TASS
April 13, 1997, Sunday
INVESTIGATION INTO PERM BUSINESSMAN’S MURDER FINALIZED
BYLINE: BY LEONID BAGDATYEV
DATELINE: PERM, APRIL 13

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MURDER OF GENERAL DIRECTOR OF THE NEFTEKHIMIK COMPANY YEVGENY PANTELEIMONOV HAS BEEN FINALIZED. THE MATERIALS ARE PASSED OVER TO COURT.

IT TOOK THE INVESTIGATORS TWO YEARS TO FIND OUT THE REASONS FOR MURDERING THE BUSINESSMAN IN THE DOORWAY OF HIS HOUSE. SUSPECTED MURDERERS, ORGANIZERS AND INSTIGATORS OF THE CRIME HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. THEY INCLUDE HEAD OF THE FD-KREDIT BANK DMITRY RYBOLOVLEV.

OBSERVERS BELIEVE THE CRIME IS RELATED TO THE POTASSIUM AND OIL BUSINESS WHICH INVOLVED BOTH THE VICTIM AND THE SUSPECTED CRIME ORGANIZER.

PERM REGIONAL GOVERNOR GENNADY IGUMNOV TOLD THE MERKURIY LOCAL WEEKLY SOME TIME AGO HE KNEW THAT “RYBOLOVLEV HELD NEGOTIATIONS WITH A U. S. COMPANY ON EXPORTS OF POTASSIUM SALTS BUT DID SO WITHOUT ASKING THE REGIONAL LEADERS FOR ADVICE. ”

YER/DRO

(EARLIER STORY)

A GENERAL DIRECTOR OF A BIG RUSSIAN CHEMICAL EXPORTER WAS KILLED ON MONDAY BY FIVE PISTOL SHOTS AT THE ENTRANCE OF HIS APARTMENT IN PERM, A REGIONAL CENTRE IN THE URALS.

YEVGENY PANTELEIMONOV, 44, WAS APPOINTED GENERAL DIRECTOR OF THE NEFTEKHIMIK, A CHEMICALS-PRODUCING JOINT-STOCK COMPANY WITH 1,500 EMPLOYEES, IN 1995, AFTER HIS PREDECESSOR RESIGNED FOR SOME REASONS CHOOSING NOT TO WAIT FOR A RESOLUTION OF A SHAREHOLDERS MEETING.

EARLIER, PANTELEIMONOV WAS CHIEF ENGINEER AT THE COMPANY. HE HAD THREE DAUGHTERS.