POLICE have stepped up controls at ports and airports in the hunt for the killers of three Russians bludgeoned to death in Peyia last week.
The three victims – former State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Shevchenko, 51, businessman Yury Zorin, 55, and Valentina Tretyakova, 25, who is believed to have acted as an interpreter for the two men – were bludgeoned to death in Shevchenko’s villa in Peyia in the early hours of last Wednesday.
The fact that the crime scene was then cleaned up and the three bodies placed in black bin liners and dumped in the bathroom suggest the killers intended to return to the house that night to get rid of the bodies. But police beat them after the men’s lawyer raised the alarm when they failed to keep a scheduled meeting and did not return his calls.
Police told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the murderers were most likely foreign and could still very well be on the island, which was why additional security measures had been taken at all airports and ports. Passengers travelling to Russia or other countries of the former Soviet Union were under particular scrutiny, they said, while investigations into their whereabouts have spread to other towns and are not limited to the Paphos district.
Police spokeswoman Chrystalla Demetriou said local authorities were also in contact with Russian police as well as Moscow Interpol. “We are investigating a number of possible suspects but none are confirmed,” she said.
Justice Minister Doros Theodorou said at the weekend that the murderers and victims were involved in illegal dealings in Russia, without elaborating.
Shevchenko and Zorin had jointly registered a number of offshore companies in Cyprus, including one in foreign investment. But neither had given local police cause for concern. Nevertheless, Russian media reports say the pair were prominent figures in the St Petersburg business community, with Shevchenko keeping police occupied several times over the past decade. He had been linked to the 1998 murder of Galina Starovoitova, a prominent liberal MP, whose murder is still unsolved, and was currently being investigated for extortion.
Shevchenko and his brother Sergei were believed to control the Nord Group, whose large entertainment and retail holdings in St Petersburg include the Grand Palace department store on Nevsky Prospekt and the nightclub Hollywood Nights. Zorin was elected president of the Nord Group nine years ago.
Ten years ago Shevchenko and his brother were investigated on suspicion of embezzling state property, but the case was closed due to an amnesty. At the time of his death, Shevchenko was being investigated in connection with a 1999 extortion case involving several thousand dollars. His brother had been found guilty in the case and got a seven and a half year suspended sentence, while Shevchenko left the country. He only agreed to return to St Petersburg and co-operate with investigators in 2002 when a warrant for his arrested was dropped on condition he sign a pledge to remain in the city.
According to the Moscow Times it is unclear why he left St Petersburg and came to Cyprus.
