vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #165 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Three men were slain in apparently unrelated contract killings in Vladivostok, Ussurisk and Bolshoi Kamen recently, police reported.

Artur Altynov, a Tajik resident of Vladivostok, Mikhail Rud, a founder of the Ussurisk Central market, and an alleged Bolshoi Kamen mafia leader identified only as Shurup (“the Screw”) were shot dead within a week.

Altynov, 38, was found April 8, lying in the ruins of a defunct radio locator station on Saman Hill above Snegovaya Street, Vladivostok police reported. He had been shot through the head.

Forensic experts say he died the night before. The bullet was found nearby, and Altynov’s wrists showed traces of rope burns. Apparently Altynov’s killers brought him to the scene alive but tied up, police said.

The killers’ motive obviously wasn’t robbery. Altynov had over 1,000 in new rubles ($160), another $200 in cash, gold earrings, a chain, and his passport.

Altynov, 38, a native of Tajikistan, was registered in Bishkek. Sources familiar with the case said police had no files on the victim, but they suspect the man could be a drug trafficker - there is a trade in narcotics from Central Asia.

In the second case, police found the body of Mikhail Rud, 45, on Ussurisk’s Kalugina Street April 12. According to the chief of Ussurisk’s criminal police, Nikolai Nesterenko, the well-known businessman was gunned down. Rud was general director of Runo Company, and there is no evidence that he had any ties to Primorye’s criminal underworld.

In Bolshoi Kamen, Shurup was shot dead in the entrance to his home April 14. Moments after his driver dropped him off, neighbors heard assault rifles firing. There is evidence that Shurup was connected with a Vladivostok underworld leader, Novosty reported. Shurup was known as having a hot temper, but he didn’t have bodyguards because he thought he could stand up for himself, Novosty said.

Meanwhile, in Vladivostok, authorities found evidence of an apparent contract killing attempt that failed. At the Detskaya Kartinnaya Galereya bus stop on Partizansky Prospect, a construction worker found a grenade with a magnet attached. The grenade had apparently been affixed to the underside of a car, but bounced off when the car hit a bump, police said.

Federal Security Bureau bomb experts disposed of the bomb.

Rud’s slaying was the second such killing in Ussurisk this year.