- Date
- 25/02/1999
- First
- Valentina
- Surname
- Mirolyubova
- Sex/Age
- F, 56
- Incident
- homicide
- Motive
- nJ
- Place
- flat
- Job
- journalist
- Medium
- print/radio
- Federal District Plus
- CENTRAL
- Street, Town, Region
- Yaroslavl
- Freelance
- yes
- Local/National
- local
- Other Ties
- Cause of Death
- murder, beaten
- Legal Qualification
- 105.2 (murder)
- Impunity
- investigation
Valentina and Nikolai Mirolyubov were found dead in their apartment in Yaroslavl on 27 February 1999. Video equipment, a computer and a printer had been stolen from the flat.
In recent years the Mirolyubovs had become publishers, she was by profession a journalist and he was a designer. They were not wealthy targets. It seems they had the misfortune to open their door on their 32nd wedding anniversary (25 February) to violent robbers rather than to the friends who usually visited that day.
The head of the local journalists' union expressed concern that there had been four threats of physical violence against journalists in the Yaroslavl Region and that the danger might increase as new elections approached. The suggestion of a political motive behind the Mirolyubov murders was repeated on one national TV channel.
The police issued federal arrest warrants for those they considered responsible.