Procurator General's Office solved murder case

Yesterday, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office announced it had solved the murder of Igor Klimov, acting general director of Russia's largest defence enterprise, Almaz Antei, and former aide to Viktor Ivanov, deputy head of the presidential administration. Klimov was shot dead near his house on June 6, 2003, Kommersant writes.

Investigators have established that the murder was not related to his work in the defence enterprise. He was killed as part of a fight for control over St. Petersburg's Shaumyan Oil Plant, which he partly owned. In the mid 1990s, several oil companies wanted to take it over. When the plant went bankrupt, external management was introduced and control was given to the creditors, Klimov's partners Ruben Narimanov and Mikhail Ivanov.

They were killed in 2002, and Klimov was killed in 2003 with the same gun.

Investigators have found the murderer and the middleman in the killing - a certain Rozhkov and Ivanov, who already have track records in contract killings. The identity of whoever ordered the killings has still not been established, though. The only thing investigators are now positive of is that the murder was not connected to Klimov's work at Almaz Antei.