In Russia, Revenge Gets You Glory

Posted by Alex in Crime & Law on February 3, 2008 at 6:16 pm



Photo: Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times

In 2002, Vitaly Kaloyev’s wife and children were killed in a plane crash. He stalked the air traffic controller who was on duty all the way in Switzerland, knocked on the man’s front door, and stabbed him to death.

Today, after serving just 5 years of a prison sentence, Vitaly goes back to Russia and is welcomed there as a hero:

"I don’t really take offense at people who call me a murderer. People who say that would betray their own children, their own motherland," Kaloyev said. "I protected the honor of my children and the memory of my children."

By the time Kaloyev walked out of a Swiss prison and made an emotional return to this city spread in the icy shadows of the Caucasus Mountains late last year, his crime had been eclipsed by his fame and a social split over his significance. Some Russians cheer Kaloyev as a national hero, a "real man." Others are appalled by his celebrity status, which they believe highlights the worst tendencies of Russian nationalism.

Kaloyev’s story is a postmodern tragedy, a tale of loss and vengeance, but also of clashing cultures — of the deeply humanistic, man-to-man world of the Caucasus crashing confusedly into the sterilized, legalistic culture of big Western companies facing expensive lawsuits.

Although he says he blacked out and can’t remember attacking 36-year-old Peter Nielsen, Kaloyev doesn’t deny killing him, nor is he sorry for the man’s death. Even in the earliest days of his grief, Kaloyev admits, he fixated on Nielsen, the only controller on duty when the plane carrying Kaloyev’s family crashed into another plane in midair. Within two days of the crash, he had tracked down the air traffic controller’s name and neighborhood. He knew that Nielsen had two children, and that his wife was pregnant with a third child.

Here’s a fascinating report by Megan K. Stack of the Los Angeles Times: Link


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COMMENT

26 comments to "In Russia, Revenge Gets You Glory"

  1. Jerse
    February 3rd, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    If it were really an act of revenge - wouldn't he have killed the wife and two kids instead?

    An eye for an eye - not an eye for a nose, right?

  2. FetishForPerception
    February 3rd, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Wow, it seems people have really warped ideas of heroism.

  3. Geekazoid
    February 3rd, 2008 at 8:57 pm

    Indeed this is heroism? Pretty sick if you ask me.

  4. cz
    February 3rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    oh, russians. ochen smashnoy.

  5. kevin
    February 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 pm

    Knock knock, its irony at the door. I hope he can handle what he's preaching.

  6. meghan
    February 4th, 2008 at 12:26 am

    Interesting that he keeps repeating that he's avenging his children...nothin' about the wife. M

  7. bob
    February 4th, 2008 at 3:07 am

    I have to wonder how much of the response is influenced by nationalism. I think if it had been a Russian man stabbing a Russian air traffic controller, tried in Russian courts, the response would be less in his favor. I cann't read the article, and it's foolish to make assumptions with this little information, but the tone of the extract suggests that some sort of narrative has been created out of the incident.

  8. Miroslav
    February 4th, 2008 at 3:35 am

    We in Russia have a saying - « do not judge and not judges awake ». You were not on its place and I hope never will appear in such situation. It moved despair. Vitaly Kaloyev’s long was not married, and here, at last, when at it has appeared, the wife and two remarkable children, all has failed because of a human negligence! It did not wish whom to kill, but it has lost to dear 3 it people. And you judge it here and argue.
    No, at us it not the hero, its hero journalists of mass-media have nicknamed! For us it the person at whom happens to mountain! Here to it concern all on ???????????! Its All family supports it! And many hope, that it will find the happiness again!

  9. Miroslav
    February 4th, 2008 at 3:36 am

    We in Russia have a saying - « do not judge and not judges awake ». You were not on its place and I hope never will appear in such situation. It moved despair. Vitaly Kaloyev’s long was not married, and here, at last, when at it has appeared, the wife and two remarkable children, all has failed because of a human negligence! It did not wish whom to kill, but it has lost to dear 3 it people. And you judge it here and argue.
    No, at us it not the hero, its hero journalists of mass-media have nicknamed! For us it the person at whom happens to mountain! Here to it concern all on ???????????! Its All family supports it! And many hope, that it will find the happiness again!

  10. aerio
    February 4th, 2008 at 3:42 am

    This isn't much different in spirit from what I was seeing from some North American Fathers after that bizarre family rape case a couple months back.

  11. Lasse
    February 4th, 2008 at 4:56 am

    So, according to that, now the kids of the murdered air traffic controller can come and kill some other family members of Kaloyev, right? Deeply humanistic, man-to-man world my ass.

