In Romania, near Bucharest, there is one of the richest cities in the world - the gypsy Buzescu. It has about 800 homes, each costing between $2 million and $30 million. This is Beverly Hills No. 2 - the capital of gypsy millionaires.
The "king" of the Romanian gypsies Florian Cioaba (he inherited the title from his father) has up to 50-80 million euros a year. About 300 families belong to his Koldash clan, and at least half of them have houses worth more than 3 million euros.
The total income of the "king" and his clan is approaching 300-400 million euros per year. It consists of donations from ordinary gypsies to the obshchak (deductions - up to 5-10% of criminal and semi-criminal income), cigarette smuggling from Romania to Western Europe, hotel business and trade.
Similar picture observed among the gypsy "elite" and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Even in poverty-stricken Moldova, the gypsy "baron" Artur Cherari and his clan have up to 20-40 million euros a year. And in Kosovo, the clan of "Baron" Nedzhmedin Neziri - up to 100 million euros a year (mostly Kosovo gypsies trade in Germany and Austria).
Like most of the rest of the "elite" of Eastern Europe, and former USSR, these gypsies deliberately demonstrate luxurious image life, literally bathing in gold (up to 55 kg of gold was spent on the interior decoration of the house of the gypsy "king" of Romania Florian Cioaba). From their excess incomes, only crumbs fall to the "cattle", and even then mainly for some dirty deeds. The super-luxury of the “elite” does not arouse indignation among the people subordinate to them: secretly, most of the lower classes dream that someday they will also be able to become the owner of a golden toilet bowl and the “right of the first night”.
The millionaire gypsies of Eastern Europe are the perfect example for libertarians. They achieved everything themselves, without the help of the state. They don't pay taxes, but they don't demand anything from the government either. They live in complete freedom - from the prejudices of marriage legislation, with weapons, etc. "Gypsy Shrugged" - perhaps Ayn Rand today would call her book-a manual about ideal life libertarian.
The October issue of National Geographic magazine tells about the life of millionaire gypsies in their world capital - the Romanian city of Buzescu. This settlement is located 80 km southwest of Bucharest. Its population is 5 thousand people. About 800 houses have been built in Buzescu, each costing between $2 million and $30 million. In general, the value of all this real estate of gypsy millionaires is estimated at $ 4 billion.
Like their counterparts from the Russian Rublyovka, the Buzescu gypsies do not pay any taxes to the state, formally considered unemployed or owners of firms with a zero balance. There is, however, one exception - their villas are considered unfinished, and therefore are subject to a small property tax, usually 200-300 euros per year.
One of these gypsy millionaires named Parachiv tells how he became rich. After the establishment of capitalism in Romania in 1989, the purchase of ferrous and non-ferrous metals became the main industry of enterprising gypsies (it is interesting that the same accumulation of primary capital was noted in Russia). “You had to be a fool not to build yourself 5 villas after the 1989 revolution!” - says one of the millionaires named Nikolai Marin.
Well, then the gypsies who made their capital took up other businesses - for example, smuggling cigarettes to the rich countries of the European Union.
As in Russia, the first thing the nouveaux riches began was the over-consumption shown. Expensive cars, palaces, gold. But there is one difference between gypsy millionaires and rich Russians - today they are pumping money not from their own country, but from rich European states. Gypsy-Romanian nouveaux riches make money in France, Italy, Spain. And these capitals are invested in their homeland - in Romania. While the Russian nouveau riche, on the contrary, prefer to pump money out of Russia and invest it in palaces in London or on the Cote d'Azur.
Gypsy millionaires from the Romanian Buzesco work on a rotational basis: 3-4 months in Western Europe, then go home for a couple of weeks (or forced return for weddings, funerals, christenings of relatives and friends). Therefore, most of the palaces in this town are filled with children, old people and women.
One more thing is interesting. Most of the relatives of the rich remain faithful to traditional crafts. Many of them raise pigs, poultry and horses in the backyard of palaces, women sew patchwork quilts, old men are engaged in chasing and tinning copper utensils.
