Russian Conductor Charged In Thai Sex Probe

[Jingthing]

Who really cares if this guy like young boys? ...

I think you know the answer to that question. People definitely care. Very much so in Thailand, and arguably much more so when a foreigner is involved with a Thai. Of course age of consent laws vary across the world and it is arguable whether 18 is the "correct" cut off age. But that is the number here and people with an eye towards youth had best realize this is serious. Not everyone is a FOP (Friend of Putin). Again, not saying he is guilty or not, nobody posting here knows that for sure I reckon.

[4u2mad]

So strange. According to the Thai press, it's only foreigners that are paedophiles. What about the Thai only places that we farangs NEVER hear about? For sure someone had an axe to grind?

Last week a 90yr old in Chiang Mai, total age of the four kids he was "supposed" to have assaulted was 24yrs. The offence was TWO YEARS OLD! Fer Christ's sake!

I only hope the relevant embassies are at least offering more help to their citizens than the hang 'em high club here on Thaivisa, or the stalwart BIB.

You may disagree, your call. But ANYONE who is here long term can have a problem, you may not even REALISE you've upset someone!

[MAJIC]

'...I have vacated in Thailand twice-per-year for 12-years and lived in Phuket full-time for 4-years, going on 5-years and never seen these 'underage' problems in Phuket.

What is it about Pattaya, where I have never visited, not even once, that attracts the Paedophiles?

Pattaya sound like an awful place and I have recently been told by sex-workers that sex can be had for 200 Baht in Pattaya, during these depressed economic times, which is why they are now working in Phuket.

Is there no-one who goes to Pattaya for things other than underage, cheap sex?

I am no prude, but loving Thailand and the people, (and food) as I do, I truly despair.

That said, I have heard that prostitutes as young as 11-years-old are working the streets in the UK, especially in the north, if you know where to look. (See link for Map)

Sign of the times? Sad, all the same'.

©2010 theMagician

Edited July 7, 2010 by MAJIC

[gemini81]

After viewing the vidio in post 10 it does not look like the interior of the house has very much panache and style for an alleged world famous musician...same could be said for the exterior...all done in the El Cheapo style and very untidy.....most musicians/artistes have a flair for making a silk purse out of a sows ear...think there is more to this than what has so far been divulged/reported...

thats about as judgemental as it gets!

By the way, what sort of musicians do you hang out with that would have all that silly stuff???? a silk purse from a sows ear?!

[Thai at Heart]

So strange. According to the Thai press, it's only foreigners that are paedophiles. What about the Thai only places that we farangs NEVER hear about? For sure someone had an axe to grind?

Last week a 90yr old in Chiang Mai, total age of the four kids he was "supposed" to have assaulted was 24yrs. The offence was TWO YEARS OLD! Fer Christ's sake!

I only hope the relevant embassies are at least offering more help to their citizens than the hang 'em high club here on Thaivisa, or the stalwart BIB.

You may disagree, your call. But ANYONE who is here long term can have a problem, you may not even REALISE you've upset someone!

As I mentioned on that thread about the older gentleman thread, one has to be extremely careful about attracting any accusation.

Having lived here for long enough, I have resolved to the fact that people (Thai or Foreign)rarely if ever see the possible good in something. I learnt a few good lessons when I was a younger man in this country about putting myself in a situation where people could put 2 and 2 together and get a logical 4, even though the stories were not true. When I want to let my hair down, I choose my company extremely carefully.

It pays to choose your friends extremely carefully in this country, because, as a foreigner, when push comes to shove, very very very very few Thai's will stand up for you. As a more amusing example I was apparently spotted once having lunch with a mia noi in Chiangmai whilst I was in Holland on a business trip. 2 days of gossip among the family and my mother in law actually told my wife what she had heard, but unbeknownst to her, I was out of the country. This is the power of chinese whispers in this country, and NO ONE will vouch for ANY mans moral rectitude.

However, in this situation, if there is one thing that can be changed about Thailand it is the fact that peoples names and faces in such crimes are splashed from cover to cover in the press and TV.

This story is already on Channel News Asia, so basically it is world wide. If he is tried and found guilty I have absolutely no sympathy for his plight whatsoever. But no right minded person can look at a case like this and believe innocent till proven guilty when the public stigma attached to the offence is so obvious.

[FarangCravings]

Who really cares if this guy like young boys? ...

