Viktor A. Kazo

## Viktor Antonovich Kazo

### Overview

**Viktor Antonovich Kazo** is a sadistic Russian crime boss and the leader and founder of the Soldatskaya Bratva. Viktor was born in the Soviet Union, and later moved to the Caucasus, where he was eventually sold as a slave laborer in Chechnya. After his escape 5 years subsequent, Viktor moved back to Russia, where he graduated from Saint Petersburg State University and taught at Moscow State University. In 1992, Viktor was fired and later drafted in the Russian Army. Viktor went on to serve several tours within the Airborne Spetsnaz and FSB Special Purpose Center, and become a recipient of the Hero of the Russian Federation medal. Viktor was eventually dishonorably discharged for espionage, treason, going AWOL, and attempted nuclear trafficking, all of which he was convicted of in 2003.

Eventually, Viktor escaped his imprisonment and established the Soldatskaya Bratva in Saint Petersburg, which began to distribute narcotics across Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. To dominate the drug trade and expand his territory, Viktor utilized terrorist and paramilitary methods of force, and killed thousands in the process. Such methods also included abductions, broadcasted torturings, bombings, public executions, and mass shootings. Viktor also gained power over the largest military contractor in Russia, the Smirnov Arms Company, and subsequently earned a presidential pardon for his crimes after negotiating a deal with then-Russian presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.

## Biography

### Early Life

Viktor Antonovich Kazo was born in Stalingrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (present-day: Volgograd, Russia) on December 4th, 1970. Viktor was born the elder brother of Aleksander Kazo, and the son of Anton Kazo and Sofia Levkova, the latter of whom died during Aleksander Kazo's birth. Anton was a Soviet Army dishonorable discharge, and had been previously convicted of armed robbery, extortion, and assault. As a result, Anton raised his two sons in poverty, often physically-abusing them. In 1979, Viktor's father murdered 1 civilian and 2 police officers in a botched robbery, and fled to the Georgian SSR with his sons.

Residing in Tbilisi, Viktor excelled in academics, however he despised living in Georgia and purposefully beat two of his fellow students to unconsciousness, so that he would be expelled from primary school. Upon his return to home, Viktor was beaten and punished by his father; Viktor subsequently stabbed both his father and brother to death the same night of his expulsion. Following this, Viktor ran to the streets of Tbilisi where he was eventually recruited into a local gang. In 1980, Viktor stabbed and killed a civilian shop owner, disregarding the rules of his allegiance, and was later kidnapped by his bosses and sold into a human trafficking ring.

At 9 years old, Viktor was subjected to forced labor in Chechnya, and worked in a brick factory. Despite his circumstances, Viktor quickly learned the Chechen language. After 5 years as a slave laborer, Viktor managed to escape from the Caucasian mountains where he was held, and fled to the city of Grozny. Viktor eventually moved back to Russia, and resided in Saint Petersburg, however he often lived homeless or in a stolen vehicle. In 1988, Viktor graduated from secondary school, after his re-enrollment in 1986. At 17 years old, Viktor enrolled in the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, and graduated top of his class in 1988, subsequently earning a scholarship to Leningrad State University. He graduated in 1991 with a graduate degree in applied mathematics, with a minor in chemistry.

### Military Career and Espionage

In 1991, Viktor began a career at Moscow State University as an assistant professor of applied mathematics, while he also pursued a part-time PhD program in the field. Despite his promising career in education, Viktor began to lean towards crime, and produced his own marijuana which he would sell to several other low-level distributors. In 1992, Viktor was fired and expelled from Moscow State University, after several allegations of racketeering and assault were made against him, though he was never prosecuted. The same year, Viktor received a draft notice, and although attempted to refuse it by citing his mental condition, he was nonetheless conscripted.

In 1993, Viktor was deployed to Tajikistan as an infantryman within the Russian Ground Forces. After his first tour, Viktor was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal for risking his life while in combat. As a result, Viktor was allowed to quickly join the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade, and serve an additional two tours in the Tajikistani Civil War and the First Chechen War. After being promoted to Captain in 1997, Viktor joined the Federal Security Service's Special Purpose Center and Spetsnaz Vympel. In 1999, Viktor participated in the War of Dagestan, and had attained dozens of confirmed kills by year 2000.

In 2001, Viktor was stationed at a military research facility near Yekaterinburg, and illegally confiscated classified files containing government plans to excavate weapons-grade plutonium from a decommissioned, Soviet-era mine. Viktor and several of his brothers-in-arms subsequently deserted their posts and fled from Russia to Bulgaria, where they paid several dozen local miners to begin excavation.

