MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court sentenced on Friday two students to 14 and 15 years in prison for killing a former economic expert in the government and aide to the speaker of the upper house of parliament.
Leonid Baron's body was found in his Moscow apartment on February 5. Forensic experts say he died of a head injury.
Ivan Novikov, 19, the victim's next-door neighbor, and his friend Dmitry Medvedev, received 15-year and 14-year terms respectively.
Earlier media reports said the young men fired at Baron's chest and head after refusing to pay back money they owed him. Baron had reportedly lent a large amount of money to the two.
The suspects pleaded guilty to murder, and the court cut the sentences from the 17 and 16 years demanded by prosecutors. They are also to pay 3 and 2 million rubles in compensation to Baron's mother.
Baron was director of the Institute of Socioeconomic Investment Projects think tank. Previously he held a series of high-profile positions, including head of the economics ministry's credit policy and financial markets department, and aide to Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov. He was 39 at the time of his death.
