Hostage crisis ends at Russian embassy in Costa Rica

May 11, 2007

Police say Roman Bogdanyants, 21, from Kyrgyzstan, entered the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica and took at least one other male hostage at gunpoint, before authorities were able to end the standoff peacefully after four hours.

"It all ended without violence, without loss of life. All the embassy staff are just fine," said Valery Nikolayenko, the Russian Ambassador, who was on a different floor of the embassy, was not injured during the standoff. No other embassy workers or personnel were injured.

Bogdanyants entered the embassy with his mother and took Andrey Yurenkov hostage in what is believed to be a dispute over money. Bogdanyants's mother spent the entire time during the standoff, attempting to get her son to surrender.