VILNIUS - Alexander Semkin, a colleague of prominent Lithuanian businessman Stanislovas Jucius who went missing in Kaliningrad this spring, has been murdered.
According to Russia's Regnum news agency, Semkin was found near the entrance to his Kaliningrad home on Aug. 9 having suffered knife wounds. At press time, few other details of the crime or the police investigation were available.
Semkin, a Russian citizen, was one of the founders and owners of the Lithuanian equity construction company Rosslitstroi. He took over as the company's CEO after Jucius' disappearance on April 18.
Lithuania's acting General Consul in Kaliningrad, Valdas Lastauskas, told reporters that Rosslitstroi staff had not been threatened in any way.
Lastauskas told The Baltic Times on Aug. 13 that he was still waiting for details from Lithuanian and Kaliningrad law enforcement officials investigating Semkin's murder and Jucius' disappearance.
Earlier Lastauskas held a meeting with Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos and the exclave's law enforcement officials, who told him, without giving details, that they don't believe the murder was a contract killing or in any way linked to the Jucius case. He told BNS that the Russian officials said the incidents were "two unrelated crimes of different fashion."
For their part, Lithuanian law enforcement officials are also not linking the two cases, Aurelija Juodyte, spokeswoman for the General Prosecutor's Office in Vilnius, told The Baltic Times.
However, information from Russian officials regarding the investigations has been scant.
The only information the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received since May was a note from the Russian Embassy in Lithuania, which stated that the criminal case concerning Jucius' disappearance had been transferred to the investigator for cases of special importance in the Kaliningrad Prosecutor's Office.
Nortautas Statkus, acting director of the Foreign Ministry's Eastern Europe and Central Asia Department, said it's therefore difficult to say much about the investigation.
"We are definitely looking for cooperation and information on Russia's side," he said. "We can't carry out [an investigation] on our own."
The Kaliningrad Prosecutor's Office has so far not answered requests for information by The Baltic Times.
The disappearance of Jucius, who was the founder and president of the Lithuanian Businessmen's Club in Kaliningrad in addition to being director of Rosslitstroi, has been the subject of intense press speculation and wildly varying reports.
Initial theories were that Jucius, 56, had been kidnapped and murdered by business rivals. However, Boos claimed in May that Jucius was alive and well, but gave no details. Reports in June that Jucius was spotted in Cyprus fueled speculation that he was forced into hiding by outstanding debts.
Semkin and Jucius has been business partners since 1991, according to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. Rosslitstroi is one of 12 independent companies that make up the Jupoja concern, where Jucius also served on the management board. The companies manage construction work and wholesale and trade of building materials.
The murder has once again raised the debate about security for Lithuanians working in Kaliningrad.
During an Aug. 14 interview with Ziniu Radijas, Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas promised that Lithuania is taking all measures to ensure the safety of Lithuanian businessmen and investments in Kaliningrad.
Meanwhile Raimundas Lopata, Director of the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences of the Vilnius University, told BNS on Aug. 10 that the misadventures of Lithuanian businessmen in Kaliningrad have to do with the exclave's economic policy, which deliberately favors Russian over foreign business people. He said that the dangerous situation for foreigners in Kaliningrad is no accident, and that it is tightly linked with the law on the special economic zone, the goal which is to push foreign equity investors out of Kaliningrad.
As of the beginning of this year Lithuania's investments in the Kaliningrad enclave totaled some 240 million litas (69.5 million euros), up 16 percent from the prior year.
