Natalia Shamanina, wife of Vyacheslav Shamanin, deputy of the Crimeanparliament, was murdered in Simferopol. Her body was found last Thursday at about 11 a.m. in her own home on Gagarin Street.
No signs of robbery or burglary were found in the victim’s apartment, the Crimean police department press service told Interfax-Ukraine. According to Crimean Parliament Speaker Leonid Hrach, Ms. Shamanina died of a skull and brain injury inflicted by a blunt object. He also noted that “those treated by the generous hostess also might have been murderers because two cups of coffee were found on the kitchen table. The third cup and the coffee-pot were in the hands of the murdered woman.”
“It is sad that the Crimea’s good image was spoilt on the eve of the elections,” Speaker Hrach said in such “ethical” and “humane” terms. He also thinks the crime has “a clearly negative political effect, no matter what intentions the criminals had,” and the Crimean authorities should undertake “measures to finally defeat crime on the autonomous republic’s territory,” for “this is a question of the Crimea’s image and honor.”
Mr. Shamanin is a deputy in the Crimean parliament, member of the Communist Party he rejoined 18 months ago, and president of the Germany- Crimea Corporation. According to the Crimean police, Mr. Shamanin was summoned to court in mid-July 1999, as a witness in a criminal case, but he never reported to the investigator, Interfax- Ukraine reports, because he was outside the Crimea. It is also known that Mr. Shamanin’s wife was engaged in entrepreneurial activities.