Next, we want to show you the gypsy village of Buzescu, which is located 80 km from the capital of Romania, Bucharest. In this small town of only 5,000 people, you can meet a large number of luxurious houses, striking with their architecture and unusual solutions. Some houses surprise with their strangeness, what all this strangeness is, you will understand when you look at this post.
Have you seen a stainless steel fence? The one that glitters in the photo?
A gypsy who owned a "firm" for the robbery of copper extracted from European railways, also dreamed of such a thing and stole, it turns out, for the sake of a saint, namely, a house in his homeland. The employees of his "firm", who received 50 euros for a sortie, were given a suspended sentence, and Dan Julien, as the leader, was sentenced to 4 years in prison and a fine of 70,000 euros. This very house should go to pay this fine.
This is the main street of the village.
There is a competition here - whoever has a taller and fancier house is cooler.
The architecture shows that the gypsies love the Belle Epoque style.
The people on the streets of the village are rare, since the majority of the population spends a lot of time in Western Europe on earnings.
But some residents prefer the antique style - with porticos.
Roofs upholstered in metal compete with the sophistication of forms.
Here is the forged roof of one of the houses in the previous photo close-up. Probably stainless steel too.
When the house stands on the outskirts of the village, that is, in a less prestigious place, its owner tries to take the number of storeys.
Where do you get a view of this type of fabulous town)))
There are many unfinished houses among these houses - their owners still earned enough to complete them.
Limousines - component braggadocio of the inhabitants of the village.
Of course, there is no dispute about tastes.
The owners of these houses declare their spiritual values in decorative decoration.
Some houses have fences that end with pins of pure silver!
At the same time, many members of the families living in these "villas" continue to do traditional work and ride a horse-drawn cart.
This house is modeled after the courthouse.
His owner is a drug dealer. When he was tried, he swore that if he was not convicted, he would build a house in Buzesco in the style of a courthouse.
As you can see, he got ripped off.
Gypsy children usually study little. Girls get married early, and boys get used to the real "business".
But the owners of pompous pitchforks do not follow the backyards of their village.
The same toilets on the streets.
And they also keep their old houses. Often their relatives simply do not want to move to "palaces" because they do not feel comfortable there.
The interior of one of the houses.
If we abstract from the ostentatious attributes of spiritual values, the interior of these houses, like their facades, also imitates villas from Hollywood films.
But the clothing style of the inhabitants of Buzescu retain their own, gypsy.
The mistress of the house shows off a portrait of her daughter in a wedding dress.
The men are gleaming gold.
And this is the burial of a thief who died during the theft of wires in Spain.
In Romania, near Bucharest, there is one of the richest cities in the world - the gypsy Buzescu. It contains about 800 houses, each costing from 2 to 30 million dollars. This is Beverly Hills No. 2 - the capital of gypsy millionaires.
The "king" of the Romanian gypsies Florian Cioaba (he inherited the title from his father) has up to 50-80 million euros a year. About 300 families belong to his Koldash clan, and at least half of them have houses worth more than 3 million euros.
The total income of the "king" and his clan is approaching 300-400 million euros per year. It consists of donations from ordinary gypsies to the obshchak (deductions - up to 5-10% of criminal and semi-criminal income), cigarette smuggling from Romania to Western Europe, hotel business and trade.
A similar picture is observed among the gypsy "elite" and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Even in poverty-stricken Moldova, the gypsy "baron" Arthur Cerari and his clan have up to 20-40 million euros a year. And in Kosovo, the clan of "Baron" Nedzhmedin Neziri - up to 100 million euros per year (mostly Kosovo gypsies trade in Germany and Austria).
Like most of the rest of the "elite" of Eastern Europe, as well as the former USSR, these gypsies deliberately demonstrate a luxurious lifestyle, literally bathing in gold (up to 55 kg of gold was spent on the interior decoration of the house of the gypsy "king" of Romania Florian Cioaba). From their super-incomes, only crumbs fall to the "cattle", and even then - mainly for some dirty deeds. The super-luxury of the “elite” does not arouse indignation among the people subordinate to them: secretly, most of the lower classes dream that someday they will also be able to become the owners of a golden toilet bowl and the “right of the first night”.
