MOSCOW. Jan 27 (Interfax-AVN) - An officer is suspected of having murdered Sergeant Junior Grade Vadim Chekalkin, a soldier of the artillery training center, based in the village of Makhovaya Pad outside Blagoveshchensk in the Amur Region.
"A first lieutenant, serving at the very same training center, is suspected of having murdered Vadim Chekalkin, as the two men were reported to have been very hostile toward each other," a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax- Military News Agency on Tuesday.
Alexander Zakorko, commander of the military unit, previously told Interfax that an officer was suspected of having murdered Chekalkin.
Colonel Yakov Firsov, head of the Land Forces press-service, told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday that the case was being investigated.
Firsov also refuted media reports that Chekalkin's body had been found near the unit's checkpoint the night before.
"Sergeant Chekalkin's body, who, according to a preliminary conclusion, had deserted his unit last autumn, was found in a cellar of a derelict building near the unit's checkpoint on January 9," Firsov said.
According to him, the body was not found during the search, because it was buried under water in the cellar. According to forensic reports, the soldier was killed by a blow on the head, delivered with the help of a blunt object.
"Chekalkin's body was found by a warrant officer on a checkpoint detail, who inspected the adjacent territory and happened to look into the cellar," Firsov said.