vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #166 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Two unrelated killings during the week of April 20 were the latest in a series of apparent mob hits in Primorye.

On April 22, police found the body of the godmother of slain mob boss Sergei Larionov in an alley on Dneprovskaya Street. Gunmen fired twice at Nadezhda Samikhova, who was also the lawyer for a defendant under investigation for connections to Larionov’s mafia gang, investigators said.

The killing, along with the death of Yury Potapov, was the latest in a string of apparent contract killings this year.

Polcie had been unhappy with Samikhova because she visited not only her client, who was in jail, but also Larionov, who was pending trial in prison.

While in prison in 1996, Larionov had converted to Orthodoxy and Samikhova, and a priest became his godparents.

She knew Larionov’s mother and attended her funeral, as well as Larionov’s funeral after he was stabbed to death in prison Feb. 25, officials said.

“We are shocked by the cold-blooded shooting of our colleague,” said Ivan Rimkunas, chairman of the Primorye Bar Association.

Also on April 22, Potapov, the 35-year-old director of a successful tourist agency was found slain in a wooded area in the First River region. His body showed numerous bruises and knife wounds, and he had suffered massive head injuries from a blunt instrument, according to police. Investigators believe he was murdered in an apartment and then dumped in the woods.

After Potapov’s disappearance on April 20, his friends and company workers launched a search and notified police.