In what may have been the worst decision in his life, a local criminal boss in a Siberian town reportedly picked a fight with soldiers from a passing railroad convoy, only to be shot to death by a guard on duty.
The bizarre incident happened on Monday night at the railway station in Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky, a town of just over 16,000 residents located about 200km southeast of Lake Baikal in Siberia – famous for being the destination of exile for 71 of the officers behind the failed 1825 coup in imperial Russia.
The official military report on the matter is brief and is lacking in details. It simply states that an armed guard of a military convoy lawfully discharged his service firearm when engaging trespassers who ignored his warning shot and attacked the patrol, and that it resulted in one fatality among the attacking party.
But a local law enforcement source cited by Interfax gives a far more colorful account. The source said the man who was killed was a well-known local crime boss nicknamed Zhdanchik (the expected one).
He and his associates were celebrating his 29th birthday on Monday at café near the railroad station. Somehow the crew got into a quarrel with a group of soldiers from the convoy, who passed by while shopping.
“Then the locals tried to force their way to the convoy, so the guard opened fire at them,” the source said, adding that one of Zhdanchik’s men was injured in the altercation.
Well, treating a train loaded with military hardware as a shop on your protection racket list is probably not such a good idea.
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