MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Police in St. Petersburg arrested suspects in a scheme to kidnap a Russian football player and the abduction of a businessman.

"My colleagues from the criminal investigation department in the city of St. Petersburg detained suspects in the kidnapping of a businessman and an attempt to abduct a famous football player," Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk wrote on her Telegram channel.

Namely, Andrey Mostovoy, a left-winger for Zenit St. Petersburg, and developer Sergey Selegen, the founder of a legal entity behind Fizika Development, were targeted.

The businessman was kidnapped for extortion as masked attackers assaulted his Toyota Land Cruiser near a food store on Vyazovaya Street. The police were scrambled without delay, and the Toyota Land Cruiser with the abducted man and three attackers inside was tracked and stopped on Morskaya Street, the Interior Ministry spokeswoman said.

The accomplices demanded 10 million rubles ($126,000) from the businessman, threatening him with a pistol. Fearing for his life, the man transferred them 210,000 rubles ($2,600) and said his wife would bring the remaining part of the sum when the police foiled the crime. The suspect behind the plot, a second-year student from a St. Petersburg university, was arrested in Kudrovo, a St. Petersburg suburb, Volk revealed.

A criminal case has been opened.