He saw Vitali Akishin, one of the six now in the dock, the fatal day on the stair landing in the house where Mrs. Starovoitova lived, and later on among the shooters, Mr. Linkov said in a dramatic questioning, as Leonid Saikin, his lawyer, informed Novosti afterwards.
Galina Starovoitova was shot dead, November 20, 1998, in the entranceway of her house on Griboyedov Embankment, a posh neighbourhood in St. Petersburg's heart. Member of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, she was a household name among topmost democratic reform activists, and her death came as one of the most tragically acclaimed crimes in recent Russian history.
Ruslan Linkov, who was accompanying the MP, barely survived with several bad wounds.
The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office qualified the case as statesman/community leader assassination. The Federal Security Service (FSB) Board for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region was investigating, and made six arrests. The mastermind has not been tracked down to this day.
