Bankruptcy

When Visiting Russia, Check Your Luggage For High Powered Ammunition

By Scott Riddle

I can't really turn this into a Bankruptcy or litigation issue, so it will be a rare stray for this news story -

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Pastor's Hunting Ammunition Gets Him 3 Years in Russian Prison.  

Phillip Miles, from South Carolina, has been in custody since his arrest on Feb. 3. He was arrested several days after customs agents at a Moscow airport found a box of 20 rifle shells in his luggage. The court sentenced him to serve three years and two months in prison, with the sentence calculated from his detention date.

Mr. Miles said he didn't know bringing the .300 caliber cartridges was illegal and had packed them for a friend who had recently bought a Winchester rifle. ... "I'm very disappointed. It's a strange sentence for one box of hunting bullets,"

What?!? 

The cartridges were not initially found as he flew into Moscow, but a day later, as airport security put his luggage through an X-ray machine while he was on his way to check in for a flight to Perm, a city in Siberia.

Maybe he was lucky to get caught in Moscow.  I spent a week in Perm, Russia (which is not really in Siberia, but is the "Gateway to Siberia"),  which was a "closed" city for many years after the fall of the USSR because of the defense industry there, and when we de-planed late at night we were thoroughly searched as we looked at the business end of several AK-47 rifles.   Like the pastor, we were caught smuggling illegal goods.  Thankfully, several containers of Tylenol and aspirin only resulted in confiscation, not a Russian prison.  We really didn't consider packing high-powered rifle ammo.

Full post as published by Georgia Bankruptcy Blog on April 21, 2008 (boomark / email).