United Russia lawmaker’s concrete-encased body found

PanARMENIAN.Net - The body of a central Russia regional lawmaker has been discovered stuffed into a barrel of cement near Moscow, investigators said on Monday, February 18, according to RIA Novosti.

Mikhail Pakhomov, 36, a legislator in the Lipetsk city parliament with the ruling United Russia party, was reported missing early last week and a murder investigation was opened.

“Pakhomov’s body was discovered in a barrel of cement near the village of Obukhovo in the Moscow Region district of Noginsk,” an Investigative Committee spokesperson told RIA Novosti. The barrel was in the basement of a private garage, the spokespeson added.

Eleven people have been arrested in connection with his death, investigators also said.

One of them is Yevgeny Kharitonov, 40, a former Moscow Region housing utilities official, who was detained earlier on Monday on suspicion of ordering Pakhomov’s murder. Kharitonov was arrested on board a flight from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to the south Russia city of Krasnodar as the plane was preparing for take-off.

A number of Pakhomov’s personal possessions were discovered in a vehicle pulled over by traffic police near Moscow last Thursday. Police searched the vehicle after the driver began “acting strangely.”

The investigation is ongoing.

Pakhomov had been a United Russia member since 2003.