Which organization is the more sophisticated, smartest and most powerful of the two?

The bratva is estimated to have about 5000 members, this is just my personal guess based on the 9000 estimate (LE always inflate the figures)

Okay, my next guess is the five families have about 700-800 made guys and about 4000 connected guys.

In terms of numbers they are about the same.




Estimated worth of these organizations ? No way of knowing.

The bratva is global and the five families are only based in the US.

Who do you think is the most successful organization?

Well, the Bratva enjoy the protection of large elements of the Russian government. Particularly, those very high up in the intelligence services.

So it would be tough to compare the two directly.

You cant compare both imo. First of all both operate in different environments. Second, information regarding the solntsevskaya bratva and russian oc seems exaggerated.
For example these organizations are usually loose networks. Most of the time criminals unaffiliated with the bratva say they are to use their reputation. Which might be a factor influencing these inflated numbers. Also the connections they have with secret agencies and that they have former special forces among them is also known to be exaggerated.

I honestly think that most info available on the solntsevskaya bratva is fake as there are almost no sources to back them(wikipedia for example). This topic has been discusses before i think. ill try to look for the thread, it should contain some useful info.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/jr000247b.pdf i found this posted by Ivy in a very old thread. It contains some info and explains how Russian OC works. It should explain why you cant compare the american mafia with the bratva.

The russians also operate in the US (California, Florida and NY) so they also operate in a similiar environment to CN....well...adleast in the States anyway and are involved in fraud, prostitution, human trafficing and loansharking and dont have russian officials to protect them.

They come to NY and setup a massive fuel tax scheme and even made enough to feed the five families (not that the russians were given a choice).

I would like to know more about the Solntsevskaya myself, but they have never been touched by trials with exceptioned of the failed one against Mikhailov in Switzerland. The seem to be still the most powerful group that the government still needs or has use for, otherwise they would have suffered the same fate as the Tambovskaya in St Petersburg which suffered a big crackdown after trying to extort money from a friend of the regional governor who is a friend of Putin's.

However, there was one interesting episode in the news not so long ago:

Six robbers held up the n.3 in the organization, Alexandr Averin, in his house; handcuffed him and his wife to the heating battery in the basement, and took away 60500 dollars, 6000 Euro, and some jewels.

To understand what kind of untouchable creature Averin is, you can remember the 2007 episode when he and some of his goons tried to rape a waitress in a restaurant and broke a jaw to a representative of a government agency that provides bodyguards to the president; the guy was the only one among the people present who tried to defend the poor girl. Averin was arrested, wreaked havoc at the police station, broke a printer by throwing it against the wall and cursed continuously at the policemen present. At the end he was acquitted in such a way that he was even allowed to ask for compensation for having been bothered

Therefore, I honestly wish the robbers luck and to happily get away with the money.

Does the situation remind anyone the burglary at Tony Accardo's house? One of the major gangsters in a country has been humiliated by small-time criminals (I only hope they won't suffer the same fate as Accardo's robbers).

they have the same number of members and associates but solntsevskaya is probably more powerful because it has links with russian politicians
a better comparison would be between russian gangs in russia and italian oc in italy
they both have about 250.000 members and associates and links with politicians... italian mafia probably is stronger because it is more organized, more involved in drug trafficking and it has more international connections

It's a hard comparison to make. Structurally, the Solntsevskaya is basically an "umbrella group" for thousands of Russian criminals who are loosely connected. Russian OC in general tends not to have the hierarchical framework the LCN does. And in the U.S., Russian OC is more involved in various financial frauds, as well as human trafficking, prostitution, theft, extortion, etc. Not so much in the LCN staples of gambling and loansharking. The Russian bookmaking bust a few years ago in NY was more an exception to the rule. Anyway, if comparisons are to be made, in terms of size and international scope, the Italian crime groups in Italy - Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, SCU - would be a better comparison.