I have heard it said that it is the ambition of all criminal organizations to one day become legitimate, lawful ... respectable.
This, of course, is tosh. Criminals enjoy being criminals. They enjoy flouting the rules, breaking laws, living outside society.
No, the ultimate ambition of any criminal organization is to gain control of a country, such that they become immune to prosecution.
A fanciful dream, you protest?
Not so, it has been accomplished many times in history: Nazi Germany, al-Queda Afghanistan, Saddam's Iraq and Yeltsin's Russia. The common characteristic is that the criminals gained power when an old order crumbled, when Weimar-type inflation occurred or a ruling party such as the Communists fell from power.
Never has it been achieved without the opportunity afforded by upheaval. Until now, that is.
Most criminals have a short-range perspective of life. Sure, they are flexible enough to seize opportunities presented by chaos, but they are not dogged enough or forward thinking enough to manage the future, to create chaos. That requires manipulating people and events over years and decades, it requires long-term investment and, more than anything, that most uncriminal of characteristics ... patience.
I am a patient man. I am a patient criminal. The destruction of my country--Chechnya--and its people have made me patient. I wait patiently to have my revenge on the Russians for, as they say, revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
In my patience, I am a singularity.
What did Archimedes say? Give me a place to stand and a lever, and I will move the world?
Well, my friends, Alexei Sergeiovitch Dazarev says, "Give me N, and I will control the world."
I am a patient man.
I am a singularity.
And I will have N.
)
