Zenit St. Petersburg player Andrei Mostovoy bravely defended himself against kidnappers who attempted to abduct him outside a grocery store. The Russian national team member was the target of the incident but managed to escape with the help of his friend Alexander Grakun, a former youth ice hockey player.
The 27-year-old Mostovoy was ambushed by a group on Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg on October 24. As they approached in a minibus near Mostovoy’s Mercedes G-Wagon, three masked individuals tried to forcefully take him into their vehicle but were thwarted by an unexpected intervention.
Grakun swiftly pulled Mostovoy away while pushing the attackers back, allowing Mostovoy to flee into a nearby wooded area before the abductors could regroup. Following the incident, Mostovoy reported the attempted kidnapping to the authorities.
In an interview with KP-Petersburg, Grakun’s mother, Natalya, credited her son for his quick action in overpowering the kidnappers, causing them to retreat. Mostovoy, grateful for the rescue, expressed his shock at the incident in a video interview released by Fontanka news outlet.
Despite the traumatic experience, Mostovoy returned to training and scored a vital goal for Zenit in a match against Dynamo Moscow, helping his team secure a 2-1 victory. Subsequently, a similar group reportedly kidnapped Sergei Selegen, the son-in-law of State Duma lawmaker Vyacheslav Makarov, two days later. However, the police successfully rescued Selegen and apprehended four individuals after tracking a Toyota Land Cruiser.
According to Moscow Times, a fifth suspect was detained later, claiming the kidnapping operation was intended as a ‘birthday prank,’ with one suspect implicating a non-Russian mastermind behind the scheme. The detained individuals are facing serious charges, including kidnapping, robbery, and attempted kidnapping, with the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office confirming their custody pending pretrial detention.
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