Former Samara Mayor and his wife found shot dead and preserved in barrels

Former Samara Mayor Viktor Tarkhov and his wife, Natalia, were found shot dead, a source from the Investigative Committee of Russia in the Samara region said. Reports indicate that the couple had recently returned to Russia from Finland.

Tarkhov was born on January 3, 1948, in Kuybyshev (the former name of the city of Samara). He previously led the Kuybyshev Synthetic Alcohol Plant and the Kuybyshev Regional Executive Committee. After the Soviet restructuring, he became the general director of the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery and later worked for YUKOS. In 2000, he ran for governor and finished second in the election. He also served as a deputy in the regional parliament. In 2006, he was elected mayor of Samara and held the position until 2010.

Granddaughter Identified as Suspect

According to a source, Tarkhov's granddaughter, Yekaterina Belskaya, has been detained on suspicion of murder. She has refused to testify.

Investigators believe that she was the one who sent text messages from her grandparents' phones to create the illusion that he and his wife were still alive. Additionally, the investigation suggests that after the murder, she sold their property, including Tarkhov's collection of icons and cars.

However, other sources claim that Tarkhov and his wife were not shot, but instead beaten to death before their bodies were stored in sealed barrels for an entire month.

Tarkhov's Daughter Sentenced to Seven Years for Extortion

Tarkhov's daughter, Lyudmila Tarkhova, was the head of the private aircraft manufacturing company Samara VVV-Avia. In 2021, she was arrested for allegedly extorting 200 million rubles from Alexander Mileyev, a deputy in the Samara Regional Parliament.

Lyudmila claimed that she was trying to recover a debt that Mileyev owed to her father. However, according to 63.ru, Mileyev denied owing any money. He also alleged that Tarkhova possessed compromising information that could have damaged his political career.

In December 2022, the Leninsky District Court sentenced Lyudmila Tarkhova to seven years in a general-regime penal colony.

Details

Samara formerly known as Kuybyshev during Soviet rule, is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 million residents, up to 1.22 million residents in the urban agglomeration, not including Novokuybyshevsk, which is not conurbated. The city covers an area of 541.382 square kilometers (209.029 sq mi), and is the eighth-largest city in Russia and tenth agglomeration, the third-most populous city on the Volga, as well as the Volga Federal District. Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial, and cultural centre in Russia.