Attempted extortion, intimidation or revenge linked to a commercial dispute: these could be, according to Russian investigators, the motives for the lightning kidnapping of an Italian manager in Moscow, Stefano Guidotti, held hostage for about 36 hours before being freed by police. Guidotti, 56, who according to the Investigative Committee also has Russian citizenship, was attacked on Friday in the center of the capital, on Sadovaya-Triumfalnaya Avenue, and pushed into a car that drove away. The kidnappers, according to investigators, were four men between the ages of 21 and 36. Ren television reported that they were three Russians and an Uzbek citizen. Guidotti was handcuffed and hooded and taken to the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, about 400 kilometers southwest of the capital. There he was held for about 24 hours in a house in the Novostroika district, before being freed by the intervention of the agents. The Italian embassy said the compatriot did not suffer physical harm.
Russian police have released a video of the moments of the liberation. In the images, published by Rbc, you can see the officers entering a house through a window, while one of the kidnappers is lying face down on the ground and handcuffed behind his back in the garden. Later, two other men are shown inside the house, in the same position. Finally, you can see the moment when the police officers enter the room where the kidnapped man is being held, lying on a bed, with his right wrist handcuffed to a piece of furniture and wearing a black T-shirt. “We are the police, everything is fine,” says a voice. At that point Guidotti, who had raised his head, lets it fall, with an obvious gesture of relief.
