Former French President Jacques ChiracMOSCOW, Jan 23In the late 1990s, French President Jacques Chirac called Russian President Boris Yeltsin thanking him for his help in releasing French official Vincent Cochetel, former Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin said. years in Vladikavkaz. The Frenchman then served as representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. On December 12, 1998, Koshetel was released as a result of a special operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the participation of Deputy Minister Vladimir Rushailo and Mikhail Gutseriev, who is now a well-known businessman, and then was the creator of Russia's first special economic space — the Ingushetia Economic Favored Zone — and supervised it in the status of Vice -Speaker of the State Duma. «Koshetel was released and returned to Moscow. He spoke very warmly about those who saved him — he remembered me, Boris Nikolaevich, Mikhail Safarbekovich (Gutseriev — ed.), Vladimir Rushailo. Chirac then called Yeltsin and told him huge gratitude,» Stepashin said. He added that Gutseriev was able to seriously put pressure on Chechen businessmen, which helped in rescuing Koshetel, who spent almost a year in Chechen captivity. In addition, Gutseriev also helped in the rescue of Russia's plenipotentiary representative in Chechnya, Valentin Vlasov. «I then told Yeltsin:» It would be nice to award Gutseriev with a state award. «But Mikhail Safarbekovich, learning about this, objected:» I don't need orders for this “I don’t fight,” Stepashin said. The former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the French awarded him the Order of Commander of the Legion of Honor, but, according to Stepashin, this order should be a joint award with Gutseriev. Stepashin also expressed sincere gratitude to Gutseriev for participating in the rescue servicemen, for courage and bravery.
