>I think he's also spot on in predicting that
>Chessani/Osip/Blake?/Catalast? are all in cahoots in slowly
>muscling Frank out of Vinci.

They aren't necessarily in "cahoots", but each is directly or indirectly responsible for Caspere's death and Frank's decline. Velcoro's tailing of Blake and subsequent beatdown of Rick Springfield highlights the different groups at play:

1. Osyp (the Russian) + Blake (Frank's #2)
2. Mayor Chesani + A.G. Geldorf + Vinci P.D.
3. The Catalyst Group

Additionally, Tony Chesani (the son) and Ben Caspere (the dead guy) are/were apparently liasons between the groups, and were stockpiling blackmail materials against Catalyst/politicians to leverage in their own political ambitions. And it would seem that a Mexican criminal organization was brought in to manage many of Vinci's illicit economies.

Prior to the start of the show, Catalyst and the Mayor's group (along with Frank) were colluding in the creation of devalued land through waste dumping in order to produce the rail-corridor. Osyp was brought in by Frank as an investor in development of said land.

At this point, it seems like each group is fighting to maintain dominance over the others, with Geldorf + P.D. likely in possession of the blackmail materials (as per episode 2). Osyp seems to have moved into the territory and is taking advantage of the sex trade operation and possibly expanded that into human trafficking.