Gangsters of Donbas: eyewitness account of kidnappings in LPR. Part 2

While the leaders of the part of Donbas captured by terrorists are killing each other, the local criminals took the trade which was popular in the 'mafia-style 90s", namely, kidnapping.

Criminals kidnap people for ransom and address to relatives of the victims in Ukraine to receive money. Of course, people were kidnapped here from the very beginning of the armed conflict in the spring of 2014. The difference is that now gangsters have to hide their activity not only from Ukrainian law enforcers, but also from the "People's Police" of separatists.

Alexander, 40 years old, occupied with business in Kiev, has told the reporter of Online.ua how he went the Luhansk region to ransom the cousin and his wife.

Please follow the link to read the 1st  part of the story

- Do you think that our law enforcement agencies contact by "common issues" with the security forces of LPR?
 
- Yes. Committeemen immediately said that such cases were. Therefore they know about precedents when everything ends badly, about 50 to 50 possibilities: "They could decide spontaneously, and you'll get a corpse!"
 
By the way, when they released my cousin's wife, SBU officers that have contacts with the power structures of LPR told the kidnappers began to twitch - that is, they have received the information that they are known, and it is not in their interest to kill the kidnapped or take some things. In LPR their image is maintained also. It is unprofitable for them that such things took place in their "republic".
 
- So how much did the exemption cost?
 
- From the very beginning they assigned the amount almost to USD 50,000. We had not such money, of course. Then they lowered the amount to 15,000, but in the end we have managed to remove four of them. That is, we gave 11,000 dollars in two steps.
 
- What the relatives talked about the time in captivity? Did they feed your relatives, allow them to watch a TV?

 - No media did not exist. The relatives were confined in a private home. The food was good; they did not physically touched, not abused; the gangsters only have harsh conversations, spoken in a gross manner with them. My cousin's wife was ill, nervous, falled into hysterics - again, she did not know what's up with their child.

Those who have watched us called themselves by "numbers", i.e. there were no information about their names. There were all in neck face masks and it was impossible to identify them in any way. My cousin did not even realize where they were. He says that he felt somewhere in the region of Pervomaysk or Stakhanov. They were brought there with their eyes closed, and taken away with eyes closed.

 - But could the gangsters be former military men or field investigators?

 - I do not know. To watch gangster movies is enough to create this scheme, nothing particularly difficult. They just keep track of who has money and good family connections in Ukraine. And you can milk such people.
 
- What's with your cousin and his wife now?

- Have moved to Kharkov. They are treated now thinking what to do next.
 
ONLINE.UA asked for comments to human right activists.

Alex Bida, coordinator of the Center for Documentation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU), said that he was not aware of such cases when people have been abducted not by militants of LPR-DPR but by bandits hunted in the occupied territories.

UHHRU documents all incidents of crime in the territories captured by pro-Russian terrorists. Union lawyers help victims to make complaints to the European Court of Human Rights.

"Our lawyers have prepared more than 200 such claims about violations of rights of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories. The evidence base is collected on that the aggressor in this territory is the Russian Federation, and it is responsible for the violation of human rights. We report the European Court of Human Rights about these claims, there is a process of communication.

Yaroslav GREBENYUK

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