Police explore whether Kirilov’s murder was mafia hit

POLICE investigators are reportedly examining the possibility that the murder of 61-year-old Russian millionaire Yuri Kirilov was a mafia hit.
It has already been confirmed that investigators are looking into his past in Russia in search of a business associate with whom Kirilov may have had differences.
Statements given to police by Kirilov’s friends and business associates in Cyprus have revealed that the 61-year-old maintained a booming business in Russia in the 1990s. Some of these statements also indicated that Kirilov’s business activity got him involved in dangerous circles and that there had been friction in his past business dealings.
Investigators have contacted Russian authorities and have initiated a close cooperation in search for leads in solving the beach murder. They suspect the murder was a Russian mafia hit even though the way in which Kirilov was killed was not the usual modus operandi of mafia-style assassinations, as there was evidence that a struggle preceded the 61-year-old’s death.
According to police information the man had gone to the Ayios Tychonas spot where he was killed to meet people representing the interests of business rivals.
The fact that Kirilov was beaten and then strangled indicates that murdering him was a spontaneous decision and therefore  may not have been premediated as a professional hit would have been.
It is therefore being speculated that Kirilov may have turned down a proposal or that the victim and whoever he met on the night of the murder had an argument prior to the strangling.
Furthermore, if Kirilov was killed by a mafia rival with whom he had differences in the 1990s the question is raised as to why the Russian mafia waited close to two decades to take vengeance.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.