impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities. Not every claimed risk to life therefore can entail for the authorities a Convention requirement to take operational measures to prevent that risk from materialising. For a positive obligation to arise, it must be established that the authorities knew or ought to have known at the time of the existence of a real and immediate risk to the life of an identified individual or individuals from the criminal acts of a third party and that they failed to take measures within the scope of their powers which, judged reasonably, might have been expected to avoid that risk (see Osman, cited above, § 116).
97. Turning to the facts of the present case, the Court notes that the applicant's husband was abducted by four armed men and put in one of two cars which were stopped at the "Volga-20" checkpoint. Following the captors' refusal to present their identity documents at the checkpoint, they were taken to the Sunzhenskiy ROVD. In paragraph 90 above the Court found the circumstances of Mr Medov's abduction to be life-threatening. It accepts, however, that the officers of the Sunzhenskiy ROVD might not have perceived the situation as life-threatening since the armed persons presented the identity documents of FSB officers as well as documents authorising the detention of Mr Medov and K.
98. Nevertheless, the Court considers that the ROVD officers must have been alarmed by those persons' suspicious behaviour, in particular, by their refusal to present their identity documents at the checkpoint and had had to take additional measures to verify their identities and the lawfulness of Mr Medov's and K.'s detention. It appears that the ROVD officers themselves considered additional steps to be necessary since they had immediately informed the Sunzhenskiy District Prosecutor's Office of the situation and asked for instructions (see paragraph 43 above). The Prosecutor's Office confirmed the validity of the identity documents and the lawfulness of the detention. Consequently, the four armed men together with their two captives were released from the ROVD.
99. Therefore, while Mr Medov, K. and their captors were within the control of the authorities, the latter could have prevented the commission of an offence, but they released the six men, after which Mr Medov disappeared. The Court notes that, according to the applicant, the Prosecutor's Office contacted the local FSB office, which confirmed that the detention of Mr Medov and K. was lawful. However, the Court does not find it necessary to establish which particular State authority was responsible for providing information leading to the release of Mr Medov's captors and consequently his disappearance. Nor does it find it necessary to decide whether such information was provided with the intention of covering up the abduction or merely as a result of a failure to conduct a diligent check of the captors' identities and the circumstances of the detention. The Court considers that the authorities' decision to release the six men, which resulted in the disappearance of Mr Medov, constituted a breach of the positive obligation to take preventive measures to protect those whose life is at risk from the criminal acts of other individuals. It notes that the prosecuting authorities did not verify whether Mr Medov's captors were indeed FSB officers. They did not obtain from the department of the FSB in question any written documents confirming the validity of the operation by the persons who presented themselves as FSB officers. The ROVD officers did not make copies of documents presented by Mr Medov's captors and, furthermore, they obviously did not log their detention in any official records since at first, in reply to the Court's request for information, the Government denied that such persons had ever been detained at the ROVD (see paragraph 16 a
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