Russia and the CIS (bbabo.net) - Entrepreneur Mikhail Gutseriev has never resorted to the practice of paying militants for the release of hostages in the North Caucasus Federal District. Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes about this with reference to ex-State Duma deputy Alikhan Amirkhanov and ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin.
According to Amirkhanov, in the 1990s, Gutseriev helped to rescue many people from captivity, including the presidential envoy to Chechnya Valentin Vlasov, several security officials, and women who were deceived into Chechnya.
He noted that after the successful experience of Gutseriev's team, he periodically began to receive requests for help in negotiating with the invaders.
Gutseriev's team built the work to free the hostages on the basis of a dialogue with people who were ready to assist in this matter. Such citizens could count on reciprocal assistance in the form of food supplies, repairs, release of family members from prisons, etc. At the same time, the terrorists were never given money as part of the negotiations, Amirkhanov stressed.
According to him, for Gutseriev it was a red line. "He said: I will not save anyone for money, because if I give it back, then I will help the terrorists," the newspaper's interlocutor added.
Former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin confirmed that the negotiators never gave ransoms to bandits.
As an example, he cited the story of the kidnapped French official, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Vincent Cochetel in Vladikavkaz in 1998.
According to Stepashin, Gutseriev then managed to put pressure on “some so-called businessmen in Chechnya who lived and worked in Moscow,” thanks to which the Frenchman was saved. This happened during a special operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the participation of Deputy Minister Vladimir Rushailo and Gutseriev.
bbabo.Net