Investigators on Tuesday named a second mastermind in the murder of Lipetsk city council deputy Mikhail Pakhomov, whose body was found in a barrel of cement near Moscow on Sunday night.
Sergei Krasovsky, 51, a St. Petersburg native residing in the Krasnodar region, is suspected of involvement in the deputy's abduction, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Krasovsky is identified as a business partner of the first suspected mastermind, Yevgeny Kharitonov, a former Moscow region utilities official who was arrested Monday in connection with the case.
The lawmaker was killed over an $80 million debt on which Kharitonov's "career growth" depended, according to the testimony of one of the suspects detained in the case.
On Sunday, police said they detained five people aged between 24 and 30 who are believed to be involved.
Each of them faces up to 15 years in prison on charges of kidnapping. They also detained three Muscovites suspected of stealing property worth about 400,000 rubles ($13,000) from Pakhomov, Interfax reported.
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