Boyfriend of Witness in FBI Spy Trial Held in Her Death

The boyfriend of a woman who testified in the espionage trial of former FBI agent Richard W. Miller was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murdering her.

The body of Ludmila Kondratjeva, 38, was found Saturday in the back seat of her car, which apparently had rolled off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, tumbled 25 feet down an embankment and overturned in the surf.

Vladimir Ratchikhine, 44, was being held without bail Tuesday at County Jail.

“An initial investigation indicates that the victim’s death was the result of a domestic quarrel,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Fitzsimmons said. “The suspect and the victim apparently had been living together since 1981.”

‘Improbable’ Circumstance

Sheriff Sherman R. Block said his deputies had decided to interview Ratchikhine after concluding it was “improbable” that anyone driving the car would have ended up pinned in the back seat in the position in which Kondratjeva was found.

“We are satisfied, based on the interview, that he is responsible for her death,” Block said. “I can’t comment on what he said or what he didn’t say.”

Homicide investigators refused to speculate on the cause of death pending the completion of tests by the coroner’s office, which is not expected to issue its report for about two weeks.

Sources close to the case--including government officials familiar with Kondratjeva’s role in the Miller trial--discounted the probability that there is any connection between her death and the espionage case.

Not a ‘Major Figure’

“She wasn’t a major figure in this case at all,” said one high-ranking official in the intelligence community. “If someone wanted to send some kind of message to the Russian emigre community, they would have looked for somebody who was more important.”