#17 - JRL 7284
gazeta.ru
August 11, 2003
Top professor dies after robbery
By Anna Baraulina
Renowned scientist Grigory Bondarevsky has been murdered in Moscow. The professor of sociology at the Russian Academy of Sciences was found in his apartment on Friday evening in a coma caused by severe head injuries. Several hours later he died in hospital without regaining consciousness. Investigators believe the scientist was killed during a robbery of his home.
The professor, a member of an advisory board for the State Duma's security committee, was attacked in Moscow on Friday afternoon. The city's main police directorate told Gazeta.Ru that at around 1715 on August 7 an 83-year-old scientist was discovered in his apartment at 7, Tsyuryupy Street in a coma.
To all appearances Bondarevsky had been hit on the head with a heavy object, resulting from which he suffered grave cranial-cerebral injuries. The professor was found by his daughter, who came to see him, alarmed that her father, who lived alone, had failed to return her phone calls.
The woman called the police and doctors. The professor was rushed to hospital, but at approximately 2300 he died without regaining consciousness. The head of the criminal police service for the southwest administrative district of Moscow and representatives from the prosecutor's office investigated the scene of the crime. A criminal case into the murder of Bondarevsky was launched by the prosecutor's office of the Cheryomushki district of Moscow.
The Cheryomushki police station refused to comment on any leads, but, as Gazeta.Ru has learned, the investigators believe that the professor was murdered during a robbery.
Bondarevsky's apartment had been ransacked, the main police directorate said, which led investigators to believe that it had been a ''typical robbery''. Interfax cited its law-enforcement sources as saying the offenders had stolen Bondarevsky's mobile phone and broken into the drawers of his desk.
Grigory Bondarevsky was an advisor to the director of the Institute for Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The professor was also the leading advisor for the Russian government on Islamic movements. Being a specialist in oriental affairs and an expert in Central Asia and the Northern Caucasus, he often commented publicly on developments in Iraq and Chechnya.
Bondarevsky had a doctorate in historical sciences. He was an honoured worker of Russian science, and held honorary degrees from universities in India and Great Britain. He was also the author of 27 monographs, and over 300 articles published in Russia and abroad.
The attack on Bondarevsky is the fifth murder in Russia's scientific circles in the past two years.
In January this year unknown gunmen opened fire at the chauffeur-driven car of the deputy head of the Moscow State University for Fine Chemical Technologies, Doctor of Chemical Sciences Viktor Frantsouzov. He died instantly.
Investigators linked Frantsouzov's murder to his work as the university's deputy head in charge of economic issues. He oversaw the leasing of the university's premises to commercial structures, and, in the opinion of investigators, he could have come into conflict with one of the lessees.
In 2002 two professors of the Russian State Medical University Boris Svyatsky and Valery Korshunov were murdered. An assassin fired three shots at Svyatsky near his house. Korshunov was beaten on the head with a baseball bat, and died immediately.
Also in 2002 the director of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Andrei Brushlinsky, was killed. The scientist's body was discovered in the entrance hall of the house where he lived. According to the police, the professor had been hit on the head with a heavy object, strangled and robbed. 11 ??????? 13:51
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