Date

26/07/1996  

First

Nikita  

Surname

CHIGARKOV  

Sex/Age

M, 22  

Incident

homicide  

Motive

nJ  

Place

stairwell entrance  

Job

journalist  

Medium

TV/radio  

Federal District Plus

Moscow  

Street, Town, Region

Moscow  

Freelance

no  

Local/National

national, Rossiya  

Other Ties

 

Cause of Death

murder, beaten  

Legal Qualification

105.2 (murder)  

Impunity

investigation  

Nikita Chigarkov, who worked for the Rossiya TV channel, was found severely beaten in the stairwell entrance of his apartment block in Moscow in the early hours of 26 July 1996. He was returning home around 1 am when he was stopped, beaten and robbed. The police were called and he died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

At first the local police were reluctant to open an investigation but after the autopsy and pressure from Chigarkov’s colleagues an investigation began. Those who worked with Chigarkov on the Utrenny express programme did not consider his murder to be linked to his work there or as a computer graphics artist.