I think you know the answer to that question. People definitely care. Very much so in Thailand, and arguably much more so when a foreigner is involved with a Thai. Of course age of consent laws vary across the world and it is arguable whether 18 is the "correct" cut off age. But that is the number here and people with an eye towards youth had best realize this is serious. Not everyone is a FOP (Friend of Putin). Again, not saying he is guilty or not, nobody posting here knows that for sure I reckon.

Thank you Jingting as I was about to go off on one with that poster and would probably been due for a suspension after I was done

till I saw your post.

Ridiculous post

[Navalator]

Regardless of the charge and the outcome ... What a nightmare to have that media circus trample around in your house without being able to throw them out. Disgraceful!

Disgraceful to be trampling on young boys.

What evidence do you have that the suspect was "...trampling on young boys"? This sounds very much like the famous millionaire Thomas White matter in which Mexican police invaded his home in Ensenada with a cadre of photographers and reporters and then accused him of pedophilia all the while being unable to develop any evidence to support the charge. However, with the payment of an extortionate amount of money to the police the matter would have been dropped. White has refused to pay so the police are holding him in jail until he does so. So where is your evidence to support your inflammatory statement?

Edited July 7, 2010 by Navalator

[geriatrickid]

There ought be a forum rule against shameless Pattaya bashing. The Pattaya metro area is now a major city with lots of diverse things happening all the time. And yet people who have never even been here have such idiotic opinions about the place.

It seems over the years that the most rabid Pattaya bashers are Phuketians. I have been there a number of times (but stopped going for obvious reasons, rip off city) and I can easily imagine why. Folks back home often have a negative biased view of Thailand in general. So its easy to say, all the bad things happen in Pattaya, not in virginal Phuket. Nice try, we know better.

Back to the Russkie ...

It can hardly be considered Pattaya bashing when the most depraved stories seem to come from Pattaya, Thailand's version of Sodom & Gomorrah. Pattaya has earned its reputation all by its self. Part of the problem is obviously due to the larger population. The more people there are, the more likely unpleasant events will occur. Pattaya has centers of creepiness like Sunee Plaza where old foreign males go in search of young boys. It isn't going to happen at Jungceylon in Patong, despite Patong's rep for depravity. As well, the Pattaya Daily News does a good job at covering local news. Even Thais consider Pattaya to be a "bad" place, at least my friends do. Their opinion of foreigners that live there is not good, and their view of Thais that work the entertainment venues is even worse.

Obviously, this is unfair because there are some decent honest people that do live and work in Pattaya. Unfortunately, a day doesn't go by without some tale of debauched depravity which taints the good people. And therein lies a basis for some to have a legitimate reason to question the story. Due to the problems of Pattaya, there is an automatic assumption of guilt. People's perceptions are already coloured by depressing stories so that fairness is unlikely. Rightly or wrongly, Pattaya is synonymous with evil and its residents are starting at a disadvantage. The fact that Pattaya has a large concentration of losers from foreign lands only adds fuel to the fire. Despite the accused being talented and accomplished, the first thing that probably pops into one's mind is, if the guy was well balanced and not a deviant why was he in Pattaya and why did he know the pimp? If one wishes to live in Pattaya, then one must be prepared to live with the stigma, and that might mean one day having to deal with a potentially false accusation.

[FarangCravings]

So strange. According to the Thai press, it's only foreigners that are paedophiles. What about the Thai only places that we farangs NEVER hear about? For sure someone had an axe to grind?

Last week a 90yr old in Chiang Mai, total age of the four kids he was "supposed" to have assaulted was 24yrs. The offence was TWO YEARS OLD! Fer Christ's sake!

I only hope the relevant embassies are at least offering more help to their citizens than the hang 'em high club here on Thaivisa, or the stalwart BIB.

You may disagree, your call. But ANYONE who is here long term can have a problem, you may not even REALISE you've upset someone!

As I mentioned on that thread about the older gentleman thread, one has to be extremely careful about attracting any accusation.

Having lived here for long enough, I have resolved to the fact that people (Thai or Foreign)rarely if ever see the possible good in something. I learnt a few good lessons when I was a younger man in this country about putting myself in a situation where people could put 2 and 2 together and get a logical 4, even though the stories were not true. When I want to let my hair down, I choose my company extremely carefully.

It pays to choose your friends extremely carefully in this country, because, as a foreigner, when push comes to shove, very very very very few Thai's will stand up for you. As a more amusing example I was apparently spotted once having lunch with a mia noi in Chiangmai whilst I was in Holland on a business trip. 2 days of gossip among the family and my mother in law actually told my wife what she had heard, but unbeknownst to her, I was out of the country. This is the power of chinese whispers in this country, and NO ONE will vouch for ANY mans moral rectitude.

