Washington, 5 November 1996 (RFE/RL) -- The United States has condemned Sunday's killing of an American businessman in Moscow.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said yesterday that the United States deplores the murder of Paul Tatum, who was killed at the Kievsky metro station by shots from a submachine gun fired by a single assailant.
Burns said the United States is working with the Russian government to make sure that Moscow authorities mount what he called "a very aggressive criminal investigation into this brutal murder of an American citizen."
"We take this very seriously and are very concerned," Burns said.
He said U.S. law enforcement experts would go to Moscow to aid the investigation if Russia requested it. So far, no such request has been made, Burns said, adding that U.S. embassy officials have been in talks all day with the Russians about the case.
Burns said Tatum had lived in Moscow for several years and was well-known there. He was involved in business negotiations for control of the Radisson-Slavyanskaya hotel and had bodyguards to protect him. But apparently that was not enough, Burns said.