Ex-Policeman Detained in Russian Politician’s Slaying

Latvian police said Monday that they had detained a former Russian policeman as a suspect in the assassination of Russian liberal politician Galina V. Starovoitova.

State police chief Juris Riksna told journalists that Konstantin Nikulin, a former Russian paramilitary policeman, had been apprehended as a suspect in an unrelated killing committed in Latvia and that evidence showed he might have been involved in Starovoitova’s death.

“We have operative information on Nikulin’s possible connection with St. Petersburg groups carrying out ordered murders,” Riksna said.

“We sent bullets and cartridge cases [from Nikulin’s gun] to St. Petersburg, but so far we have not received any reply about his possible connection with Starovoitova’s assassination.

“The confiscated gun is of a very rare brand, and it is very expensive. Starovoitova’s aide was wounded by the same type of gun,” he said.

Starovoitova was gunned down in the stairwell of her apartment building in St. Petersburg on Nov. 20, 1998.

A 52-year-old grandmother, Starovoitova was an outspoken supporter of reforms in Russia and a close supporter of former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in the early days of Soviet reforms.