However, in this situation, if there is one thing that can be changed about Thailand it is the fact that peoples names and faces in such crimes are splashed from cover to cover in the press and TV.

This story is already on Channel News Asia, so basically it is world wide. If he is tried and found guilty I have absolutely no sympathy for his plight whatsoever. But no right minded person can look at a case like this and believe innocent till proven guilty when the public stigma attached to the offence is so obvious.

Had a similar thing happen to me the wife got a call to rush to a restaurant as I was having dinner with another lady when the reality was I was playing pool 20ft away from the wife

[Wozzit]

This story is already on Channel News Asia, so basically it is world wide. If he is tried and found guilty I have absolutely no sympathy for his plight whatsoever. But no right minded person can look at a case like this and believe innocent till proven guilty when the public stigma attached to the offence is so obvious.

It's absolutely everywhere now. Look on google and you see newspapers and TV channels all around the world have publicised it. It really does not matter any more if Mr Pletnev is found to be completely innocent, his career as one of the world's top musicians will probably never recover. The stigma will forever be attached to his name, poor man.

Several posters, in addition to myslef, have suggested this is a set-up. One thing I find very interesting is he has been permitted to leave the country to conduct a concert in Europe next week before returning for the next court hearing. Has anyone ever heard of ANY child sex case in Thailand where a passport has been returned before the case is heard in court and judgement delivered? I just can't believe the Russian PM with whom he is suppopsed to be friendly could swing that. This all gets more and more odd!

[Navalator]

Who really cares if this guy like young boys? What the hel_l? Do you lose sleep over it? I don't. If the parents of these boys or the government ot the local society wants to protect them from this they will and if not, well then, welcome to the 3rd world, and welcome to the way our world is. And is he hurting them? Maybe he is very nice to them and they like whatever he is entertaining them with and maybe he is just enjoying their youth and their innocent beauty. You know it was not so long ago in history that girls were married at 12, and that is in the usa. But now we have greedy lawyers and crackhead lawmakers saying they have to be 18 or maybe 21 to have sex and for all I know they will make a law that says it is just plain illegal to have sex one of these days with anyone and we will have to pay some authority to do it. God made all of us the way we are and we are all ok in some sense. I get upset when I see replys of hate for people doing what the creative maker of the universe made them to do. If we want to stop all of the beautiful music and art we will also have to stop people from being who they are and doing what they enjoy, and loving what they love.

And another aspect of this is what about the scumbag Chinese guys who sell these kids and hurt them and do what ever they do? Is that ok? We never see any mention of that here. Always the bad foriegner. And I believe they call it bad so they can make money pure and simple. I was told many times that during the vietnam days of R&R nobody cared one dam bit about who or what you played with in Thailand as long as you did not hurt anyone. So lets all take a break on this age thing and condeming people eh?

Well, the police got what they wanted which was 300,000 THB. And now this "dangerous" criminal is free to leave the country pursuant to a court order. This whole matter sounds like a set up.

[Thai at Heart]

Interestingly Channel News Asia states very clearly that he has been implicated by a Thai suspect who is charged with running a child prostitution ring.

Of course no name or picture provided of the THAI ring runner.

Rather ridiculously they are showing the police serving the warrant on him while he is sitting having dinner, and then as they return to his house, the whole entourage marches in "looking for evidence".

Oh for CSI. They enter a "possible" crime scene with cameraman and soundman in tow? So patently obtaining evidence is of far less importance than a photo op.

It isn't that I don't want paedophiles locked up, it is just that the way this is being handled is so grossly public for at this moment an INNOCENT person.

[MAJIC]

'...I have vacated in Thailand twice-per-year for 12-years and lived in Phuket full-time for 4-years, going on 5-years and never seen these 'underage' problems in Phuket.

What is it about Pattaya, where I have never visited, not even once, that attracts the Paedophiles?

Pattaya sound like an awful place and I have recently been told by sex-workers that sex can be had for 200 Baht in Pattaya, during these depressed economic times, which is why they are now working in Phuket.

Is there no-one who goes to Pattaya for things other than underage, cheap sex?

I am no prude, but loving Thailand and the people, (and food) as I do, I truly despair.

That said, I have heard that prostitutes as young as 11-years-old are working the streets in the UK, especially in the north, if you know where to look. (See link for Map)

Sign of the times? Sad, all the same'.

Would it be too much ask that you supply some concrete evidence to back up your statement other than: "I have heard that prostitutes as young as 11-years-old are working the streets in the UK"

I accessed your link above to the Metropolitan Police website which deals with investigating child abuse and Phedophiles,but could not find anything concerning 11-years-old,street prostitutes!

