DONETSK, Ukraine—I was talking to some young black-clad pro-Russian agitators at a checkpoint they’d set up on the outskirts of this city in eastern Ukraine when a shiny black Mercedes pulled up a few yards away. Some of the men from the group walked over and stuck their heads into the car. I couldn’t see who the capo was, couldn’t hear what orders he was giving, but the scene was like something from a movie about the mob. Nobody wanted to say who that was in the car. Nobody wanted to repeat what he’d said.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
The Daily Beast: The mafia ruling Ukraine’s mobs
Pro-Russian demonstrators rally at the Vladimir Lenin monument in central Donetsk on March 11. Moscow has reserved the right to go into eastern Ukraine military if it believes ethnic Russians are under threat.