  12. Tim Giachetti
    February 4th, 2008 at 6:34 am

    I'm with Jerse on this one. I'm so old fashioned, his direct family, and a few close relatives would have bought it too.

  13. avraamov
    February 4th, 2008 at 6:42 am

    if this carried. on in the way it started, russia and switzerland would be de-populated pretty swiftly. i wouldn't mess with the swiss. they have to have guns by law and they're ALL in the army...

    i bet killing that guy won't make his loss disappear in the long run anyway

  14. Willo the Wisp
    February 4th, 2008 at 6:54 am

    So, Mr Kaloyev, you went to Switzerland and killed a father-of-three and guess what, it still didn't bring your wife and kids back. You killed him for the sake of "the memory" of your children, you say? So would you object to the children of the man you murdered tracking you down and murdering you for the sake of the memory of their father?

  15. Miroslav
    February 4th, 2008 at 7:37 am

    Kaloyev all has made correctly who is stronger that and has survived. If so someone was necessary from above, the air traffic controller could kill Kaloyev. Also will suffice to discuss, you there is nothing do not know about Russia, you there is nothing do not know about Kaloyev?!

  16. Kirkburn
    February 4th, 2008 at 8:01 am

    Miroslav, no knowledge at all is required to realise that revenge killings are completely idiotic, unjustifiable and wicked.

  17. Miroslav
    February 4th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Kirkburn, I also did not speak, that revenge it is good. It is assured if your family have killed, you would be silent, sat and not that did. In fact revenge on yours it is bad! And it also did not revenge, it was able to affect. At us different mentalities, Russian so are brought up that except for itself(himself) nobody can to help them, to the state to spit, and other countries use it. A negligence here that the most terrible! Instead of revenge …

  18. the statist
    February 4th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    I can't believe he wasn't given the death penalty. He should have either been killed by nature (life in prison) or by man (lethal injection). no murderer should ever be given his freedom. Especially after only 5 years. Sheesh!

  19. Capella
    February 4th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

    That's awful.
    Two familes destroyed.

  20. L
    February 4th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." -Gandhi

    What is all of this revenge accomplishing, except creating more "need" for revenge with each death? Thank goodness not everybody thinks like this guy. We'd all be dead.

    If his dead family is looking down on him, I'm sure they're very proud. Sheesh.

  21. Lo
    February 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    Two planes crashed into each other. That had to cause far more deaths than just those of his wife and children. Why was the air traffic controller not already in jail himself for criminal negligence? The Russian man may have killed a man. But how many did the victim kill by not properly doing his job?

  22. Video Game Dork
    February 4th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    the title of this article reminded me of a Yakov Smirnoff joke.

  23. Orjans Morjan
    February 4th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    I bet the ATC was sitting at home laughing and joking about all the people he had killed... not!

    Proper sentence for ATC = life sentence tops.
    Proper sentence for Russian guy = life in prison.

    One was a "mistake", one was a deliberate murder.

    Nor should the Russian guy get sentenced to death, that's murder too. There's a reason countries with death sentences aren't allowed to enter the EU.

  24. Vincent O. Moh
    March 25th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    Peter Nielsen was not at fault for the crash; Skyguide's malpractices crippled his ability to control the airspace and that is why the planes crash. The courts ruled that Skyguide administration is responsible.

    "Why was the air traffic controller not already in jail himself for criminal negligence? The Russian man may have killed a man. But how many did the victim kill by not properly doing his job?"

    He WAS doing his job properly. Skyguide crippled him in this way:
    * Often one controller manned two workstations several feet apart. Why did Skyguide let this happen?
    * Maintenance men knocked out the phone system and disabled the visual collision alert warning system

    So when Nielsen realized he was swamped as he had to help an Aero Lloyd land, he could not contact outside help (phone is dead). When he realized that BTC2937 and DHL611 were nearing each other, he asked BTC to descend when its TCAS told it to climb. As systems were down DHL611 could not tell Nielsen that it was also descending. Nielsen did not and could not know what the TCAS said for BTC2937.

  25. somethingsomething
    May 19th, 2008 at 12:47 am

    I would do the same thing.

  26. Jesús
    December 4th, 2008 at 8:42 pm

    God is the only one who can give peace in a drama like this. Revenge is the way people act when they don´t believe in Him. But making harm and hurting others won´t give you peace. Revenge don´t give you peace, just God. Jesus died in a terrible way and he taught us how to act.


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