Thai police arrest Russians wanted for murder

The two, identified as Oleg Stiajkov, 34, and Anton Lavrinenko, 29, were arrested Wednesday at U-Tapao airport near the Pattaya beach resort, police Lt. Col. Pirom Preeyakorn said.

He said the Thai police had been informed by their Russian counterparts that the two were members of an organized crime group in Russia and that they were wanted on several murder charges.

The two men were at the U-Tapao airport waiting for friends to arrive from Russia on a chartered flight, said Prion, the head of the foreign criminal suppression police unit of Chonburi province where Pattaya is located. It is 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Bangkok.

Thailand does not have an extradition treaty with Russia but can deport the men since they are illegally in the country, Pirom said.

He said both men are from Krasnoyarsk, the second biggest city in Siberia. The Bangkok Post newspaper reported that the two fled Russia after taking part in the ambush of a businessman on June 19, 1999. It said they entered Thailand on March 27 this year.

Pattaya, which draws a large number of Western sex tourists, has a reputation as a haven for foreign gangsters from countries such as Russia, England and Germany.

Fearing the spread of transnational crime, Thailand's Foreign Ministry in January said it supports a National Security Council proposal to review the country's liberal policy on visa-free entry for foreigners.

"Criminals from many parts of the world now call us home," NSC Deputy Secretary-general Songkram Chuenpibal was quoted as saying by The Nation newspaper. "From Russia we get prostitution ringleaders, and we are infested by Chinese gangsters, Japanese yakuza and European and African drug traders."

(dolefin.com)