Russian lawmaker's body found cemented in barrel
MOSCOW (AP) - The body of a Russian local lawmaker has been found cemented in a barrel, and a former government official has been accused of ordering the killing over an $80 million debt, officials said Monday.
Mikhail Pakhomov, 37, went missing last week. He was a member of the local legislature in Lipetsk, a city some 350 kilometers (some 215 miles) south of Moscow, and was last seen last Tuesday when three unidentified men pushed him into a car outside a restaurant in Lipetsk and drove away.
Russia's Investigative Committee says several suspects were detained in the case, and that authorities found Pakhomov's badly beaten body in a barrel of cement in a garage.
Russian television stations aired footage provided by police that showed a fragment of a barrel, pieces of concrete and officers carrying what appeared to be Pakhomov's body on a stretcher and loading it into a vehicle.
The Investigative Committee said Yevgeny Kharitonov is being held on suspicion of ordering the killing of Pakhomov, allegedly over the $80 million debt. Kharitonov is a former deputy minister for communal services in the Moscow region's provincial government
The committee's spokesman, Vladimir Markin, said in a statement that one of the detained suspects told investigators that Kharitonov had told them that he had to recover the debt to advance his career.
"For Kharitonov, career was the main priority," Markin said in a statement.
Russian news reports said Kharitonov was detained by police at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport while preparing to board a flight to the southern city of Krasnodar.
It wasn't immediately clear if Kharitonov had retained a lawyer.
Mikhail Pakhomov, 37, went missing last week. He was a member of the local legislature in Lipetsk, a city some 350 kilometers (some 215 miles) south of Moscow, and was last seen last Tuesday when three unidentified men pushed him into a car outside a restaurant in Lipetsk and drove away.
Russia's Investigative Committee says several suspects were detained in the case, and that authorities found Pakhomov's badly beaten body in a barrel of cement in a garage.
Russian television stations aired footage provided by police that showed a fragment of a barrel, pieces of concrete and officers carrying what appeared to be Pakhomov's body on a stretcher and loading it into a vehicle.
The Investigative Committee said Yevgeny Kharitonov is being held on suspicion of ordering the killing of Pakhomov, allegedly over the $80 million debt. Kharitonov is a former deputy minister for communal services in the Moscow region's provincial government
The committee's spokesman, Vladimir Markin, said in a statement that one of the detained suspects told investigators that Kharitonov had told them that he had to recover the debt to advance his career.
"For Kharitonov, career was the main priority," Markin said in a statement.
Russian news reports said Kharitonov was detained by police at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport while preparing to board a flight to the southern city of Krasnodar.
It wasn't immediately clear if Kharitonov had retained a lawyer.
"For Kharitonov, career was the main priority,"
I wonder if he likes to build bike lanes, light rail, and 280K public toilets, then he can move to Portland, he seems to be a good politician.
let's do something really good for the environment and plant Portland city Council in cement filled barrels and drop them off the coasts to make artificial reefs. A real win-win situation. Plant a council member and feed a fish.
In Soviet Russia, cement finds you.
They sure it wasn't Jimmy Hoffa?
The tv show 1000 ways to die has an episode from Russia. The story is about a pimp getting hit with a chunk of concrete falling from the sky. The concrete was formed when the Russians tried to seed clouds for rain but what happened was the mixture turned to concrete in the sky thus falling. Good show
@Bert ~  Boy, Henny-Penny would've had a field day..!  ("The sky is falling, the sky is falling..!")  :-)
@margay1Â And chicken little too
This how we need to do-nothing politicians; especially the corrupt ones. Bet we'd get things done if this were to start happening.
Suicide by cement. Â Happens a lot.Â