How to earn two million

There is a very simple way to earn 2 million: to seize a children’s hospital, take the personnel and visitors hostages, require ransom, receive it, and then leave. Does it seem impossible? Anything is possible in Russia. Especially when there is a large-scale conspiracy in which law-enforcement officers participate.

This is the version currently being considered by the department of the Office of the Prosecutor General in the Southern administrative district.

An armed criminal seized a children’s hospital in the city of Vladikavkaz (the republic of North Osetia) the other day; he asked for the money, got it, and then disappeared. The law-enforcement bodies still do not have any information about the terrorist; they do not know either his looks or location. The forces of law and order of Vladikavkaz, the Central Directorate of the Federal Security Service of the republic of North Osetia took part in an operation to neutralize the criminal. The terrorist claimed that he had placed bombs in several apartment buildings in the city besides the hospital that he had seized. This was the explanation given by the Federal Security Service for giving the money to the criminal: they said that he could tell them where exactly he had placed the mines. This was also the explanation to the fact as to why they failed to trace the criminal after he left the hospital on a police vehicle having the money in his hands – 2 million rubles. They said that the Federal Security Service attendants were busy looking for the bombs. The most surprising thing is that the bills, in 100 and 500 ruble notes, were not even marked and that their numbers were not written down. This was also the explanation for the haste: the apartment buildings could blow up.

The State Duma deputies invited the prime minister of the Russian Federation and the heads of the military departments today to look into the matter. The deputies wanted to listen to what they had to say on the matter in order to understand how one criminal in a threadbare mask managed to wind ALL the special services around his finger.

A special committee arrived in Vladikavkaz yesterday. The committee’s goals have not been exposed yet; either they are going to check the activity of the law-enforcement officers of Vladikavkaz, or maybe they are going to share their experience and assist in catching the bandit.

It is not clear how they will nab the criminal? There is no description of his appearance, and it is not known where he is. The money was not marked, and he is free to spend it all. There was not even a bug put in the police vehicle in which the criminal left the hospital. They could have at least turn on the radio station in the car, but they did not do so.

It has just became known that the department of the Office of the Prosecutor General in the Southern administrative district was checking the attendants of the law-enforcement bodies in connection with the disappearance of the criminal. This was said by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Southern administrative district, Sergey Fridinsky. In his words, the investigation already has several suspects, and adequate measures are currently being directed towards those people.

This means that the Office of the Prosecutor General is looking for traces of a conspiracy between the criminal and the law-enforcement officers. We wonder what kind of conspiracy that might be! Was the Federal Security Service also involved? There also must have been a person who was supervising the whole operation, who was in charge of the criminal’s actions, giving the adequate orders. Therefore, it is true that anything is possible in Russia.

On the photo: The main street of Vladikavkaz - the capital of the republic of North Osetia

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/01/33310.html