You're reading: Mayor of town near Moscow, wife gunned down

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian prosecutors say a local mayor and his wife have been shot dead at their country home.

The Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee said Monday the bodies of Vitaly Ustimenko and his wife were found late Dec. 13.

Ustimenko was the mayor of the town of Tuchkovo about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Moscow. He was elected in October.

Tuchkovo has a population of about 20,000.

Killings of officials and business executives are frequent in Russia, where business conflicts often turn violent and the government is seeking to exert more control over financial activity.