There are a lot of Russians and others from the former Soviet Bloc living in the DeeCee Sprawl, and here’s the best part, many of them have lived in the sprawl long enough to have made a significant contribution to the Old Army, with emphasis on Old Army. This created no short of resentment among a community that had previous made itself indispensable to the government and the defense field.
The Vory didn’t have much of a presence beyond the Russian and Eastern European communities for a long time, and kept their operations fairly insular. The one exception was their decker crews who would carry out every kind of byzantine fraud and theft one could imagine. Naturally, they were very useful for money laundering, and it was rumored that they got a pass from the government for the business they did by doing contract work for the FBI and military. However, when otaku tribes started killing each other just before the Renraku Arcology went dark in Seattle, some of the tribes, like Probe, turned to the one group that they feared enough to serve. After Crash 2.0, some of the tribes were wiped out. The Electron Sorcerers and 000 000 000 remain independent, but the Vory have no problem running a virtual crew with technomancers working from the Motherland.
Given the multinational nature of the Vory, it was simply a matter of pragmatism that a Georgian was made tsar of DeeCee. He is an ork-sized human with a sadistic streak and a military background. He is a focused leader, driving the Vory to incorporate as many of their potential recruits as possible, preferring to use them as a means to break into the Mafia and Yakuza stronghold on smuggling. (ConTOut)
To that end the Tsar has built an elite force of rumored magic users to carry out his more stealthy operations. These Night Witches are quickly gaining a reputation to be feared, but their Commander Yevdokiya Sebrova is a hardened and even keeled military veteran (As her often worn uniform pieces imply.) and a practical second-in command to balance the Tsar. But make no mistake crossing her would be just as deadly. Their rumored flight capability might be magic, but it also just be long hours training to make use of personal flight suits or perhaps something in between. Regardless, when dealing with the Night Witches be sure to keep your eyes looking up.