### Nuclear Trafficking

In a term of 3 months during 2001, Viktor and his associates, Vladimir Danko, Viktor Khachukaev, Ignat Kuznetsov, and Pavel Stazek, acquired 6 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and left Europe. Viktor attempted to sell the material to Pakistan, however he was later arrested in Kazakhstan and extradited back to Russia where he was charged with treason, espionage, the illegal sale of radioactive material, and going AWOL. In 2003, Viktor was convicted of each crime, and sentenced to 350 years, after which he was incarcerated in Penal Colony No. 06, otherwise known as Black Dolphin Prison.

Viktor went on to only serve 8 months in prison, as in late 2003 he and 64 other inmates escaped the institution in a full-scale riot, which was recorded as the largest in Russian history. Viktor, his associates, and several dozen of the escaped inmates went on to resort to organized crime. In partnership with the Chechen mob, Viktor's group began to work as an enforcement and distribution branch in Saint Petersburg. By 2005, however, Viktor destroyed the Chechen organization from within and established a new syndicate of predominantly Russians. Initially, the new organization was forced to stop all heroin trafficking operations due to a depleted supply and the lack of a supplier, but in 2006, an agreement was made with the Lebanese gang, the Al-Zari Clan, to smuggle heroin from West Asia to Russia.

### The Soldatskaya Bratva

Due to being founded and controlled by former military soldiers, Viktor's group adopted the name, Soldatskaya Bratva, or Soldiers' Brotherhood. Ignat Kuznetsov, Pavel Stazek, Vladimir Danko, and Viktor Khachukaev also acted as the primary bosses of the gang, however Viktor himself remained the group's premier leader. With little competition from Caucasian crime groups, the Bratva quickly spread to other large metropolitan areas, including Moscow, Volgograd, Saratov, Tolyatti, and Rostov-on-Don. In 2008, Pavel Stazek was killed by hit men of the Yerevan Brotherhood from Armenia. The death of Stazek began gang war between the two gangs. Other Russian gangs as well, including the Veselov Gang and the Krasnovskaya Bratva, which emerged during the period of the Soviet Union and were allied with the Georgian and Armenian gangs, opposed the expansion and existence of the Soldatskaya Bratva.

Due to having virtually no assistance in the Russian crime world, Viktor resorted to extreme measures of force to combat opposing gangs; many of his methods were labeled as terrorist-like. In 2008, Viktor constructed several pipe bombs and ordered the placement of these explosives in a Moscow hotel. The blast killed 7 civilians, as well as the three leaders of the Krasnovskaya Bratva. Viktor also began to recruit extensively, however the majority of his enforcers were ex-convicts in the late 20s to 30s rather than young teenagers and adults from impoverished areas. In 2010, Viktor met Albert Smirnov, the CEO of the Smirnov Arms Company, a failing firearms enterprise with several ongoing legal battles. A desperate and greedy Smirnov entered an agreement with Viktor to sell military-grade firearms and protective attire to his syndicate. This change ultimately led the Bratva becoming a paramilitary organization, as in the following months, Viktor would established several quasi-military training facilities in Siberia.

As years passed, Viktor's distinctly well-trained and armed members or "soldiers" as they became known as, completed the targeted murder of hundreds of rival gangsters. The Bratva's member count began to soar, and with the bribing of numerous judges, the Smirnov Arms Company became one of the most prominent weapons-contracting organizations in Russia. By 2012, Viktor forced Albert Smirnov to appoint Andrej Jablonski, a close associate of Viktor, as the CEO of Smirnov Industries, and later had Albert murdered. As Viktor now held influence to the largest weapons company in Russia, he began to acquire political control, and eventually met with the Russian president. The same year of 2012, Viktor received a presidential pardon by Dmitry Medvedev, after negotiating a deal with both him and Vladimir Putin. Now with the complete overlook of the Russian government and federal entities, Viktor rapidly expanded his narcotrafficking operations across Russia, Siberian Russia, Central Asia, Caucasia, and Eastern Europe.

By 2014, Viktor began to smuggle weapons into the Middle-East, as his new clientele was The Taliban, ISIS, and al-Qaeda, to whom he sold firearms, military vehicles, and combat drones, all of which was manufactured by the Smirnov Arms Company, under Smirnov Industries. In 2016, the Soldatskaya Bratva entered the World Power Organization, and began to traffic cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA across Europe and Asia as they would receive shipments of the illicit narcotic from other members of the WPO: the Kingston Order Posse and the Saguaro Cartel. The Bratva also began to operate in the United States, primarily in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Other terrorist-like incidents by the Bratva, used to exterminate their enemies, has led to the official classification of the Soldatskaya Bratva as a terrorist and paramilitary group by the FBI, CIA, United Nations, and Interpol, and also by the FSB in official terms, despite the Federal Security Service being in partnership with the Bratva.