The millionaire gypsies of Eastern Europe are the perfect example for libertarians. They achieved everything themselves, without the help of the state. They don't pay taxes, but they don't demand anything from the government either. They live in complete freedom - from the prejudices of marriage laws, with weapons, etc. “The Gypsy Shrugged” is what Ayn Rand would probably call her manual about the ideal life of a libertarian today.
The October issue of National Geographic magazine tells about the life of millionaire gypsies in their world capital - the Romanian city of Buzescu. This locality located 80 km southwest of Bucharest. Its population is 5 thousand people. About 800 houses have been built in Buzescu, each costing between $2 million and $30 million. In general, the value of all this real estate of gypsy millionaires is estimated at 4 billion dollars.
Like their counterparts from the Russian Rublyovka, the Buzescu gypsies do not pay any taxes to the state, formally considered unemployed or owners of firms with a zero balance. There is, however, one exception - their villas are considered unfinished, and therefore are subject to a small property tax, usually 200-300 euros per year.
One of these gypsy millionaires named Parachiv tells how he became rich. After the establishment of capitalism in Romania in 1989, the main industry of enterprising gypsies was the purchase of ferrous and non-ferrous metals (it is interesting that the same accumulation of primary capital was noted in Russia). “You had to be a fool not to build yourself 5 villas after the 1989 Revolution!” says one of the millionaires named Nikolai Marin
Well, then the gypsies who made their capital went into other businesses, for example, smuggling cigarettes to the rich countries of the European Union.
As in Russia, the first thing the nouveaux riches began was the over-consumption shown. Expensive cars, palaces, gold. But there is one difference between gypsy millionaires and Russian rich people - today they are pumping money not from their own country, but from rich European states. Gypsy-Romanian nouveaux riches make money in France, Italy, Spain. And these capitals are invested in their homeland - in Romania. While the Russian nouveau riche, on the contrary, prefer to pump money out of Russia and invest it in palaces in London or on the Cote d'Azur.
Gypsies-millionaires from the Romanian Buzesco work on a rotational basis: 3-4 months in Western Europe, then go home for a couple of weeks (or forced return for weddings, funerals, christenings of loved ones and relatives). Therefore, most of the palaces in this town are filled with children, old people and women.
One more thing is interesting. Most of the relatives of the rich remain faithful traditional crafts. Many of them raise pigs, poultry and horses in the backyard of palaces, women sew patchwork quilts, old men are engaged in chasing and tinning copper utensils.
Photos of the life of millionaire gypsies in Buzesco, Romania, not only from National Geographic, but also from photographer Sebastian Cuvellie:
The richest gypsy, the "King" of the Romanian gypsies Florian Cioaba (his title was inherited from his father) has up to 50-80 million euros per year. In the early 2000s, the richest Roma was at the center of a European scandal when a court forbade him to marry his 12-year-old daughter to a 15-year-old fiancé. Chioaba bombarded even the Strasbourg court with angry demands, but he remained adamant: his daughter must wait for her 16th birthday. Last year, Romanian authorities allowed Florian Cioaba, the richest gypsy, to establish a local gypsy court, where, according to his "laws", the administrative cases of his subjects would be considered.
About 300 families belong to the Koldash clan, and at least half of them have houses worth more than 3 million euros.
The total income of the richest gypsy and his clan is approaching 300-400 million euros per year. It consists of donations from ordinary gypsies to the obshchak (deductions - up to 5-10% of criminal and semi-criminal income), cigarette smuggling from Romania to Western Europe, hotel business and trade.
A similar picture is observed among the gypsy "elite" and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Even in poverty-stricken Moldova, the rich gypsy "baron" Arthur Cerari and his clan earn up to 20-40 million euros a year.
And in Kosovo, the clan of "Baron" Nedzhmedin Neziri - up to 100 million euros a year (mostly Kosovo gypsies trade in Germany and Austria).
Like most of the rest of the “elite” of Eastern Europe, as well as the former USSR, the richest gypsies deliberately demonstrate a luxurious lifestyle, literally bathing in gold (up to 55 kg of gold was spent on the interior decoration of the house of the gypsy “king” of Romania Florian Cioaba).
