Date

23/02/2010  

First

Ivan  

Surname

STEPANOV  

Sex/Age

M  

Incident

homicide  

Motive

nJ  

Place

dacha  

Job

journalist  

Medium

press  

Federal District Plus

SIBERIA  

Street, Town, Region

Khilok, Transbaikal Region  

Freelance

 

Local/National

local, "Zabaikalsky rabochy"  

Other Ties

writer  

Cause of Death

stabbed to death  

Legal Qualification

105.1 (murder)  

Impunity

investigation, suspect detained  

The journalist and writer Ivan Stepanov was murdered in the Transbaikal Region of Siberia at the family’s “dacha” on 23 February 2010, a national holiday. Answering a knock at the door, apparently, he was attacked, stabbed repeatedly and died from the wounds.

At 2 am neighbours noted that the house seemed to be on fire. The fire brigade and the police were called and Stepanov’s charred body was found in the kitchen. The police were slow to investigate, however, and only opened a criminal case on 2 March after his anguished daughter had rung up the Regional prosecutor’s office in Chita. That day Zoya Nekrasova, director of the press service for the Region’s Investigative Committee, told the media that the suspects had been apprehended and were being charged under Article 105.1 (Murder) of the Criminal Code.

It is not known what Stepanov’s attackers hoped to find at the wooden house where the family usually spends the summer months. It is located on the outskirts of the small town of Khilok where they have an all-year apartment. The journalist had gone to check on the dacha, light the stove there, and decided to stay the night. His wife remained in the town flat with their grand-daughter.

Ivan Stepanov was well-known in the Khilok district and the Transbaikal Region, having been the local correspondent of the Zabaikalsky rabochy newspaper since the Soviet period. His third and latest book was about to go to press.

GDF digest No 468 (9 March 2010). Summary