The bomb was placed under the Lexus SUV and was detonated by remote control.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Moscow Regional Real Estate Chief Murdered
Valery Yakovlev, former chief of the federal real estate registry’s branch, was murdered in Moscow on Tuesday. Investigators link the killing with a land scandal in Moscow’s most luxurious suburb.
A homemade bomb ripped through Valery Yakovlev’s sport car as he was driving in south-western Moscow at midday on Tuesday. The man was killed immediately. The force of the blast was the equivalent of up to 1 kilogram of TNT, the police said. The bomb was placed under the Lexus SUV and was detonated by remote control.
Prosecutors are investigating the case as connected with Yakovlev’s previous job in the Federal Real Estate Registry’s Moscow region branch where he headed the department for the Odintsovo district.
Everyone who wants to sell or buy land has to go to the Federal Real Estate Registry. The agency approves plans for plots and gives expertise for land documents. Vladimir Yakovlev was appointed to head the Odintsovo branch of the Registry in summer 2004 when the Odintsovo District found itself at the heart of a land corruption scandal which put charges of power abuse against the district’s head.
Investigators think that the murder of Valery Yakovlve may be connected with suits of the cottage owners whose property was seized as their land deals had been recognized invalid after the scandal had erupted. According to another theory, Valery Yakovlev may have taken certain obligations to help some people register their land, which he failed to do as he was dismissed last April.
Meanwhile, some colleagues of Valery Yakovlev are convinced that it was some corruption-tainted functionaries who wanted to get rid of the official.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 17, 2007
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