Today was an action packed day in Moscow. At a pre-trial detention facility in the southeastern part of the city three inmates siezed “up to fifteen hostages”:http://mosnews.com/news/2006/09/04/hostagesupd.shtml, including “the warden of the facility”:http://mosnews.com/news/2006/09/04/prisonhostages.shtml, demanding that their sentences be reduced. It seems that “a blast was heard”:http://mosnews.com/news/2006/09/04/prisonstorm.shtml indicating Russian security forces had already began storming the building. That was at 19:50 local time. Soon after, “all fifteen hostages were freed”:http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=13381572 and the three inmates captured without harm. Somehow, I don’t think their sentences will be reduced.
Congratulations to the Russian forces that brought this to a close without a hitch.
About Younghusband
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) was a British explorer, army officer, military-political officer, and foreign correspondent born in India who led expeditions into Manchuria, Kashgar, and
Tibet. He three times tried and failed to scale Mt. Everest and journeyed from China to India, crossing the Gobi desert and the Mustagh Pass (alt. c.19,000 ft/5,791 m) of the Karakoram mountain range in modern day Pakistan. Convinced of Russian designs on British interests in India, Younghusband proactively engaged in the nineteenth century spying and conflict over Central Asia between the British and the Russians known as the Great Game.
"Younghusband" is a Canadian who has spent a number of years bouncing back and forth between his home country and Japan. Fluent in Japanese and English with experience in numerous other languages from Spanish to Georgian, Younghusband has travelled throughout Asia. He graduated with an MA from the War Studies Department at the
Royal Military College of Canada, where he focussed on the Japanese oil industry and energy security issues. He has recently returned to Canada from Japan, and is working in the technology sector.
Certainly a change of pace (and result) from “what we’ve come to expect from the Russian security forces.”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis
Yeah, nice work by the Russians. Maybe they are getting better at this kind of thing. On the other hand, these guys don’t sound like they were Islamic fanatics, either.
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Two interesting follow up tidbits in this article:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/09/06/018.html
…Meanwhile, Kalinin told Interfax that none of the prison staff would be punished for allowing the hostage-taking to occur.
“No one person was at fault, but there are certain weaknesses in our organization and we will take measures to address them,” Kalinin said.
He added that wages for prison officers were so low that far more women than men were willing to sign on. He said 40 percent of the prison’s staff was female and that the average wage for workers at the prison was 5,000 rubles ($187) per month.
… there were no terrorists, but there were convicted murderers among the hostage-takers.