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Moscow Businessman's Son Freed After Deadly Gunfight

Police have rescued the 20-year-old kidnapped son of a Moscow businessman after a gunfight that left one of the suspected abductors dead.

Police did not identify the son or his father, whom they described as the owner of a restaurant and a transportation company.

The son was whisked off in an SUV after being attacked late at night on April 18 near an apartment building on Novokosinskaya Ulitsa in eastern Moscow, police official Sergei Stukalov said Monday.

"The kidnappers later contacted the father of the victim and demanded $700,000 for the release of his son," Stukalov said in comments carried by Interfax.

He said the police determined the location of the son on April 25 and immediately dispatched special forces to conduct a rescue operation. Four kidnappers put up armed resistance, and one of them was shot in the abdomen and later died of his injuries, he said.

Stukalov did not provide further details of the rescue or elaborate on the well-being of the son.

He said the remaining three suspects have been charged with kidnapping. If convicted, each faces up to eight years in prison.

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