Russian Mayor Shot Dead

Dzerzhinsky Mayor Viktor Dorkin (file photo0 (ITAR-TASS) March 31, 2006 -- The mayor of a town in the Moscow region has been killed in a apparent contract killing.

Viktor Dorkin, who served as the mayor of Dzherzhinsky, near Moscow, since 1991, was shot dead as he walked home late on March 30.

Investigators were probing several possible motives for the killing, including a suspected link with Dorkin's work.

Dzerzhinsky is a major military-industrial center near Moscow.

(Interfax, RIA Novosti)