Date

30/06/1999  

First

Vadim  

Surname

RUDENKO  

Sex/Age

M, 34  

Incident

homicide  

Motive

nJ  

Place

flat  

Job

journalist  

Medium

TV  

Federal District Plus

Moscow  

Street, Town, Region

Ovchinnikovskaya embankment, Moscow  

Freelance

no  

Local/National

national, ORT  

Other Ties

 

Cause of Death

murder, stabbed  

Legal Qualification

 

Impunity

No Information  

Vadim Rudenko, a journalist with the Chelovek i zakon programme, was found murdered in his Moscow flat on 30 June 1999.

Neighbours called the fire service at 10.45 am after noticing a strong smell of smoke coming from Rudenko's apartment. The firemen found Rudenko's body; investigators said he had been stabbed several times and then his flat was set on fire.

Investigators considered but discarded the possibility of revenge for a subject Rudenko had included in his programme. The presenter and director of Chelovek i zakon Alexei Pimanov thought that his journalist's death was more likely the result of an ordinary crime.

Rudenko had been working for the programme for two years since he moved to Moscow from Samara in 1997.