're greatly feared in the area for their ruthlessness, personal loyalty to Balalaika . However, it's ''heavily'' suggested later in the series that Hotel Moscow is actually a front organization for Russian intelligence that allows them to [[PlausibleDeniability deniably]] have a foothold in a potential conflict zone, similarly to the real-world Wagner Group: Balalaika is even able to act with DiplomaticImpunity in Japan at one point.

* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', the Mafiya is represented in [[WretchedHive Roanapur]] by Hotel Moscow, a group of [[FromCamouflageToCriminal ex-Airborne Troops]] led by TheBaroness Balalaika. It's ''heavily'' suggested that the criminal nature of Hotel Moscow is just a front for having a large, well-trained and self-sufficient special forces unit with plausible deniability in a potentially "hot" region. Just look at Balalaika's connections!

* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': In ''ComicBook/Hawkeye2012'', Clint gets into a feud with a bunch of dumb but dangerous Russian gangsters who are responsible for street-level crime in his neighborhood.

* In the 2012-on ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'' solo title, Hawkeye gets into a feud with a bunch of dumb but dangerous Russian gangsters who are responsible for street-level crime in his neighborhood.

Russian mobsters engage in all the same activities as [[TheMafia Italian mobsters]] but are typically depicted as [[RuthlessForeignGangsters much more openly ruthless, sadistic, brutal, and vicious]] -- in other words, totally lacking [[FauxAffablyEvil the veneer of class and sophistication]] that [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster many depictions]] of the Italian Mafia have [[TheCoconutEffect built up around the organization]]. The thinking is that because they had to operate in [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]], UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia or some other former Soviet countries, they are by definition [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong stronger than your average mobster]].

These are also distinct from the ''gopnik'', or Russian GangBanger,[[note]]A noted Canadian-American essayist/commentator of Russian Jewish descent by the name of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Gopnik Adam Gopnik]] was simultaneously amused, horrified, and mystified to find this out[[/note]] who's basically just the garden-variety petty criminal youth from the WrongSideOfTheTracks. They're not in the Mafiya -- they're just interested in petty crime and beating the crap out of rival ''gopniki''. A relatively recent development is the "AUE" subculture, which consists mostly of underage ''gopniki'' who still aren't in the Mafiya but pretend they are and really want to join. Actual career criminals tend to see them as useful idiots, but there is evidence that the Mafiya has started to recruit from their ranks.

Organized crime has existed in Russia since UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia and the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], but it really exploded with Soviet collapse, when newly unemployed [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets military men]] (and others [[FormerRegimePersonnel with the right skill set for this sort of thing]]) found themselves suddenly unable to find work. They put their skills -- and the newly abandoned military hardware -- to use. The desperation of UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia also saw the Mafiya dispense with old traditions like the uniform taboo and the restrictive lifestyle of the ''vory v zakone'' as a matter of practicality -- or perhaps greed, as even rule-abiding mobsters will never turn down a golden opportunity to [[MoneyDearBoy make a lot of money]]. The Mafiya was totally pervasive in Russia in TheNineties, to the point that Russia was sometimes called a "Mafia state" and most small and medium businessmen had to employ them for "[[ProtectionRacket protection]]".

* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', the Mafiya is represented in Roanapur by Hotel Moscow, a group of ex-Airborne Troops led by TheBaroness Balalaika. It's ''heavily'' suggested that the criminal nature of Hotel Moscow is just a front for having a large, well-trained and self-sufficient special forces unit with plausible deniability in a potentially "hot" region. Just look at Balalaika's connections!

* ''Film/LordOfWar'': n the early 1980s, Yuri Orlov, the eldest son of a family of Ukrainian refugees, is visiting a Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York, restaurant where he witnesses a Russian mobster kill two would-be assassins holding Kalashnikov rifles. The incident inspires him to go into the arms trade.

-->-- '''Vadim Solonick''', ''Series/{{Boomtown}}''

* ''Film/EasternPromises'' features a group of Russian mobsters in London.

** Gotham City's "Little Odessa" neighborhood was controlled by organized crime originating from the old Soviet Union. In ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'' Ariana Dzerchenko's father, who had a history working as a forger for the Bratva, was murdered when he refused to get involved in organized crime again and start forging from his print shop in Little Odessa.

* A ''vory v zakone'' and his crew feature in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ix24IV-VEg a commercial]] for [[spoiler:''M&M candies'']], of all things!

* ''Film/JohnWick'': John goes to war with these guys after their boss's [[InadequateInheritor idiot son]] steals his [[CoolCar vintage muscle car]], then [[KickTheDog shoots his puppy]] for no reason.

* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' has contact with several elements of the Russian mafia during the Moscow mission. Sergei Surkov is an ex-''vory y zakone'' gone semi-legit businessman (who has a lot of his ex-KGB ex-Mafiya friends on payroll as security). Konstantin Brayko is a still-active gang leader [[spoiler:and Surkov's former lieutenant]] who acts very much like a stereotypical ''bratok'', what with [[DiscoDan his focus on Eighties pop culture]] and [[FashionVictimVillain general lack of taste in clothing]].

* The Bratva is one of the street gangs in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'', depicted as stereotypical, tracksuit-wearing ''gopniki''. They also have elements of [[KosherNostra Jewish gangsters]], which puts them in conflict with the white supremacist [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Sons of Ragnarok]].