[george]

Two Russian women killed at Jomthien beach

PATTAYA: -- Two Russian women, both tourists, have been shot dead in the Eastern seaboard resort of Jomthien, adjacent to Pattaya, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of Bangkok, police said.

Tatiana Tsimfer, 30 and Liubov Svirkova, 25 were killed when an unidentified gunman fired four shots from a 9 mm pistol, police said. Their bodies were found lying on the beach while their personal effects were left untouched.

Witnesses reportedly told police that they saw the victims drinking alcohol and swimming earlier.

Initially, police investigators believed that the Russian tourists probably quarreled severely with a beach chair concessionnaire which led to the later violence. Police are searching for the operator to investigate.

--TNA 2007-02-24

[Mid]

can we have a WTF file ??

'cause this sure qualifies .....................

[Jingthing]

Oh Geez!!!!
First it was The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!
Now where will they go?
Time to find a suspect, any suspect, and have a very quick public lynching. That'll do it.
Guess they didn't read the book about not offending the face of a Thai.

If there is a silver lining in this horrid event, and there really isn't, I suppose it will be easier to locate a vacant beach chair for awhile. Also, people are likely to be really, really polite to the vendors.

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2007-02-24 13:57

[JimmyTheMook]

george, on 2007-02-24 13:45:41, said:

Two Russian women killed at Jomthien beach

PATTAYA: -- Two Russian women, both tourists, have been shot dead in the Eastern seaboard resort of Jomthien, adjacent to Pattaya, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of Bangkok, police said.

Tatiana Tsimfer, 30 and Liubov Svirkova, 25 were killed when an unidentified gunman fired four shots from a 9 mm pistol, police said. Their bodies were found lying on the beach while their personal effects were left untouched.

Witnesses reportedly told police that they saw the victims drinking alcohol and swimming earlier.

Initially, police investigators believed that the Russian tourists probably quarreled severely with a beach chair concessionnaire which led to the later violence. Police are searching for the operator to investigate.

--TNA 2007-02-24

This is shocking.

It goes way beyond the average bag snatch.

[jakesideas]

What kind of person would kill 2 girls in the middle of the day on the beach? This is horrible news.

[cdnvic]

This smacks of a hit, not random crime. Bit surprised at the targets though.

[freitag1]

sure they were just tourists?

[wintermute]

If it involves violence and Russians then it's usually not random at all. I bet there's a lot more to this.

[pattaya_girl]

this is very very bad news. bad news for pattaya tourists. i love going to jomtien beach with my daughter, but now will maybe think twice, might be better of staying at home. jeez. "amazing thailand"

[Phil Conners]

Probably pimp killing.

[castelleone]

oh oh, that is really bad news here. After Samui now here. This will not improve tourism from nowhere. Especially young women will stay away. Another "Thailand special"

[Foggy Bottom]

freitag1, on 2007-02-24 14:05:22, said:

sure they were just tourists?

That was my first thought too

[A_Traveller]

From The Nation site

The two were identified as Tsimfer Tatiana, 30 and Svirkova Livbov, 25.

They were staying at the Dragon Beach Resort Hotel after checking in there on February 16 and were scheduled to check out on March 3.

Link
http://nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/r...newsid=30027794

[jaapfries]

wintermute, on 2007-02-24 14:06:13, said:

If it involves violence and Russians then it's usually not random at all. I bet there's a lot more to this.

================================================================

Yeap; Wintermute; I believe you are correct; of course there's more to this story that what we've heard sofar. I've lived and worked in Pattaya for almost 15 years now and I can tell you that there have been some pretty incredible encounters involving Russian citizens here.
As a rule; it is mostly kept "between Russians" and I would be surprised if this will not turn-out to fall into that same catagory.

Likely scenario could be: two Russian hookers (and there are litterally hundreds of them here !?) no longer desoire to pay-off their Russian pimps; these guys are not the pick-nick type and will go through extreme lengths to "save face" with regards to the rest of their "flock" . . . . tatsteless business, no kidding !

[Pakboong]

george, on 2007-02-24 13:45:41, said:

Two Russian women killed at Jomthien beach

PATTAYA: -- Two Russian women, both tourists, have been shot dead in the Eastern seaboard resort of Jomthien, adjacent to Pattaya, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of Bangkok, police said.

Tatiana Tsimfer, 30 and Liubov Svirkova, 25 were killed when an unidentified gunman fired four shots from a 9 mm pistol, police said. Their bodies were found lying on the beach while their personal effects were left untouched.

Witnesses reportedly told police that they saw the victims drinking alcohol and swimming earlier.

