Putin, Caesar, and The Godfather: Parallels and A Question
The attempt to assassinate the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, occurs at Christmas time and the story takes off from there.
More on ‘The Godfather’ later in this post…
Russian oligarchs believe Putin tricked them into appearing to support the war in Ukraine, and got them all sanctioned, report says
Russian oligarchs say Putin tricked them into supporting his war in Ukraine, per The New York Times.
When Putin announced the invasion, they were gathered before cameras “to tar everyone there,” The Times reported.
In the weeks that followed, Russian businessmen were hit with heavy sanctions by Western countries.
As the cracks in Russia’s war on Ukraine deepen, Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the West are now saying Russian President Vladimir Putin tricked them into appearing to support his invasion of Ukraine, according to an extensive investigation published Saturday by The New York Times.
How Putin’s War in Ukraine Became a Catastrophe for Russia:
https://nyti.ms/3FEonNw
As a result of Caesar’s increasingly monarchical and autocratic behaviour the conspiratorial plot to assassinate him was carried out by friends and close associates, including Marcus Junius Brutus, who believed that Caesar had become a threat to the Roman Republic and therefore had to be removed….
In ‘The Godfather’ saga, assassination was more than a way of doing business. It was apparently a way of life for the men at the highest levels of the criminal organization and enterprise depicted in the book and films:
Can you see any parallels in Putin’s current domestic situation, the assassination of Caesar, and ‘The Godfather’ stories?
To put it another way: Has Putin become a candidate for removal by a conspiracy of assassination at the hands of an inner circle of close ‘friends’ and ‘business’ associates…
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12/25/2022 @ 1:43 pm
Most Russian premiers or heads of the Communist Party or what’re the #1 there is called have not been murdered out of office.
12/25/2022 @ 3:45 pm
True enough, but do you see any parallels?
12/26/2022 @ 3:14 pm
I don’t know enough about the Russian oligarchy. It isn’t exactly the Communist Party. In terms of mafiosi, I see as many with Trump.
12/26/2022 @ 4:03 pm
If ‘Russian oligarchy’ is a euphemism for ‘Russian mob’, then what?
12/27/2022 @ 10:02 am
Flying in to wish folks happy holidays! I guess this is the holiday thread?
Soooo, organized crime. I learned lots from living three houses down from Whitey Bulger in the eighties, and having a studio for several years in Boston’s North End next door to an Italian American ‘club’, also from seven watch-throughs of The Sopranos, which seems a more realistic portrayal of the mafia than The Godfather. Certainly, the primary actors are less attractive. I never saw anyone who looked like Al Pacino pull up to one of Whitey Bulger’s BBQs.
In reality, many ‘wise guys’ are dummos with weight issues, and nobody has multiple private jets, giant yachts, or ten mansions, just small pleasure craft and a Mcmansion in New Jersey. The oligarch wealth factor far exceeds that of Mafia crime bosses.
Cultural differences factor into organized crime practices. Italian Americans are less mysterious to us than Russian oligarchs, because we do live three houses down, and order our pizza at a Pizzaland (see Sopranos) The pursuit of money using brutal tactics is a shared practice, but Russian methodology seems quite different than the American mafia. The American mafia take out one another, and betrayal seems the top transgression. Russians seem to take out anyone, for anything, even a wrongly worded sentence, with a little push, a little poison, and little attempt to hide the body. In Boston, bodies went into the harbor or under East Boston construction sites, not to be seen again. In Russia, I might suffer some ‘accident’ just for typing this. Here, eh.
Again, no claim to be the expert on organized crime. And Happy Holidays!