Natives of former Soviet Union countries terrify Israeli residents
All heads of the Israeli police continue to assert in one voice that there is no 'Russian mafia' in the country. After all, according to local criminologists, among the 14 mafia groups that actually exist in Israel, there is not a single Russian-speaking person. But Israelis are afraid of something else.
On the 'Russian street', cases of deadly 'showdowns' have become frequent. It was a native of Chelyabinsk, 39-year-old Demyan Karlik, who recently committed the most brutal crime in the history of the Jewish state. After quarreling with Dmitry Usherenko, the owner of the Russian restaurant 'Premier' in the city of Rishon LeZion, Karlik broke into his enemy's home and murdered three generations of the Usherenko family, consisting of six people, including a three-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy.
This brutality shocked everyone. Significantly, back in 2003, Russia insisted on the extradition of Karlik, who was suspected of robbery on Russian territory. However, at that time, Israeli authorities refused to extradite him, explaining their position by saying that he had not committed illegal acts in the Jewish state.
Former Russians also distinguished themselves in the field of kidnapping for ransom. Here is a recent case. In the elite Jerusalem neighborhood of Kfar David, three natives of our country kidnapped a 60-year-old woman and her 50-year-old housekeeper from their own home. According to police, 'the ladies who became hostages also repatriated from the CIS.' The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $3.5 million in exchange for their release. However, they miscalculated – the police quickly tracked them down. The capture was carried out by 'Gidonim' – the escort service special forces. On these same days, the district court in the city of Be'er Sheva is hearing the case of Nikolay Doronin, accused of raping and murdering a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Leah Drankin, last autumn.
The May holidays, unfortunately, were also not without murders. On the night from April 30 to May 1, in an apartment of a residential building in Nahariya, northern Israel, 37-year-old Eduard Kolochev received a fatal stab wound. A 37-year-old woman living in the same apartment is suspected of murder. She told investigators that in honor of the holiday, the whole group drank heavily and then quarreled. And a few days ago, a Russian repatriate, 38-year-old Vladimir Gutliev, killed 16-year-old Ernest Rafailov, a friend of his stepdaughter. The stepfather did not like that the boy brought his girlfriend home too late, and, meeting the returning couple at the entrance, Gutliev smashed the teenager's head with a hammer.
But be that as it may, the circular issued by the Ministry of the Interior requiring a 'certificate of reliability' has drawn sharp criticism from the Jewish Agency for Israel (Sokhnut), which directly handles the repatriation of Jews and their family members. The leadership of this organization considered the security officials' directive discriminatory. Its employees say that, for example, in Ethiopia and Yemen, local Jews live in inaccessible areas where there are no police stations at all.
As for the CIS countries, according to them, it is easy to obtain fake documents there. But most importantly, Sokhnut believes, the requirement to provide such certificates simply humiliates potential repatriates.
Valentin BOYNIK.
Novye Izvestia