Date
30/06/1999  
First
Vadim  
Surname
RUDENKO  
Sex/Age
M, 34  
Incident
homicide  
Motive
nJ  
Place
flat  
Job
journalist  
Medium
TV  
Federal District Plus
Moscow  
Street, Town, Region
Ovchinnikovskaya embankment, Moscow  
Freelance
no  
Local/National
national, ORT  
Other Ties
 
Cause of Death
murder, stabbed  
Legal Qualification
 
Impunity
No Information  


Vadim Rudenko, a journalist with the Chelovek i zakon programme, was found murdered in his Moscow flat on 30 June 1999.

Neighbours called the fire service at 10.45 am after noticing a strong smell of smoke coming from Rudenko's apartment. The firemen found Rudenko's body; investigators said he had been stabbed several times and then his flat was set on fire.

Investigators considered but discarded the possibility of revenge for a subject Rudenko had included in his programme. The presenter and director of Chelovek i zakon Alexei Pimanov thought that his journalist's death was more likely the result of an ordinary crime.

Rudenko had been working for the programme for two years since he moved to Moscow from Samara in 1997.