Of the super-incomes of the richest gypsies, only crumbs fall to the "people", and even then - mainly for some dirty deeds. The super-luxury of the richest gypsies and the people subordinate to them do not cause indignation: secretly, most of the lower classes dream that someday they will also be able to become the owners of a golden toilet bowl and the “right of the first night”.
The richest millionaire gypsies in Eastern Europe are a perfect example for libertarians. They achieved everything themselves, without the help of the state. They don't pay taxes, but they don't demand anything from the government either.
The richest gypsies in Eastern Europe live in complete freedom - from the prejudices of marriage laws, with weapons, and so on. “Gypsy Shrugged” is what Ayn Rand would probably call her guide book about the ideal life of a libertarian today.
The October issue of National Geographic magazine tells about the life of the richest gypsies in their world capital - the Romanian city of Buzescu. The richest Roma city is located 80 km southwest of Bucharest.
In Buzescu, with a population of 5,000, about 800 houses have been built, each costing between $2 million and $30 million. In general, the value of all this real estate of gypsy millionaires is estimated at 4 billion dollars.
Gypsies from Buzescu do not pay any taxes to the state, formally considered unemployed, or owners of firms with a zero balance.
There is, however, one exception - the villas of the richest gypsies are considered unfinished, and therefore are subject to a small property tax. Usually it is 200-300 euros per year.
One of these gypsy millionaires, named Parachiv, tells how he became rich: after the establishment of capitalism in Romania in 1989, the main business of enterprising gypsies was the purchase of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
Interestingly, the same accumulation of primary capital was also noted in Russia. “You had to be a fool not to build yourself 5 villas after the 1989 Revolution!” says one of the millionaires named Nikolai Marin.
Well, then the gypsies who made their capital went into other businesses, for example, smuggling cigarettes to the rich countries of the European Union.
As in Russia, the first thing the nouveaux riches began was the over-consumption shown. Expensive cars, palaces, gold. But there is one difference between gypsy millionaires and Russian rich people - today they are pumping money not from their own country, but from rich European states.
The richest gypsies make their fortune in France, Italy, Spain. And these capitals are invested in their homeland - in Romania.
Gypsies-millionaires from the Romanian Buzesco work on a rotational basis: 3-4 months in Western Europe, then go home for a couple of weeks (or forced return for weddings, funerals, christenings of loved ones and relatives). Therefore, most of the palaces in this town are filled with children, old people and women.
One more thing is interesting. Most of the relatives of the richest gypsies remain faithful to traditional crafts.
Many of them raise pigs, poultry and horses in the backyard of palaces, women sew patchwork quilts, old men are engaged in chasing and tinning copper utensils.
The European Union still cannot solve the gypsy problem: a year ago they were massively deported from France and Italy, however, the nomads are EU citizens (mainly Bulgaria and Romania), and nothing prevents them from returning again. Human rights activists justify the high crime rate among Roma by their alleged poverty and illiteracy. But hundreds of gypsy millionaires in Eastern Europe live such a defiantly luxurious lifestyle that doubt creeps in the poverty of this nation. The Interpreter's blog has already written that last year Europe was shaken by a scandal in France.
From there, on the orders of Nicolas Sarkozy, several thousand gypsies were deported (at the same time, they were paid extra 400-500 euros for each deportation). They were sent to Bulgaria and Romania. Sarkozy was accused of racism, France was harshly criticized by Brussels and the UN, but Paris ignored this criticism. Since it is impossible to overcome gypsy migration by expulsion alone, the deported gypsies, as practice shows, still return back to France, the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs even developed special law banning gypsies from returning to France.
House of rich gypsies
According to international human rights organizations, the rights of gypsies are also violated in almost all European countries - the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and so on. In Finland, for example, the Interior Ministry has prepared a special law prohibiting begging. According to human rights activists, it is clearly directed against the Roma. The situation is most dramatic in Hungary - the growth of nationalism and great-power chauvinism in this country led to the beginning of the deportation of Roma from a number of villages and villages.
