According to state-run Rossiya 1 in Russia, a gunman who has not been recognized shot and killed Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, on Monday.
Several Russian media sites conjectured that he might have been located because of his Strava fitness app profile.
The killing is the subject of an inquiry by Russian authorities.
The counterpart of the US FBI in this country, the Investigative Committee, announced the start of a murder investigation and said investigators will work to “establish all the circumstances of the incident, as well as the person who committed the crime and his motives.”
According to the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, the former naval officer was shot in the back and the chest while out for his morning jog in a park next to the Olimp sports facility.
According to Baza, a police-affiliated Russian Telegram group, the murderer may have traced Cpt. Rzhitsky’s runs on Strava because he frequently ran the same route.
Cpt. Rzhitsky’s public profile, which was examined by BBC Verify, reveals that he routinely ran through the region where he is said to have been slain. The BBC’s facial analysis verified that the profile belonged to Cpt. Rzhitsky.
Additionally, his home location and other personal information had been posted on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), which houses a sizable unofficial database of individuals deemed to be Ukraine’s adversaries.
His picture on the website now has the phrase “Liquidated” written over it in red letters.
The park was vacant because of the heavy rain, according to a statement from Ukraine’s military intelligence, “so there are no witnesses who could provide details or identify the attacker.”
A Ukrainian interior ministry advisor named Anton Gerashchenko tweeted that Russian media had accused Ukraine of being involved, but he omitted to say whether or not this assumption was founded.
The crime has not yet been captured on camera by a single security system, according to Russian authorities. The hunt is still on, he said.
According to Russian news outlet Mash, Cpt. Rzhitsky’s watch and headphones were discovered at the scene, proving that robbery was not the intended purpose.
He supposedly oversaw the Russian Navy’s Krasnodar submarine, so named after the city.
He may have been in charge of the ship when it launched a missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia in July 2022, which resulted in the deaths of 28 people, including three children, according to Ukrainian media.
The attack, according to the Ukrainian government, was carried out by Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a submarine in the Black Sea.
However, Cpt. Rzhitsky’s father was described by Baza as saying that his son left the Russian military in December 2021, prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Later on, he was appointed Krasnodar’s deputy mobilization officer.
Share your thoughts