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Latvian police are investigating the possibility that a millionaire backer of a free London newspaper, who mysteriously disappeared from his villa in Latvia a week ago, may have faked his own death.
Leonid Rozhetskin, a Russian-born American citizen, vanished from his £1 million ($2.5 million) mansion in the Latvian resort of Jurmala on March 16. Latvian police are investigating several theories, including murder, kidnapping, and that Rozhetskin faked his death. They have also applied to Interpol to put out a global search warrant for the missing businessman.
Local reports said Rozhetskin flew into Latvia on March 15 in his private plane, after spending several days in London at the Dorchester hotel.
His plane, apparently without crew or passengers, left Latvia for Zurich on March 17.
In the early hours of March 16 a taxi was called to Rozhetskin's house. It picked up two young men, dropping them off a few kilometres away. The taxi driver told the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta: "I don't know where they went afterwards, but I dropped them off near the gay club XXL. When I left, Rozhetskin's car was parked outside the house, so I guess he was still at home."
A Latvian news agency said when Rozhetskin's housekeeper arrived on March 17 she found no one at home and sofas and bookshelves overturned. Traces of blood were found in the house and in Rozhetskin's car, currently undergoing forensic tests.
"It's a complete mystery," said Derk Sauer, the head of one of Russia's leading publishing houses and, with Rozhetskin, a shareholder in the free London business daily City AM.
"I last spoke to him a week before his disappearance and he sounded very relaxed."
If Rozhetskin has been murdered, it would be the third contract-style killing in Latvia this year. Ella Ivanova, an ethnic Russian and one of the country's richest women, was shot dead outside her house in January. A few days later, Aigars Lusis, the director of a meat-processing plant that media have linked to Russian criminal organisations, was also shot dead.
But those close to Rozhetskin expressed scepticism that the Russian criminal underworld was involved in his disappearance. "I've read the stories linking this to Russia and I don't find them plausible at all," said Sauer.
- INDEPENDENT
