Just wondering what others think about this:

With the Russians so often in the Cambodian news these days, particularly in S'ville where some sort of turf war seems to be going on, some posters here have jested that this sort of crime is better for the economy than the usual Khmer bag-snatchers.
I beg to differ. I think that if S'ville becomes known for Russian mafia in-fighting, many mid-level family-type tourists will prefer to go elsewhere. Local Khmer crimes don't really get media coverage outside of Cambodia, but Russian mafia violence reaches international media and scares off tourists.

Maybe I'm wrong and nobody cares a shit, but there seems to be a big rise in crime headlines involving Russians in Cambodia. There have been a lot of Russians in S'ville for a while, but there has been a spike of violence in the last year and I was wondering why this is and why the authorities are letting this happen - surely it is against their own interests ?

A new frontier attracting undesirables from all nations, it's just that the young Russians wear a stereo type badge with honor & stupidity.
There is no real Russian mafia in SHV or it would be more organized.
There are only petty wannabe's bringing on heat & that's a bad way to do business

scum floating in on the tide.

Yobbo wrote:A new frontier attracting undesirables from all nations, it's just that the young Russians wear a stereo type badge with honor & stupidity.
There is no real Russian mafia in SHV or it would be more organized.
There are only petty wannabe's bringing on heat & that's a bad way to do business

Sorry mate, that statement couldn't be further from the truth. You are obviously not from SHV.
Frank - you are right. Its not going to do us any favours at all.
That's all I will say on the subject.

Thailand has had a mob problem for decades but tourism doesn't seem to be suffering because of it.

BOFH wrote:Thailand has had a mob problem for decades but tourism doesn't seem to be suffering because of it.

Thailand is much, much bigger playground for foreigners. Easier for shagnasties of all sorts to hide and blend in and avoid run-ins with authorities. Not so in Cambodia, and definitely not true in a smallish town like SHV.

My grandma armed with knitting needles .
Do you think any of the top heavy weights would want this kind of attention???

Where there is no or very little public safety officers/police and this is a haven for money laundering/recycling ill gotten gain, that will attract criminal types and wannabe thugs. Much as I hate police you need some kind of enforcement to keep the rif-raf from taking over. Pattaya let them have their way for a long time and it looks like the Thai's are getting tired of them so where next? Snookyville of course, where the police are non-existant or bought off and there is gambling.

Unless the Cambodians stop the problem now, its only going to get worse. We all know the city police and military police won't/don't do jack unless their palms are crossed with silver/gold, so nothing will happen and all your going to see is pictures of people shot/stabbed, cops standing around and minor thugs behind bars (the ones who couldn't bribe their way out.)

Sailorman wrote:... and this is a haven for money laundering/recycling ill gotten gain,

So your theory is that the big, mostly empty and over-priced housing development projects around SHV are not really for sale, because those projects are merely a front for money laundering operations? Or are you saying that those properties are genuinely for sale, but at such an attractive profit margin that it is worth the criminals time and effort to build them as a seemingly legitimate real estate development business created with criminal proceeds? Seeing that there are not many wealthy, eager buyers lining up to purchase those properties makes the later option highly dubious.

Money laundering of ill-gotten cash is required in the West due to strict banking regulations and government oversight and brutal tax collection enforcement. These restrictions are severely lacking in many other places, including Russia and Cambodia, where it's still easy to find a local banker willing to accept dirty cash directly without the need for any business-front money-laundering ruses.

A Russian mafia would have to buy into a Khmer mafia & they would not be happy about this. There are many that would have to save face over such publicity!
Spells BS to me.