Killers strike again in Russia

The mayor of a town near Moscow has been shot dead near his home and police in Russia's second city, St Petersburg, are investigating the violent death of the city's harbour master.

Vadim Naidenov, the mayor of Troytsk, was hit by five shots fired by two gunmen as he left his home on Thursday morning and died shortly afterwards, police said.

The town of 30,000 is home to one of Russia's premier nuclear research institutes and Mr Naidenov was a member of the Moscow Region's government.

In St Petersburg, police found the body of the harbour master, Mikhail Sinelnikov, inside his flat on Sablinskaya Street with a head wound and opened a murder investigation. They gave few other details.

Mr Sinelnikov, 53, had been in the post only since June, 2001, Russia's newsru website reported, after the retirement of his predecessor.

His death came just over a week before the port city is due to celebrate its 300th anniversary in spectacular style, including many water-based events.

Police in Troytsk said they believed the motive for Mr Naidenov's killing could have been related to his official work.

"The investigation is considering several versions of what happened but the main one is related to work of the murdered man," Gennady Deyneko, a deputy police chief for Moscow Region, said.

Russia has seen a long line of contract-style killings since the collapse of the USSR.

The assassination of liberal MP Sergey Yushenkov in April caused widespread revulsion but killings across the country are still a regular occurrence.

Few of the murders are ever solved.