BUSINESSMAN KILLED IN MOSCOW BLAST.

Gennady Dzen, 35, a businessman and aide to ultranationalist Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, died on January 17 when a remote-controlled bomb exploded outside his downtown Moscow office. The killing came only three days after the chief executive of a Russian bank was shot to death outside his Moscow home. Interior Minister Anatoli Kulikov told a press conference that police have solved only 13 percent of the 450 contract killings believed to have been carried out in 1996. Many victims were bankers or businessmen. (AP, Reuters, Itar-Tass, January 17)

Nikitin’s Wife Barred from Returning to Russia.