Initially, police investigators believed that the Russian tourists probably quarreled severely with a beach chair concessionnaire which led to the later violence. Police are searching for the operator to investigate.

--TNA 2007-02-24

The conclusion that a chair concessionnaire was a lilely perpetrator seems odd to me. Certainly possible but likely is odd. They are not hard to find and there is little that goes unnoticed on that particular stretch of beach.

[Arkady]

The Nation
"Police said they were shot and killed on beach chairs on the Jomtien Beach at about 5 am. A security officer of a nearby resort said he heard gunfire and saw a Thai man rushing up from the beach and fleeing on a motorcycle. He checked the beach and found the two Russian women lying dead on the beach chairs."

What brave chaps these Thais are when they have a gun against two women sun bathing in deck chairs or when there are 12 of them kicking a drunk farang on the ground. No wonder their military is so pathetic - beaten by Laos in 1988, nealy beaten by Burma a couple of times and too cowardly to send reinforcements to help patrols under fire in the South.

[qualtrough]

My money would be on the scenario that others have stated, that this was probably some inter-familial Russian hit. I doubt many beach chair vendors pack 9mm handguns. Having said that, little would surprise me about Pattaya nowadays...

[aqua4]

Hookers? Talk about stereotypes.

....after checking in there on February 16 and were scheduled to check out on March 3 What two week hookers?

A security officer of a nearby resort said he heard gunfire and saw a Thai man rushing up from the beach and fleeing on a motorcycle.

[Canuckfan]

I suspect alcohol was heavily involved - another unfortuneate case where a mix of drinks, firearms and a Thai's anger problems mix to distroy 2 young lives...I'll show those two drunk falang ladies to sit on my beach chairs!!! bang bang
Soo Stupid!

[aqua4]

qualtrough, on 2007-02-24 14:27:30, said:

I doubt many beach chair vendors pack 9mm handguns.

Where was the beach chair operator as the security further away is the main witness?

[JonnieB]

yeah, i agree with those speculating allot more likely than a dispute with the beach chair vendors. Likely inter-Russian squabble or maybe they insulted the "man-hood" of some Thai guys that tried to pick them up

thais can have a short fuse for sure, but it's hard to imagine a scenario involving a farang and the beach vendor crowd that would lead to such an outcome...a few fists thrown, knife stabs maybe...but this...seems unlikely

[jdinasia]

[quote name='Phil Conners' post='1160128' date='2007-02-24 07:08:57']Probably pimp killing.[/quote]


[quote name='Gaz Chiangmai' post='1160133' date='2007-02-24 07:11:12'][quote name='freitag1' post='1160124' date='2007-02-24 14:05:22']sure they were just tourists?[/quote]


That was my first thought too
[/quote]


[quote name='jaapfries' post='1160143' date='2007-02-24 07:19:45'][quote name='wintermute' post='1160125' date='2007-02-24 14:06:13']If it involves violence and Russians then it's usually not random at all. I bet there's a lot more to this.[/quote]

================================================================

Yeap; Wintermute; I believe you are correct; of course there's more to this story that what we've heard sofar. I've lived and worked in Pattaya for almost 15 years now and I can tell you that there have been some pretty incredible encounters involving Russian citizens here.
As a rule; it is mostly kept "between Russians" and I would be surprised if this will not turn-out to fall into that same catagory.

Likely scenario could be: two Russian hookers (and there are litterally hundreds of them here !?) no longer desoire to pay-off their Russian pimps; these guys are not the pick-nick type and will go through extreme lengths to "save face" with regards to the rest of their "flock" . . . . tatsteless business, no kidding !

[/quote]





VERY classy guys ..... first thing you do is cast doubt on the 2 victims!

[pattaya_girl]

i go to jomtien beach often for picnics ect... the chairs are tied up through the night, and this happenned at 5am in the morning, it must have been still dark - so its unlikely they were arguing with the chair man, as there are not many people around at that time. the chairs are all tied up around trees ect through the night. maybe they untied them and helped themselves to free chairs - maybe the chair man was raged at this, they do lose there temper very quickly these thai people. maybe time will tell. i hope they catch the person who did it. this has put me off from going again now. this is very bad news for pattaya.

[Robski]

A very, very sad incident whatever the circumstances.

[FunkyGuru]

Not enough information to make any conclusion. I have a feeling it's not random. Someone very rightly mentioned, Russian and shooting, can't be random. Also as reported in the new article, the girls were drinking and swimming. No personal belonging was taken, definitely not a crime for money I think.

Hope to hear some more information, if at all it comes out.