Vladimir Reznikov

Vladimir Reznikov (died June 13, 1986, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York City) was a Russian American gangster. After attempting to retrieve money owed to him for a fraudulent gas license provided by Marat Balagula (who he sold bootlegged gasoline for in a western New York gas station, among many other enterprises) Reznikov was shot dead by the Lucchese crime family, to whom Balagula was paying street tax. Reznikov's murder remained unsolved until the 1994 cooperation of Lucchese acting boss Anthony Casso. According to Casso, the shooting was actually committed by Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, two veterans of the DeMeo crew.

In the spring of 1986, the Colombo crime family crew, led by Michael Franzese, began shaking down associates of Balagula, who was running a multibillion-dollar gasoline bootlegging operation. In response, Balagula asked for a sit-down with Christopher Furnari, the consiglieri for the Lucchese crime family. After the sit-down took place in Brooklyn's 19th Hole social club, Balagula agreed to pay street tax to the Lucchese family. The money was not only strategically shared, but also became the Five Families' biggest moneymaker after narcotics trafficking.

According to Philip Carlo,

"It didn't take long for word on the street to reach the Russian underworld: Marat Balagula was paying off the Italians; Balagula was a punk; Balagula had no balls. Balagula's days were numbered. This, of course, was the beginning of serious trouble. Balagula did in fact have balls—he was a ruthless killer when necessary—but he also was a smart diplomatic administrator and he knew that the combined, concerted force of the Italian crime families would quickly wipe the newly arrived Russian competition off the proverbial map."

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