Former Deputy Admits Involvement in Starovoitova Killing

By The Moscow Times

April 25, 2014

Galina Starovoitova became the leader of Democratic Russia party in 1998. Zayonchkovskiy / Youtube

Former State Duma deputy Mikhail Glushchenko has admitted to conspiring in the 1998 assassination of fellow parliamentarian Galina Starovoitova, a St. Petersburg news portal reported.

Alexander Afanasyev, Glushchenko's lawyer, told St. Petersburg's Fontanka news website that his client had both admitted to his guilt and named a co-conspirator during this testimony on Thursday. Afanasyev declined to divulge the identity of the co-conspirator, but said that Glushchenko would cooperate with the prosecution.

Gluschenko was charged with Starovoitova's murder last November while serving an eight-year prison sentence for extortion.

Starovoitova, who was a staunch supporter of democratic reform and human rights, became the leader of Democratic Russia party in 1998. Starovoitova was opposed to the Federal Security Service's broad mandate and voted against the nomination of Yevgeny Primakov as Prime Minister. Primakov had headed Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service before becoming the country's Foreign Minister in 1996.

Starovoitova was gunned down in the lobby of her St. Petersburg apartment on Nov. 20, 1998. In 2005, two hit men were convicted of her murder. A year later, another individual was found guilty of plotting the shooting.

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