Russian Embassy Incident Was Over A Settling of a Score
The two men taken out by police in Friday's hostage incident at the Russian embassy in San José were indentified as Román Bogdanyants and Andrey Yurenkov, who were responsible for the holding of eight hostages, including the Russian ambassador, and holding police at bay for more than four hours.

The incident was a result of a unexpected meeting of Román, who was accompanied by his parents, Parat and Tatiana, to seek help from the embassy for their financial loss, with Andrey, who is the son of the man who had defrauded them for some us$40.000 dollars.

The Bogdanyants family had made a deal with Olek Yurenkov for the purchase of a pineapple plantation that, the Bogdanyants, say was a scam as the land they though they had purchased was on a lease and the crop never came to fruition.

Apparently, Tatiana complained to Andrey about the actions of his father, who in turn begun to mock and insult the woman, leading the young Román to lose his control and a scuffle ensued.

In the scuffle, Román was able to grab a handgun being carried by Andrey and took him hostage demanding embassy officials to settle the score between the two families.

In the days following the incident, it has become evident that the only hostage being held by Román was Andrey and that in no time were any of other embassy workers, nor ambassador Valery Nicolayenko and other high ranking emabssy officials in any danger. It appears that the ambassador and his officials were working to end the conflict between the two men.

The question that has still to be answered is how Andrey could be inside the embassy with a fire arm.

The incident began shortly after 12:30pm, one of the Spanish language newspaper calling the incident "Russian Vengeance", and ended minutes before 5:00pm, after Costa Rican police heeded to the demands of the young man of a bottle of water and cloak to cover his face in exchange for his surrender.

The earlier demand of payment of us$50.000 was quickly dropped, as officials of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), through a Russian interpreter negotiated with the men.

Since the embassy is a diplomatic centre, Costa Rican officials could do nothing more than talk to the man and wait for his surrender or word from embassy officials to enter. Complicating matters is that the only unit that would have any authority on the Russian embassy premises would be the Unidad Especial de Apoyo (UEA) which is under the direct command of the Costa Rican president.

Following his surrender to the UEA, Román, was quickly escorted by OIJ officials to the Segundo Circuito Policial de Goicoechea, where he remained until a judge decided on his fate.

Last night (Saturday), shortly after 9:30pm,  the Juzgado de Turno Extraordinario de Goicoechea, set Román free on bail, though the Fiscalía (prosecution) had asked for six months of preventive detention.

The young man is faces charges of "secuestro extorsivo"