In the past, there were many contract killings in Russia because of business conflicts. Those days seemed to be over, but now a politician is said to have hired a killer.
A Russian senator from the ruling party was arrested for allegedly ordering a murder. The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament in Moscow, voted to lift the immunity of Senator Dmitry Savelyev, a spokesman said. Savelyev (53) was arrested as soon as he left the session, reported the Russian state news agency Tass.
According to the Russian prosecutor’s office, the high-ranking politician hired a hitman to murder a businessman in August 2023. However, the plot was uncovered. For tactical reasons, the investigation was nevertheless carried out as if the crime had been committed. “The murder was staged by the security authorities in order to expose the person who commissioned the murder and the organizers,” said a spokeswoman. Savelyev is said to have paid the promised fee – according to a report in the newspaper “Izvestia”, it was 100,000 US dollars (92,600 euros).
The former oil manager Savelyev belongs to the Kremlin party United Russia. He has represented the Tula region south of Moscow in the Federation Council since 2016, before that he was a member of the State Duma. In recent weeks there have been several spectacular arrests of high-ranking officers in the Russian elite for alleged corruption. However, taking action against a senator on suspicion of murder is unusual. In the 1990s, many economic conflicts in Russia were resolved with the help of contract killings.
