CHINESE EMPLOYERS BEATEN RUSSIAN GIRLS TO DEATH VLADIVOSTOK, MARCH 1, 2001. /RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ANATOLI ILYUKHOV/. Two girls - aged 20 and 21 - from the Maritime territory, Russia's Far East, died in a hospital, without recovering consciousness. The third girl is hospitalised in an intensive therapy ward. The girls, who worked as dancers in a bar in Liupanshui /town in Southern China/, had been viciously beaten. RIA Novosti has been informed about the murder by an official from the Interior Department of the Maritime territory. A diplomat from the Vladivostok office of the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed only the fact that the two girls from the territory died, without revealing details of the wanton murder. The Russian Embassy to China is looking into the crime, the diplomat added. According to police, "local tourist agencies of the territory and Asian emissary of dirty show business are hunting on the sly for pretty girls who attended choreographic and sports dancing classes. On the pretext of higher wages abroad and being well off there, the criminals recruit them for dancing in bars and clubs of Japan, China, and South Korea, where Russian beauties are regarded as "marketable goods". But on arriving into the country, most of them are deprived of their ID and being isolated, irking out a miserable existence. Deceived women were beaten for the refusal to do the "work" which is not stipulated in the contract.