Sarkozy's actions were supported then by 69% of the French. And they can be understood. That's just the statistics. Puen cites several figures: in 2009, Romanians (meaning, of course, Romanian gypsies) committed more than 3,000 offenses in Paris, which is 138% more than the year before last. Two thirds of these offenses are theft, and the perpetrators of half of these crimes are minors. During the first 7 months of 2010 in the Paris region, the Romanian gypsies committed about 3 and a half thousand thefts, 20% of thefts in Paris, according to the police, are the work of the Romanian gypsies, and a quarter of these crimes are committed by minors.
A similar picture is observed in Italy. Recently, the Italian Interior Ministry published statistics: the share of Romanian citizens, mostly Roma, accounts for 15% of premeditated murders, 16% of rapes, 15% of extortion and almost 20% of robbery attacks on apartments and villas in the country. And this despite the fact that both Romanians and Romanian gypsies make up no more than 1.5% of the Italian population.
She is waiting for something. Under supervision...
Human rights activists justify the gypsy criminals allegedly by their poverty and illiteracy. This is partly true: among the Roma of Eastern and Central Europe (primarily Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia) higher education have 1%, secondary special 10%. The European Union annually allocates 70-100 million euros for the adaptation of gypsies, and about 60 million more - private charity organisations. But, European officials sigh, at least half of these funds do not reach the poor - they are stolen both by Eastern European officials and the gypsy "establishment".
The European press with enviable regularity describes the difficult everyday life of the gypsies. Like this story from Bulgaria: “The help of the European Union has already come here - several beautiful buildings have been built with EU money. But, as Angel Rashkov, a local gypsy baron, explains, in reality things are not so good. “These houses are really nice from the outside, but I don’t advise you to go inside,” he says. “Hepatitis is rampant there, and we can’t deal with it.”
Another rich gypsy house
The baron, who owns a brewery and a small distillery, steps carefully between broken glass and excrement. “All this rubbish needs to be cleared out or we’re all going to get sick,” he says, making his way to his shiny bottle green Rover 75, which is popular in Britain. “It doesn’t look like a European city.”
The European Union has been joined by poor countries of the former communist camp before, and in some of them - for example, in Slovakia - the Roma issue also had to be resolved. But in ghettos like the neighborhoods of Sheker and Stolipinovo on the outskirts of Plovdiv, EU officials will have to deal with the extreme impoverishment of the Roma and their almost complete isolation from society.
According to official figures, 400,000 Roma live in Bulgaria. In fact, there may be twice as many of them - those who have received an education often attribute themselves to the Bulgarians or Turks. Baron spoke about the average income level in the ghetto: “As a rule, a family - a woman, a man and two or seven children - lives on 200-300 leva a month. It's about 100 pounds."
How important! He doesn't have to hide anything...
True, this baron forgot to tell what income he personally has, and whether he allocates something to support his impoverished compatriots. So far, nothing is known about the income of the gypsy "elite", represented by local "barons", kings and their entourage. Only rumors leak to the press. And they are. The "king" of the Romanian gypsies Florian Cioaba (he inherited the title from his father) has up to 50-80 million euros a year. About 300 families belong to his Koldash clan, and at least half of them have houses worth more than 3 million euros.
The total income of the "king" and his clan is approaching 300-400 million euros per year. It consists of donations from ordinary gypsies to the obshchak (deductions - up to 5-10% of criminal and semi-criminal income), cigarette smuggling from Romania to Western Europe, hotel business and trade.
A similar picture is observed among the gypsy "elite" and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Even in poverty-stricken Moldova, the gypsy "baron" Arthur Cerari and his clan have up to 20-40 million euros a year. And in Kosovo, the clan of "Baron" Nedzhmedin Neziri - up to 100 million euros per year (mostly Kosovo gypsies trade in Germany and Austria).
How do you like this interior!
Like most of the rest of the "elite" of Eastern Europe, as well as the former USSR, these gypsies deliberately demonstrate a luxurious lifestyle, literally bathing in gold (up to 55 kg of gold was spent on the interior decoration of the house of the gypsy "king" of Romania Florian Cioaba). From their super-incomes, only crumbs fall to the "cattle", and even then - mainly for some dirty deeds. The super-luxury of the “elite” does not cause indignation among the people subordinate to them either: secretly, most of the lower classes dream that someday they will also be able to become the owners of a golden toilet bowl and the “right of the first night”.
