Gas Attack at Russian Store: A Result of Cutthroat Capitalism?
People sickened after of a gas attack at a store of the Maksidom home-supplies chain, get medical care in hospital in St. Petersburg, Monday, Dec. 26, 2005. A gas attack on a Russian chain store sickened more than 70 people Monday, and boxes with glass vials attached to wires were found in three other outlets of the same store, authorities said. Police said they believed a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt was behind the incidents, and Russian news agencies quoted the city’s top official as saying that authorities had ruled out terrorism.
The ASSociated Press has Gas Attack at Russia Store Sickens Dozens
A gas attack in a home-supply store on one of the busiest shopping days of the year sickened scores of people Monday in an incident that police called likely motivated by a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt. Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the scene of the attack and three other stores in the same chain in Russia’s second-largest city.
Seventy-eight people sought medical care: 66 were briefly hospitalized and sent home without any lasting ill effects, officials said. Police said that the store where the people were sickened had not yet opened for the day and all those affected were store employees or police, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
A police spokesman told The Associated Press that some customers had been sickened.
Officials with the Maksidom home-supply chain, which sells furnishings, home-repair material and other domestic articles, said they had received recent threats that sales would be disrupted around New Year’s, when Russians traditionally give holiday gifts.
Most efforts to undermine competitors’ sales in Russia’s sharp-elbowed free market take the form of negative advertising or damaging rumors. Business-related violence nonetheless remains a feature of the cutthroat capitalism that enveloped Russia following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
How about the failure of the rule of law in Russia?
Something to keep in mind when it is reported that Russians are selling missle and nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea.
Previous:
Strategic Missle Defense Watch: Russians Deploy NEW Strategic Missle
Iran Nuclear Watch: Russians Helping with Missle Threat to Europe
One Comment
sam basso
I suspect this is a trial run for a real WMD attack in the future. How better to analyze traffic patterns, response times, crowd responses, distribution of fumes or biological agents, etc? Do a test and observe. I think at some point the real deal will happen, and it will be horrific. I doubt this was about commercial blackmail.