Bank crisis in SW Russia

Happening close to Ukraine

Armed man takes hostages in southwestern Russian bank

An armed man took three hostages at a Russian bank in the city of Belgorod. He may be a client of the bank wishing to withdraw his deposit despite the bank losing its license.

RT,

21 April, 2014

The hostage situation is developing at a branch of the Zapadny bank in Belgorod, a city in western Russia in a region bordering Ukraine.

The armed man went into the bank on Monday morning and is now demanding a certain sum of money, police confirmed. There are three people being held hostage inside, according to preliminary information.

Earlier unconfirmed media reports said the man is armed with a Saiga carbine and is demanding 25 million rubles ransom ($700,000).

Police have evacuated a school and a kindergarten near the branch as precaution. The region’s police chief, General Viktor Pesterev, is at the scene. Negotiations are underway

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The crime in progress comes on the day when the Russian central bank announced the revocation of Zapadny bank’s banking license. The bank had cooked its books and failed to comply with regulations on the amount of assets a financial organization must maintain to ensure its stability, the central bank said.

The withdrawal of the license means that the bank’s clients will have to wait for some time before they can get their deposits. Only deposits no bigger than about $20,000 will be reimbursed by the national bank deposit insurance agency. Creditors holding larger debts will have to wait for the bank’s likely bankruptcy.

Life News tabloid says it has identified one of the attackers as 46-year-old Aleksandr Vdovin, a client who decided to reimburse his deposit at gunpoint. The report added that the hostages are the head manager of the branch, a cashier and a janitor.

LifeNews also spoke to a friend of the alleged hostage taker, Gennady, who said his holding up of the bank branch was most likely an act of desperation. He said Vdovin, a father of two, is a rational man and would release the hostages unharmed, if he is given some time to cool down and think straight.

The tabloid spoke to Vdovin himself on the phone. He sounded rather calm and said he was about to settle his differences with the bank. He also agreed to allow his friend, Gennady, into the bank to act as a negotiator.