Investigators opened a criminal case Tuesday into the mysterious disappearance of a newly appointed head of a Moscow neighborhood.
Alexander Dmitriyev, head of the Ramenki neighborhood in the west of the city, disappeared Monday on his way to work, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Dmitriyev got into his Toyota Land Cruiser Prado at his home Monday morning in the Resurs-1 gated community near the village of Rassudovo, about 40 kilometers southwest of Moscow.
He never arrived at work, and calls to his cell phone went unanswered, the Investigative Committee statement said.
At about 10 a.m. Monday, Dmitriyev’s empty car was found locked and undamaged near a railroad crossing outside Rassudovo. Dmitriyev’s driver’s license and documents for the car were found inside, the statement said.
Investigators are exploring the possibility that Dmitriyev might have been killed.
They are also checking whether he was kidnapped for ransom or in connection with his job, Kommersant .
Dmitriyev, 48, was appointed by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to head the Ramenki district on July 9, after being transferred from his position as deputy head of Krylatskoye neighborhood, where he had been responsible for construction and community services, Kommersant said.
In Krylatskoye, Dmitriyev oversaw construction of an elite apartment building for officials of the Federal Security Service. The construction angered local residents, who complained of violations, to a website created by opponents of the construction.
Dmitriyev graduated from the Omsk Higher Combined-Arms Command School and the Military Academy of Armored Troops in Moscow, served in the military, and worked as the chief enlistment officer in Moscow’s Krylatskoye neighborhood from 2004 to 2008. He was appointed deputy head of Krylatskoye neighborhood in 2008.
Dmitriyev is not the first official to disappear in the last six months. In February, a local deputy from the Moscow region town of Ramenskoye, Tatyana Sidorova, and her family disappeared from their house on the outskirts of Ramenskoye, tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda . They remain missing.
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