Moscow Tycoon Reveals Ransom For Release Of Armenian Pilots

28, September 2005
Armenia Liberty
By Karine Kalantarian

Ara Abrahamian, an Armenian-born Russian tycoon, said on Wednesday that the recent release of six Armenian pilots controversially imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea cost him $2 million in “investments” in the west African nation’s infrastructure.
[...]
Abrahamian, known for his Kremlin connections, was instrumental in the pilots’ release and he explained why. “The pledges which I gave to the president of Equatorial Guinea have been fulfilled by 100 percent,” he told reporters in Yerevan. “We have invested more than $2 million in building a water supply system in Equatorial Guinea.”

“There were also other pledges and they have all been fulfilled,” he added without elaborating.
[...]
But Abrahamian insisted that money alone could not buy the freedom of the Armenian [...] prisoners. “It requires a lot of work and participation of many people,” he said vaguely. [...].
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.