Two years ago, the world media went around a series of images by Italian photographer Carlo Gianferro. Since 2004 he has been photographing the interiors of wealthy gypsy houses in Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova. We only present a few of them in this article.
Florian Cioba is not awake
This is the "king" of Romania Florian Cioaba himself. In the early 2000s, he was at the center of a European scandal when a court forbade him to marry his 12-year-old daughter to a 15-year-old fiancé. Chioaba bombarded even the Strasbourg court with angry demands, but he remained adamant: his daughter must wait for her 16th birthday. Last year, the Romanian authorities allowed Florian Cioaba to establish a local Roma court, where, according to his "laws", the administrative cases of his subjects would be considered.
These are the houses of millionaire gypsies in the vicinity of the Romanian cities of Timisoara and Buzescu (photographer Nigel Dickinson)
This is a house in the "capital" of the Moldavian gypsies, the town of Soroca, where the "baron" Cherari "meets"
At the funeral of the gypsy "elite", it is customary to put some useful things that may be useful to him in the grave along with the deceased. afterlife. For example, as the gypsy "baron" of Moldova Cherari himself admitted, even a Volga car was put in the grave of his father.
The funeral of the gypsy nobility
In Russia, the world of the gypsy "elite" is closed from prying eyes. But the Interpreter's Blog managed to find something on one gypsy site.
Gypsy house in Samara from the inside
On the streets of Sheker Mahal, one of the poorest gypsy ghettos in Bulgaria, the littered pavement is cracked with age. Low houses made of bad bricks and sheets of metal surround the square - all in potholes, in some places bushes have sprouted. And again garbage and dust. The men are rummaging through a pile of garbage, and a skinny horse has found something to eat in a metal trash can. The gloomy scene is slightly enlivened only by boys jumping on the broken end of a rusted water pipe. Western Europe seems impossibly far away.
However, on January 1 next year, this quarter will also become part of the European Union. Residents will have the right to travel visa-free to any of the EU countries, although their right to work will be legally limited by the governments of the EU states, including the UK.
Another unfortunate but rich "Pinocchio"
In the past, the Gypsies were a semi-nomadic people. In the late 1950s, under the communist regime, they were forced to live in ghettos or work on collective farms. Many of them were laborers in factories, but after the collapse of the planned economy, they were left without work.
According to Bulgarian human rights activist Krassimir Kanev, the police very rarely look into large ghettos like Stolipinovo, allowing criminal gangs to establish their own laws there. "Police officers refuse to investigate crimes in Roma communities," says Kanev, head of the Helsinki Committee in Bulgaria.
Law enforcement officers see their task in protecting other residents of the country from the gypsies. Extortion thrives in the ghetto, women are sold in brothels, usury. Gypsies are engaged in begging, drug trafficking, selling children, which causes suspicious attitude towards them on the part of ethnic Bulgarians.
Kanev believes that Roma are unlikely to emigrate en masse to the UK. According to him, many are already working in Europe, mostly in Greece, Italy and Spain. “They work on semi-legal terms, in 90% of cases they are employed in agriculture. But in the UK the agricultural sector is technically well equipped and workers need to have some education,” he explains.
And here, as we see, they do not live in poverty ...
Rashkov is also convinced that his tribesmen will not be able to travel to the UK. “The communist system did not give us education. Roma will seek work in countries where special qualifications are not required. Where there are strict laws, it is difficult to live without education,” he sighs…
... The Baron conducted an impromptu survey among the men who surrounded us. Approximately half of them said that they have passports, but the status of EU residents does not give them any hope.
What is the future of this baby?
One of them cheerfully exclaimed: “He who has a certain preparation will be able to go to Spain, France or Portugal. We love the heat, and the weather in England is bad.” A large middle-aged man, Zdravko Ilyev, spoke more gloomily: “We need help, and we would like to go to Europe. But we have no education, and Europe is unlikely to accept us”…
