Zelimkhan Mazaev, whom the UAE authorities placed on an international wanted list for gunning down Hero of Russia Sulim Yamadayev, is living in Moscow. Recently, he was involved in an incident with police after leaving his pistol behind in a restaurant.
photo from the Interpol database As a source in the Russian security services told Rosbalt, the incident took place at the Sheikh's Treasure restaurant on Mantulinskaya Street. Employees of the establishment called the police and said that a waiter had found a weapon apparently left behind by one of the patrons. The officers who arrived found a Stechkin pistol and took it with them. Soon afterward, several Chechen men came to the restaurant. Claiming they had left the pistol there, they demanded that it be returned immediately. "The visitors practically turned the place upside down, almost lining the staff up in formation," the agency's source said. The employees called the police again, and officers returned to Sheikh's Treasure. The Chechen men insisted that they legally possessed the Stechkin pistol, and an argument broke out with law enforcement officers. During the proceedings, it emerged that one of the visitors was Zelimkhan Ramzanovich Mazaev, born in 1981, who claimed that the weapon belonged to him (though he could not produce the relevant documents, saying he had not brought them with him). "For certain reasons, the Chechen men were not detained. Mazaev promised to bring the necessary documents shortly, but never returned. For now, the Stechkin pistol has been logged as having been found in the restaurant, without a criminal case being opened," the agency's source said. According to him, even during the incident the police ran Mazaev through all the databases available to them, but he did not appear as wanted. "It turned out that Mazaev has been living temporarily in Moscow for a year and is officially listed as unemployed," our source said. http://www.rosbalt.ru/moscow/2011/11/14/912009.html So, a) A man on an international wanted list for murder is walking around Moscow with a pistol. b) He forgets the pistol in a restaurant (!). c) He comes back and, together with a pack of similar thugs, lines up the restaurant staff. d) The police arrive, and the thugs get into an altercation with them. e) The police do not detain a man who illegally possesses a pistol and is wanted, for certain reasons. What reasons?! f) The wanted man promises to bring the documents (!), the police agree (!), and he never brings them. g) The pistol is logged as found property. What is this supposed to be? Is this happening in Moscow in 2011, or in the village of Bamut (a Chechen village associated with heavy fighting in the First Chechen War) in 1995? Armed Chechen bandits, for certain reasons, have immunity from law enforcement throughout Russia. Anyone who thinks this is wrong is labeled an extremist.
And after this, some people are still surprised by the aggressive slogans at the Russian Marches (annual nationalist demonstrations in Russia). After reading news like this, even the most tolerant among us would be ready to address such restaurant patrons with the proverbial: "Come on now, get the hell out of here."