Edited July 7, 2010 by MAJIC

[johnno2]

this is crazier than a crazy thing. some thai guy says he was involved in a pedo ring and now suddenly he's charged with what? rape....of whom? no evidence or else he'd be banging on the bars now with his cup. so maybe he kidnapped some kid. ummmmm who did he kidnap? again, he'd be banging on the bars if he had kidnapped someone. so maybe its for running a pedo ring. ummmmm didn't they go to his house and search for "evidence"? no evidence found. so now he's free on 300,000 "bail" even tho he hasn't been charged with anything. can the thai guy who HAS been arrested lodge 300,000 baht? don't think so or else he'd be free on "bail" also.

of course its a set up. i'll place a 300,000 baht bet with anyone who says it isn't

Edited July 7, 2010 by johnno2

[moe666]

Sometimes it pays to be a nobody.

With over 18,000 post on Thaivisa you are not a nobody.

[FarangCravings]

Sometimes it pays to be a nobody.

With over 18,000 post on Thaivisa you are not a nobody.

So who is he ??

18000 posts implies he needs to get out more

[longtom]

It's not only about the 300'000, don't forget his houses and businesses. Maybe the BiB just want to make sure he will never come back, therefore all the publicity.

[KKvampire]

I think.

Edited July 7, 2010 by KKvampire

[KKvampire]

this is crazier than a crazy thing. some thai guy says he was involved in a pedo ring and now suddenly he's charged with what? rape....of whom? no evidence or else he'd be banging on the bars now with his cup. so maybe he kidnapped some kid. ummmmm who did he kidnap? again, he'd be banging on the bars if he had kidnapped someone. so maybe its for running a pedo ring. ummmmm didn't they go to his house and search for "evidence"? no evidence found. so now he's free on 300,000 "bail" even tho he hasn't been charged with anything. can the thai guy who HAS been arrested lodge 300,000 baht? don't think so or else he'd be free on "bail" also.

of course its a set up. i'll place a 300,000 baht bet with anyone who says it isn't

Evidence? what sort of physical Evidence do you expect to find in a property if someone is suspected and bailed with rape or underage sex, any evidence comes from a victim.

Edited July 7, 2010 by KKvampire

[kuffki]

Double standards again. He;s being allowed to leave the country> What?? .. A joke. Thai Police and Russian mafia dont want too much exposed in Pattaya I think.

Yeah and next thing you will be posting is that the Mayor of Pattaya is a member of Russia Mafia

[surangw]

this man have a huge reputation as closeted homosexual back home in russia, everybody knew he dated men.<br><br>Funny coincedence: he was accused in 98 in the very same crime, but was realesed later. He is a big person in russia so i think he just bribed hes way out or his powerfull friends helped him.<br><br>in my personal opinion i think he did it.<br>

I wonder if showing his passport page info could cause him some problems?

[Jingthing]

For everyone's sake including the Russkie I hope he didn't do the pedo stuff, but if he really was in the closet as a gay man, well, that's over.

[moe666]

Police searched his house and found nothing. If a pedo. he is smarter than most no photos and other such garbage to say here I am.

[moe666]

Double standards again. He;s being allowed to leave the country> What?? .. A joke. Thai Police and Russian mafia dont want too much exposed in Pattaya I think.

Yeah and next thing you will be posting is that the Mayor of Pattaya is a member of Russia Mafia

Whats the big deal they allowed Thaksin to go to Olympics of course he never came back.

[kuffki]

Police searched his house and found nothing. If a pedo. he is smarter than most no photos and other such garbage to say here I am.

Being a pedo is not like a being a sports fan, its a serious addiction and mental state, while i am not defending him, but if he was one i am sure they would of found something.

[DickFarang]

Can a Russian “own” houses in Thailand ?

[Jingthing]

Can a Russian “own” houses in Thailand ?

No, not technically.

[tombkk]

The media, Thai Visa included, should be publishing

shouldn't be publishing

things like this were people are suspected of pedophilia. All it means someone is suspected and their name and sometimes photos are spread all over the world and their life is ruined for ever. Someone makes a possibly false allegation, police search their home find nothing and they are forever a suspected pedophile possibly ruin their own life.

Thisis gutter press

I too am disappointed finding this here. Innocent as proven guilty, I absolutely agree with you and Phil Conners in post #36.

[webfact]

Topic continues here:

Thai sex-case musician Mikhail Pletnev gets bail

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