Cyprus-Forum.com

[dms007]

Sometime back I was talking to someone and I came to know that the russians are very powerful in cyprus or atleast in limassol.
It seems that they own most of the strip clubs.
They also have some mafias running behind those clubs and they are very influential in government affairs.
Inspite of all this, they always maintain a very low profile.
They seem to pass of as one of the many foreign nationals living in cyprus, but they seem to run a shadown government.

Is this all true?

[tcklim]

Very doubtful.... there is quite a large Russian community in Limassol, and I know many of them ..... but I don't see any mafia mentality. Most of the stripclubs are owned by Cypriots, or at least, whenever there's a bomb going off here it is usually under some stripclub owner (cypriots) car. Now the staff of these clubs I cannot comment on......

Russians suffer under the mafia stereotype, and there may possibly be some element of it here, but it's not evident to the average person (i.e. me)

[morhekil]

Heh, guys, it's year 2006 out there - and you're still talking about terrible russian mafia? Seems like stereotypes live quite long.

[devil]

Racism

[dms007]

comeon there has got to be some truth in it!

[morhekil]

There's "some truth" in everything. But telling that "russians has mafia everywhere", "russians control every state", "russians are boo" is just plain funny and silly. If it was a joke - it was great. If you were serious - sorry, it's just not right, we're not living in "yet another Hollywood movie".

[jclo69]

Although I have yet to arrive on the island, I have heard from many people that Russian have invested a great deal of money in Cyprus - LOTS!!! Even though Cypriots may own businesses, behind the scenes, the Russians investers are the ones calling the shots. Whether or not the Russian mob is involved, I really don't know.

[lysi]

The only mafia in cyprus is the mainland turkish mafia in the occupied areas, they bring over hookers, heroin ect and the tc police take a nice big bribe.

[Main_Source]

The Maronites are quite mafiosi...how do you think they came to own half of Ayia Napa.

[TheCabbie]

I think you'll find that the Russians supply the girls to most of the Cabarets, but the Cabaretss are Cypriot owned.

I don't think all the Russians are making their money in Cyprus, they make too much, I know that one of the first Rolls-Royces purchased in Cyprus was bought by a Russian, he topped up the order with a BMW645 convertable for the Mrs. that's £400,000+... Very serious coin to spend in a morning, just for wheels, that sort of loot isn't being made on the island. God knows what his house must be like!